Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”

2/5 stars.
ebook, 309 pages.
DNF 50%: July 13, 2021 – August 1, 2021

I’m going to keep this review brief because I was severely underwhelmed and bored by this book. I did give it a good go though as I made it about halfway through before throwing in the towel.

Part of the reason for my feelings on this book is that all of the content in it already feels familiar. I know that when this book was first published it was absolutely groundbreaking, meaning I’m a bit late to the party in reading this. I was working at a bookstore when it first came out in 2008 and I recall how popular it was. Since then the stats in this book have been used and referenced many, many times since then creating a sense of familiarity for me, despite having not read it before. It also doesn’t help that I never read business or success-related books because I don’t find them appealing or interesting, however, this was a book club selection and I’m committed to my club, ya know? So, the lack of general interest and sense of familiarity created a DNF for me.

The leader of this discussion in our book club was so passionate about this book that it made up for some of the boredom I experienced reading it. There are definitely some intriguing stories and statistics in here so I can appreciate the appeal of this novel if you are business-minded and enjoy books of this nature. This, however, was not a book for me.

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

I will not be pursuing the trilogy further. I will, however, watch the next season of the TV show when it’s released as I feel like the show took the original ideas of this story, tidied it up, and in general did more justice to the interesting concept and world that this author created.

1/5 stars.
Hardcover, 584 pages.
Attempted from January 16, 2019 to February 12, 2019.

I just can’t… this book is poorly written and highly disorganized and I found it strain from the first page to get involved in this book. The first book in this trilogy has a more engaging story and clearly had a heavier hand in editing whereas the author ended up ruining the story for me by being allowed to write so haphazardly. You have a large number of characters thrown at you from the first page which make them hard to invest in as well as making the story hard to follow. The main plot of finding a witch to help Diana and the Ashmole 782 gets lost in the mound of unnecessary characters, Matthew’s ridiculously excessive past and accolades, as well as cringe-worthy romance and sex scenes. All of the aspects I was interested in from the previous books were not apparent in this novel as it turned into a poorly written romance. I managed to make it nearly halfway through the book and all of its details without drowning in it.

I will not be pursuing the trilogy further. I will, however, watch the next season of the TV show when it’s released as I feel like the show took the original ideas of this story, tidied it up, and in general did more justice to the interesting concept and world that this author created. If I were in a less hassled state of mind I might have had the resilience to finish this book and find more redeeming qualities but for now, it’s being added to the very, very small pile of books that I could not finish.

Minister Without Portfolio by Michael Winter

1/5 stars.
Read from March 22 to April 01, 2016 (DNF).
ebook, 270 pages.

Well, this is a rare occurrence for me. In my lifetime of reading, there are only three books that I committed to read that I did not finish. Sadly, I had to add this book to that list to make it a fourth. This book was painful to read. I managed to make it quarter of the way through though, but I also picked up and almost finished two other novels in the time it took me to get a quarter of the way through this one. I tried, I really did, but I’m not sorry I didn’t finish this book. I don’t think my life is lacking for not finishing it.

Henry Hayward, who is originally from the east coast of Canada and has been working up in northern area of Alberta, Canada, which is very common. His romance with his long-term girlfriend Nora comes to an end so he unemotionally deals with his loss with booze and sex. Henry then takes up a job in Afghanistan in hopes of being able to forget Nora and move on. Sadly, Henry and his good friend, Tender, end up being involved in tragic accident while out on patrol. Tender dies and Henry knows that  it was his mistake that caused it.

Returning home, Henry is guilt-stricken. He hopes to make amends by repairing and fixing Tender’s home, but ends up making some poor decisions with Tender’s girlfriend in the process. Tender’s girlfriend also has a secret that will devastate things further for Henry and their circle of friends.

It’s no surprise to me that this book was knocked out first in the Canada Reads 2016 debate because it doesn’t stack up. Winter’s writing style is forced, hard to follow, and ultimately unengaging. He also didn’t do himself, or the reader, any favors by completely omitting quotation marks. There are very few authors that can pull off this distinct style and Winter’s isn’t one of them. Combine all of this with an unremarkable plot line and characters that are distant and lack depth and you have a terrible book.

I suppose I can at least see what Winter’s was trying to accomplish with his characters, in how they all lacked feeling, as he I think he was trying to explain a lifestyle very specific to those who Alberta (working up North) and the type of people that do this sort of work.  I sadly can’t even say it would appeal to the families of workers or even those faced with the trauma of war as the writing and depictions of the characters and plot line is so poorly handled.

Sorry Mr. Winter, but your novel just didn’t do it for me and I can’t see myself recommending this book to anyone I would know.

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