Adult/ Fantasy
By: Richie Billing
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The author approached me with a review request of this early in 2021 and the timing was really not good for me (When my family got infected with Covid) so we agreed that I get an E-Book and review it when possible and I am finally doing it a year and a half later.
The main reason that made me accept the request is that the author mentioned Joe Abercrombie’s books and that this appealed to the fans of the latter author’s works. To be honest, I did not see much similarities and I think Billing has his own style and prose and it is a good thing to be yourself rather than someone who is successful.
The story is told through the POV of two main characters who both are underdogs (Edvar and Isy) and I think it was great to see them growing through the story. I believe it was fast paced and I liked the atmosphere. The story is part of a larger universe which contains stories from multiple authors and I think that is cool.
The story is similar to many adult fantasy stories and this was kind of problematic for me since I got the feeling it was an enjoyable story that would not stick in mind and unfortunately I am writing this review two months after finishing the book and I don’t recall much of it.
Mystery/ Thriller
By: Agatha Christie
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
“Evil never goes unpunished, Monsieur. But the punishment is sometimes secret.”
Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Agatha does it again. I did not expect to enjoy this one as much as I did but it ended up getting 5 stars from me and adding it to my favorite Christie books.
Poirot is absolutely one of my favorite characters in literature. I just love this eccentric man and his brain cells. The story finds him investigating some accidents surrounding a young lady and these accidents seem fishy to him so he decides to protect the lady before the killer strikes again.
The story is a typical Poirot one with an introduction then getting to know the character then organizing the facts that we have and what is missing and finally ending neatly with the identity of the murderer being revealed. What I really liked about this one is that I had the exact same thoughts the characters did and I tried to focus and keep track of everything and it ended up being a very rewarding experience.
Non-Fiction/ Biography
By: David Goggins
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟
I have seen a ton of positive reviews for this book and it has an average rating of 4.36 with 125K ratings on GR which is crazy. I think I can see why people like it but it feels like I can’t understand the hype around it.
The start of the book was very good for me and I enjoyed getting to see the author’s childhood and getting a better life -despite not an easy one- from there onward. I agree that we should try to get out of our comfort zones to achieve great things but I am not a fan of anything extreme and the author just goes on and on about being a tough motherfucker and getting to do great physical things.
As someone in the medical field reading this book, it made me feel uncomfortable many times because I can’t see readers taking the advice in this book and destroying their bodies just to prove they can do something.
To be honest, the book does give the reader some motivation to move froward but I think the author fails to see how the system abuses them and he even mentioned a colleague dying in the training and I just can’t comprehend that still. It also focuses on physical things so I think it can be a great read for athletes but he doesn’t acknowledge how he still just did okay in the test despite giving it his all (My point is that we all are better at some things than the others) and he also was divorced twice so I think it is not a book with a secret to succeed in all aspects of life.
I was hesitant to criticize this since he was part of the navy and it feels like something taboo to criticize such a book but I don’t want to get political and I saw many readers felt the same when I checked the GR page which made me feel more willing to write this review.
The book prescription 