Tag: humour

Blurb Book Review: Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com

Jane and Dan go out to a ridiculously expensive restaurant to celebrate their nineteenth wedding anniversary, one Jane feels is their last. Neither expected to be smack dab in the middle of a crime – or to be taken as hostages – for the evening. As events unfold, Jane notices the crime plays out eerily similar to the novel she published six years prior. At the same time, Dan realizes one of the hostage takers is their daughter.

The novel highlights the stagnant feeling that can happen in long term relationships, especially with children on the cusp of leaving home. Jane feels underappreciated and anchorless, unsure of what she wants in life after having devoted two decades to parenting and being someone’s wife. Dan, also needing an outlet of his own, takes on a new hobby, one which Jane assumes is an affair.

I enjoyed the narrative voice. Mostly told through Jane’s pov, the voice is humorous with a dash of frustration. Jane wants change in her life but doesn’t know what that change is, exactly. She takes the apparent affair as a launching pad for divorce, thinking that by separating from Dan she’ll be able to find herself again.

Overall, this is a light read, the author ties up all the loose ends, and Dan’s new hobby even helps save the day.

Blurb Book Review: How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment

Cover image from Goodreads.com


Lydia is ready for her new senior’s group at the community centre, prepared to drink tea and play quiet games. But the seniors that show up are far from quiet.

Daphne is hiding a big secret from her past, Art has traded his acting career for kleptomania, and there just might be a guerrilla knit-bomber in the group. To top it all off, the community centre ceiling collapses during the first ever meeting.

Now, the community centre is slated for demolition, leaving the new senior’s social group without a home. Together with other groups who use the centre – a daycare, an AA meetup, and an antenatal group – they set about finding a way to save their building.

The novel is what I’d call ‘fluffy’. The stakes are fairly low, the characters a bit too obvious, and the narrative style easy to read. That said, a fluffy book is just what I was looking for in light of the current goings on of the world.

It’s also a pleasure to read protagonists who are over 50, including some of the ageism that people this age face daily.

Overall, the novel was a good distraction from the world, and the author ties up all the loose ends into a neat little bow.

Blurb Book Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (spoilers ahead)

~ Robin James ~ Leave a comment
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If you guessed I pulled the cover image from Goodreads.com, you’d be right.

I loved this book. I loved it so much I wanted to read it again it immediately after I finished it. I was so invested in the book/world that I didn’t want it to end and that I wanted a sequel, even though the storyline ties up all neatly at the end.

The book is about a last ditch project to save Earth. There’s an alien life form eating the sun at an alarming rate and scientists discover one star that isn’t affected. The Hail Mary is to go out to that star, figure out why this life form isn’t eating it, and send the information back to Earth.

Ryland Grace is a junior high science teacher. He’s the one that discovers how to kill this sun-eating stuff and how to reproduce it. His involvement in the project is not exactly voluntary, but his desire to learn and use science drives him to keep going. Ryland wakes up on the Hail Mary with no memory of how he got there or why. Information is revealed to him, and the reader, in satisfying bursts of memories.

During the journey, another alien makes contact with him. This alien, who he names ‘Rocky’, is an engineer. His whole crew died during their journey to Tau Ceti, as did Ryland’s other two crewmates, and he’s been left alone to try to figure out how to stop his own star from being eaten. Together, they learn how to communicate and figure out a way to save both stars.

Every bit of this book, every line of text, is packed with information. The author uses a lot, and I mean a lot of science-y terms but it’s phrased in a way that I could understand almost all of it. Brilliant work, to make so much jargon understandable and even interesting.

The book has a great deal of humour as well. It never felt forced or overdone though. Instead it was light and immersive and kept me firmly in Ryland’s head the entire time.

Was the story contrived? Yes, of course. All books are, that would be the purpose of books. I did think that it was a bit convenient that Ryland met Rocky and helped him through it. I also thought it was a bit convenient that Ryland lost his memory, it felt a bit like the author needed a way to explain everything to the reader. These are very minor points though. I noticed them, yes, but I (mostly) forgave them because I was hooked from the first word.

I would recommend this book to everyone. Anyone. All people who like books. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some time to read it again before returning it to the library.