Review: Into the Wild

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow, the story of Chris McCandless is a difficult one. You could paint him as a privileged white boy who died because he was too arrogant to understand his limitations or you could see him as an adventurer who sang to his own tune. Being able to relate to McCandless because of his own adventurous but reckless youth, Krakauer more leans to the latter interpretation. But, I lean more towards the former. If McCandless had just listened to one of the several people who tried to offer him advice, he may well have survived his adventure.

Then again scores of people do really stupid, arrogant things when they are young - they're just lucky that their stupid, arrogant didn't prove fatal and it is just luck. We've all had " oh Sh*t!" moments when we've realised our ill thought out plan could have gotten us injured/killed had things got awry. That's why McCandless's story is so tragic. The luck was the difference between his folly getting him killed and him having a "oh sh*t!" moment. Mind you, you do wonder that had he survived, if he would have kept doing reckless thing until his luck ran out etc.



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Review: Transcription

Transcription by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A realistic spy novel if they're can be such a thing. As a spy, Juliet encounters barely any high drama. Just an awful lot of mundane transcription (if only the Fascists would learn to speak up!). What, or rather who, she does encounter is a vast array of believable characters. I think "Godfrey" and "Perry" are much more typical of the type of men you would find in M15 rather than James Bond (or does he work for MI6).

A really good book.

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Review: Doctor Who: The Stealers of Dreams

Doctor Who: The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A quick, easy read. After reading In Cold Blood, I needed something lighthearted where I could guarantee the good guys would save the day and this fitted the bill perfectly.

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Review: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A deserved true crime classic. Capote's masterstroke is to make you feel sympathy for one of the murderers (Smith) while never shying away from the horror of his crime or the fact he didn't express remorse. Hitchcock (the other murderer) is portrayed less sympathetically - generally because, unlike Smith, he never really accepts responsibility for his actions.

David Wilson, in his book about the Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton, says that murderers are often caught because they make a mistake rather than because of the skills of those trying to apprehend them. This is certainly true of Hitchcock and Smith. Although they left few clues at the crime scene itself, they practically left a trail of breadcrumbs to themselves afterwards. It's their arrogance and inability to consider the consequences of their actions that are the cause of their undoing - the exact same traits that led them to kill in the first place.

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Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An engaging tale of what it is to be an "icon" - how much you have change about yourself, hide about your life, and what you're prepared to do to stay an icon. Think the concept would have worked just as well had it been the "five husbands" of Evelyn Hugo rather than seven (at least two of the husbands could have been amalgamated into one). Plus, it's bad timing for Jenkins Reid to have her book on the market when Stuart Turton has released "The Seven deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" - it's very easy to confuse the two books even though they're completely different plot wise

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