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my thought while re-reading this: what a masterpiece.

picked this book up with the hope of manifesting a true geographical romance irl (i’m kidding okay) but this has been such a nerdy rom(p)-com so far: light-hearted fun with tongue-in-cheek references to geography and academia. what’s not to love about a book that starts with “a geographer behaves with quiet dignity at all times”? i laughed so hard; i definitely don’t deserve to be one then.

taking time to slowly savour this again, 5 years on; i’d forgotten how Romantic / romantic this actually is.

october is nearly upon us; a fitting season to return to this bittersweet, reflective meditation through pico iyer’s narration of life in a quiet suburb in nara in autumn - on grief and grieving, of living with the acknowledgement of mortality, of farewells and transitions. the season of fire and farewells.

october’s nearly upon us; it’s a fitting season to read this again. as wispy, dreamlike and meditative as i remembered it to be - this slice of life collection centered on grief and grieving, the knowledge of mortality, the fleeting wistful beauty of autumn, of farewells and transitions.

flipped the page and burst out laughing - “a haphazard stack of paperbacks was piled next to it. i squatted down and had a look. - it was ninety per cent manga - my hero academia, one piece, and something called ancient magus bride which I’d never heard of.” SNNNRK. (i don’t actually know what the ancient magus bride is about though.)

enjoying this more than i thought i would, though aaronovitch is writing abigail almost as though she is peter (after the first few pages of her first pov chapter), just with teenage raging hormones. there’s more nightingale than i expected - so nostalgic for the older books in this series! generally a v pleasant change from the misery of ‘the hallmarked man’, with a genuine few LOL moments.

the mystery’s defo become less messy and way more compelling by this point, but a part of the problem is simply that C & R themselves don’t have the heart for this investigation, and it’s spilling over to the actual narrative. the writing is as compulsively readable ever, but the moments of levity and connection can’t elevate the miserable will-they-won’t-they shtick that’s long stayed past its welcome.

this is shaping up to be my least favourite entry in the series because of the constant useless pining, convenient plot contrivances and character butchering that have prevented cormoran and robin from having an even remotely straightforward conversation with each other. oh gosh this has been SO FRUSTRATING to read. this ridiculous development has gotten in the way of my enjoyment of the plot even.

a long time ago this was my go-to for the “came for the crime / stayed for the tale as old as time” trope but it’s been 8 books and cormoran strike and robin ellacott are clearly headed for a trainwreck ending AGAIN. similar plot points similar behavioural patterns just dressed in different robes - it’s as though we sat through 7 books of character / rs development for naught.

it took me awhile to get used to the screenplay writing style, but now i’ve been well and truly sucked in and it has been devastating. incisive and devastating.

loving the premise of the novel, but not loving the lack of nuance in the plot and the characterisation. will reserve judgment till the end because the writing, while sometimes reading as all-fluff-little-substance with some strange breaks of narrative POV (author-insert much?), remains compulsively readable.

like the tainted cup, this book has been fascinating so far - fascinating and so eerily and thoroughly grotesque at parts that i am just glad that it’s been a few hours post lunch.

like the tainted cup, this book has been fascinating so far - fascinating and so eerily and thoroughly grotesque at parts that i am just glad that it’s been a few hours post lunch.

I’ve been meaning to return to this novel for the longest time and I’m glad I finally did - still as much in love with McKillip’s ethereal writing as ever.

“It came to her then… that Lady Alys had just spent much of the prior conversation slowly, gently and thoroughly roasting her son.” etc. etc. Anyway I have been sniggering so loudly while reading CVA that my mum has had to ask me a few times if I’m okay.

I chortled when I reached the part where Ivan sent an immensely ugly vase to Miles just because he could.

chp. 4 thoughts: still remain skeptical of some of glasser's wilder claims & his oft self-righteous tone, but this is the chp. that has been the most insightful so far. the idea that we choose the behaviours that best helps us gain effective control over our lives and how we can make more effective choices is empowering. i also thought that his analysis of why we choose depressive behaviour was interesting.

chp. 3 thoughts: glasser's writing still rubs me the wrong way at parts - i know that he has a wealth of experience, but the sweeping generalisations annoy me more than not. that said, this chp. on the concept of quality world is more coherent with some genuine insights - e.g. how we all must have q.w. pics of ourselves - extremely idealised & slightly idealised vers. - which made for some interesting insights.

chapter 2 thoughts: glasser sure does go off on tangents when discussing the five basic needs - i struggled at parts to figure out how his writing contributed to his point. also, how much scientific basis is there for his ideas? he also glosses over his assumptions. but he does raise some ideas that i appreciated - e.g. the link between freedom and constructive! creativity

more thoughts since i have to eventually write a book review for work: the other thing i appreciate about choice theory is that it is inherently hopeful. we are not mere creatures of fate - we have more power than we believe. i think it’s very helpful to know in this era of disillusionment and cynicism - that we can still believe that people can be kind and compassionate even when events tell us otherwise.

reading this for work: i will say, i have always appreciated the internal consistency of choice theory, but i remain skeptical of some of glasser’s clajms. i find that it’s impossible for any theory or model to encompass every single situation, and to do so would be to place humans and events into too-small boxes. but i’m reading this with an open mind and tbh quite a lot of what he says remains logical.

a Heyer regency romance to start the year! the start is slow but I am patient. and the banter is fun so far!

this book is going to hurtle to its inevitable tragic end soon.

i’m just surprised that the blurb hasn’t mentioned “sherlock holmes meets attack on titan in this fantasy murder mystery”. but it has been such a (slightly, terrifyingly) grotesque ride so far. & what’s not to love about our watson stand-in din? 🥲