The Rise & Fall of Great Powers | 
bailedThere‘s too much going on in this book and I have no clue what it is.
Like The Imperfectionists, I loved this one. I love Rachman's characters, dialog, the bookish setting, all of it. Can't wait to read The Italian Teacher.
so-soWhat a random book. Alternating between delightfully odd characterizations, to-the-bone sharp observations, and what feel like the author's opinions veiled in his characters' dialogue, nothing really holds this book together beyond a weak mystery about its protagonist. I can't really recommend it, but there were lucid moments of purely brilliant observation that were captured in concise description. Just an odd book.
Brutal paragraph. And brilliant. And so recognizable.
Usually when I read about odd, slightly pathetic characters, I'm pained at their odd, slightly pathetic lives. But with this book I'm just amused and a little self-congratulatory that I have my shit together.
#TBRtemptation post 5! It begins in a dusty bookshop. Then comes abduction, political debate, glimpses into strangers' homes, & whirlwind globe-trotting. Curious personalities, a mystery, & lots of books: collected, coveted, stolen. Tooly's a Welsh bookseller, & she has a patchy past, raised in Asia, Europe, & the US, by people she no longer knows. From the '80s to today, Bangkok to NYC, get ready for adventure! #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎
panBoy, was this bad! I would have bailed were it not a book club pick. Our protagonist, Tooly, fails to ask some very obvious questions of the people who raised her until it is far too late and they are all scattered to the wind. Much of the book is a maddeningly fruitless global search for answers. All is eventually revealed, but the payoff is way too little and way too late.
My #currentreads. I'm loving the Harry Potter re-read and War and Peace on Serial. I am less in love, so far, with Sport of Kings on audio and Rise and Fall of Great Powers, which is my book club's pick this month.
#riotgrams
