Hello from my home in Helsinki! This is NordLetter #107, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web.
To follow the series, you can subscribe here. A new NordLetter will land in your inbox every Sunday. Not a fan of newsletters? No problem! You can read previous editions here. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed.
You can reach out to me by replying on this mail or adding a comment on this. I am also posting on Mastodon.
Do you read books?
If yes, after you’re finished reading, do you have a space to write about the book you finished reading? How it made you feel?
If yes, how do you structure a review? What do you write in a review?
I have this problem. Not a problem really, just something I get to think about. And I am very happy that I do. Think about it that is.
And as one does, I asked Claude about it.
And as it does, it gave me an answer. The answer expanded on the things I told it I was already doing.
The answer was this -
- Write about why I picked a book.
- Write about what the book is about - not a summary, just enough to orient the reader.
- Write about something that stuck with me.
- Write about who I would recommend it to and why.
I have read a few books this past year. I am on track to pass that number this year. Which, I’m happy about. I am a numbers guy. And I like reading.
The point is, when I finish reading a book, usually, I want to write something about it. These are not reviews. These usually follow the structure I mentioned above.
The why of the thing, and the thing that stuck with me.
Reviews seem too formal to me. Reviews seem professional. Reviews seem to demand time and effort to be put into them. Reviews seem to be long. Reviews seem to be boorish.
My reviews are more like notes. I like them that way.
I finished reading Children of Strife today. This is the fourth book in the Children of Time series. That answers the why of this book. I have loved each book in the Children of Time series. I have loved the narration by Mel Hudson for all the books in the series. The madness of Avrana Kern particularly shines through for me.
I had hopes and expectations from this book. I had thought the machine found in the end of Children of Ruin would play a bigger part in this book. That has how this series has evolved since the first book.
We go back to the old earth though, and find a pantheon of gods to mould a world in their image. A world to share their madness. We find another desperate group of people aboard an arc ship. We finally also have members of the spider-human-shrimp-nord thrown into this very potent mix, which leads to another awesome climax.
I found myself struggling to catch a hold of the story in the beginning. I was not sure what was happening. Eventually, I got hooked. Though I never really cared for these characters enough.
This was also the first book in this series, when I knew how it would end, before it ended. There was a particular moment when I knew where the gods would go.
I have felt that Children of Time series has always been about things more than the plot of the books. The first book for example, felt like a commentary on gender dynamics in our world, through it’s portrayal of spider society.
This book seems to be a result of all the billionaires we have in our world. The way they act, the grandiosity of their behaviour.
I like my author’s to add their politics to the books they write about. I like my books to be about something more than just the plot. There are those who disagree. Fine.
If you enjoy sci-fi, you would enjoy this book. If you’ve read Children of Time, this book is a must-read.
Do you read books?
Did reading this review make you want to pick up and read this book?
That’s my goal - tangentially. To inspire you, dear reader, to pick up a book and read it.
I love getting recommendations of books to read. I am a member of a Bibliophile group at work. I get excellent recommendations there from time to time. People write about the books and how they made them feel. Some of these reviews speak to me. They want me to pick up the book and read it.
I add these books to a list I maintain in Reminders. Or search it on Helmet and bookmark it if available.
I am also subscribed to BookFreak. There was a recent review on Outlive there that had made me pick that book up.
I want to write reviews like that. Not the actionable - do these 3 things in your life thing. Not that.
Just, make you curious to read.
Summer is finally here in Helsinki.
On my way back from Oodi, I saw a bunch of people sun-bathing at the shore of the lake. Some were reading, some were on their phones, some were sleeping. A gentleman was sitting on one of those foldable fabric chairs.
I felt like lying down and reading the hardcover I had borrowed from the library. I didn’t. I also felt like taking a picture, but that did not seem like a good idea either.
So, here’s a picture of a couple of ducks shepherding their little ducklings through the trail I walk on.
If you enjoyed reading this, and know someone else who might, please consider forwarding this to them. It would help this grow and make me happy. 😄
Until next week.
Subscribe to NordLetter
A weekly newsletter on living in Finland.