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One of the funniest books I've read in a long time.

"When we hear about the death of a woman who had been estranged from her daughter for many years, we want to know whether they were reconciled as death approached. We do not care only about the daughter's feelings — it is the narrative of the mother's life that we wish to improve. Caring for people often takes the form of concern for the quality of their stories, not for their feelings.

"Leo had always preferred the company of men, but not in this way. Not at all in this way. He certainly wouldn't have boasted about it, if he'd been a pervert. Which he wasn't, of course. He just... found it hard to get excited unless his wife slapped him."

"Never thought o' myself as a man who fills sacks with heads."
"No one sets off in that direction," said Clover, puffing out his cheeks one more time. "But before you know it, there you bloody are."

Jonas Clover definitely one of the best new characters.

"That's the trouble with songs. They tend to stop before it all turns to shit."

Very fast reading, writing style is quite simple and the majority of the chapters short, so the pages keep turning. Will have to stick the landing quite well to not just be another "2 1/2 stars, good idea but poor execution" story that promises something but never delivers. We'll see.

"i have seen people behave badly with great morality and I note every day that integrity has no need of rules."

"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable. If in order to elude the anxious question: "What would life be?" one must, like the donkey, feed on the roses of illusion, then the absurd mind, rather than resigning itself to falsehood, prefers to adopt fearlessly Kierkegaard's reply: "despair". Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage.

"Physical strength is the most important thing in life."

Mmkay. Well, I wouldn't want him to be wishy-washy about it.

Entertaining writing style, which is certainly required when dealing with a topic as laborious as arguing the definition of craft beer or its lack thereof.

I can't stand Shriver when she's proving a point, since it's usually hammered into your head with all the subtlety of a Donald Trump tweet. Completely unnecessary chapter.

The über-woke backdrop villain of the story Lucinda Okonkwo might be the worst character Shriver has ever written. The eyerolling is sadly mostly reserved for the author, not the character.

Off to a good start.

"I did not love running. Here's a pointer for you: no one does. They pretend to, but they're lying. The only good part is having run. In the moment, it's dull, and hard as in effortful but not as in difficult to master. It's repetitive. It doesn't open the floodgates of revelation, as I'm sure you've been led to expect."

"There is no way for a man to escape from this world."

Brilliant. Abercrombie really is at his best when writing conflict and war. Good new characters as well.

Really happy with the return the First Law world so far. Not sure what some of the negative reviews are about. Just wish there was a bit more of the usual suspects... but it is the first book of course.

"The Myth of Sisyphus" is this: it is legimate and necessary to wonder whether life has a meaning; therefore it is legimate to meet the problem of suicide face to face. The answer, underlying and appearing through the paradoxes which cover it, is this: even if one does believe God, suicide is not legimate.

Romania one-upping the Nazis: "However reluctant the Germans were to give Rumania a higher priority in the Final Solution that had originally been planned for any Balkan country, they had to come around if they did not want the situation to deteriorate into bloody chaos, and, much as Eichmann may have enjoyed his threat to use the Security Police, the saving of Jews was not exactly what they had been trained for."

On Denmark: "It is the only case we know of in which the Nazis met with open native resistance, and the result seems to have been that those exposed to it changed their minds. They themselves apparently no longer looked upon the extermination of a whole people as a matter of course. They had met resistance based on principles, and their "toughness" had melted like butter in the sun[.]"

I mainly want to finish this book so I can read the 1 star reviews on here.

"Olen kaide ryöppyävän kosken partaalla: tarttukoon minuun se, joka pystyy minuun tarttumaan! Mutta kainalosauva minä en ole."

Finnish translation leaves something to be desired. Multiple words in places left in from a draft translation, many words untranslated (fermentointi, nomadinen) just in the first few pages.

Woah! Never thought my work would intertwine with a book I'm reading! Absolutely exciting yet crazy.

"Shep was familiar with this talk of illness as armed confrontation: the "battle" with cancer [...] But the analogy felt wrong. His small experience so far was more one of bad weather. So it was as if the doctor had declared they would "go to war" with a snowstorm, or a gale wind."

Readers often criticize Shriver for being too preachy. I really don't mind. Sure, the dialogue is sometimes unrealistic in its eloquence, but it's still good dialogue. The writing riles just about everything, but obviously always returns to the main story. I seem to be at the point where most people give up on this book, but I don't really see myself getting disappointed until perhaps at the ending.

Painful, painful story from time to time. Believably and smartly written. At one point a character says they believe the holes in people are there for good and best just cordoned off. I relate to the feeling of emptiness and not being content in any situation. But as Propagandhi says, if you live like that then one day you might notice you're more hole than human being and you can't wash away the stink.

Toimittajan osuva esipuhe: "Asenteiden jäykistyessä eri tahoilla, väkivaltamoraalin levitessä ja yksilön liuetessa abstraktioksi teknokratian tai diktatuurin kourissa tarvitsemme maltillisen individualismin puolustusta. Tarvitsemme ihmisyyden, järjen, kohtuuden ja suvaitsevaisuuden sanomaa, joka nyt kuten ennenkin on vaarassa hukkua propagandarumpujen pauhuun."

I couldn't take it with me on vacation since it's quite heavy, but so far I've found myself thinking "holy shit this book is so good" on at least six separate occasions. Not very usual for a re-read. Total masterpiece.