My Book Reviews

                                                                                                                                                         I gave this book 5 stars. It's a long read. If you are not up to reading a lot of names and a lot of details, this book is not for you. I did like it a lot. The biggest challenge the writer has is keeping it up being a detective book. Sometimes it gets very near being a sort of soap opera, but in my opinion it's still mainly a detective. I love it that there are so many detailled complications and yet J.K.Rowling always keeps her eyes on the ball. It's very c...

This is a very interesting book, one that you need to read in a different way. I normally sort of gulp a book, in this case a sort of sipping is needed. The amount of information is hard to take. I admire the writer for her research: it must have taken so much time and patience to do it. The book is not like the television program "A House through Time". It's a bit more about the achitecture and building styles and most of the houses have been occupied by aristocracy. I do understand that: these beautiful houses were not like the building in the slums. Still the history of the people involved in these houses was very interesting.  I have been sipping it like a very fine liqueur.  It was a joy doing this.

A very interesting read, but don't expect it to be like the BBC series with the same name. This is the book that can be seen as the base to that. It's about the history of houses; the building of houses; the change through time of homes; the history of neighbourhoods; the policies of governments and local authorities towards houses, homes and neighbourhoods. It's very detailed, well illustrated and gives a great insight in the subjects in a sociological view. More than that this book gives us a better understanding of houses and housing in our contempary time. It even gives us handles how to investigate the past of our own houses. All in all, as I already wrote: I think this is a great read and I enjoyed reading it.

A very disappointing book. To me it felt like Ian Rankin was trying to write a book in the style of Alistair McLean, an exciting thriller. In "Introduction by the author" is being told that the first edition only got one review, a bad one from the Guardian. I can see the reason why. The story is being told by an all knowing narrator. So you don't have to wonder why the characters do things. These characters are very flat, even the main ones; there are a lot of stereotypes. The action is very predictable. You can see things going to happen one or two pages before you get there. There are the standard things in it, pursuing cars, a damsel in distress. The heroes are almost identical and they can survive ordeals like they do in McLean's books. The plot is quite ridiculous. The writer is not serious, in some sentences irony pops up. It must have been quite a lot of fun to give the characters their names. Names stretching from historical figures to philosophers, writers, c...

I loved it! Having travelled a bit in the USA myself - I visited 26 States, so more than half - I recognised quite a lot. Some experiences are for everybody who travels in the States, I think, some are not. I clearly remember the one time in Florida where we went downhill, behind a bush was a bit hidden a sign "3o". Behind the next bush was a patrol car. The police man had sunglasses, the reflecting type you always see in films, and we had to pay a big fine for speeding. (7 miles over the limit.) I also remember Mount Rushmore where my sister and I were sitting at a table near some Dutch women who were make lewd comments about how people looked and how stupid Americans were. Especially the people close to them. (Meaning us; we were talking in English because of my brother in law, who is an American.) When we left we wished them "Een hele fijne dag". One woman almost got killed by her coffee, the other just by coughing. It made our day. All in all a lovely book, one ...

  A novel told from the point of view of four very different characters. Main character is a winner and loser of the IT-bubble with vague plans to become a winner again. Others are a receptionist in a luxury hotel with big dreams and expectations, a papparazzi with dreams of a better life, a dodgy horse trainer with political aspirations and last but not least an enjoyer of life without expectations, only adjusting to whatever is coming his way and exploiting that to the most. They all influence each other's lifes, use the others without excuse, escaping loneliness. Things go wrong because of the lack of real feeling for the other; the lack of real commitment and misunderstandings, maybe because of that. All in all life is here shown as one big disappointment and missed opportunity. This all sounds like the book is very dark, but it is not. It's very enjoyable and I'm certain readers will recognise certain situations in the book as something they could have encountered them...

  While this is not a book I would normally grab in a library or bookshop, I was delighted to get the offer to read the book. It was well written with a keen eye for details. I am very aware the writing must have required a lot of research while the scenes were situated in what looked like medieval Japan. It had some surprising turns. I can recommend it!