Sara's reading log

I am a book hoarder and reader. My main genre is SF, but I also love magic realism, fantasy and general fiction. Favorite authors are Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. LeGuin, Haruki Murakami, José Saramago, Isaac Asimov, Ben Aaronovitch and more. My rating system is based on five stars. I rate books based on my expectations and what a books aims to be. This means that the brilliant 'Fahrenheit 451' gets five stars because I thought it would be good, people said it was good, and it was good, but 'A Closed and Common Orbit' also gets five stars because in its series, in its style, I really enjoyed it and was not disappointed.

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

  • Started on: 2010-11-08
  • Finished on: 2010-11-15
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): Historical Fiction

After reading a few other books by Margaret Atwood I knew that this one would be different. The other three I read (The Handmaids Tale, Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood) could be classified as science fiction, while this is more general fiction.
Maybe that’s why it took me a little while to get into the story. The story follows three story lines. One is Iris as she is now, old and looking back on her life. The other is her life story as she is writing it. The last is the book The Blind Assassin, written by her sister and published after her death.
The story is a bit confusing in the beginning but slowly the curtains are drawn back and you understand more and more about the sisters and their lives.
Although the story itself is very tragic (what is it about these rich people, their mansions and their tragedies, they seem to be in most my books recently), it is a very nice and sweeping read. No wonder it won the Booker Prize. Four out of five stars.

  • Started on: 2010-11-08
  • Finished on: 2010-11-15
  • Read in: English
  • Rating: ****-
  • Genre(s): Historical Fiction

After reading a few other books by Margaret Atwood I knew that this one would be different. The other three I read (The Handmaids Tale, Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood) could be classified as science fiction, while this is more general fiction.
Maybe that’s why it took me a little while to get into the story. The story follows three story lines. One is Iris as she is now, old and looking back on her life. The other is her life story as she is writing it. The last is the book The Blind Assassin, written by her sister and published after her death.
The story is a bit confusing in the beginning but slowly the curtains are drawn back and you understand more and more about the sisters and their lives.
Although the story itself is very tragic (what is it about these rich people, their mansions and their tragedies, they seem to be in most my books recently), it is a very nice and sweeping read. No wonder it won the Booker Prize. Four out of five stars.