Book review: An astronaut's guide to life on earth

How many of us had been asked when we were kids about what we wanted to be when we grew up and answered "astronauts"? And how many of us actually became one?

Well, Chris Hadfield was nine years old when he watched the first human walking on the Moon on TV and his mind was made up: being an astronaut was the only thing he wanted. He set this as a life goal, and his actions and thoughts were always aimed towards this achievement. 

In this partially autobiographical book, Hadfield goes through his career from the first steps as a fighter and test pilot to how he managed to enter the Canadian Space Agency and begin his exciting path to fulfilling this childhood dream. 

He narrates his story with wit and humour and all the excitement is there for the reader to feel chapter after chapter. What it means to become part of a Space Agency, what training is all about, what astronauts do to be suitable for a space mission, what they do when they are on Earth and what they do when they are in Space. The parts of his space travels are so vivid and interesting that one feels being with Hadfield right there on the Soyuz taking off, on the International Space Station and the Cupola, on his way back into Earth. Most people hear about space exploration, but do not realise what all this involves and how much preparation and risks are on the menu. From this point of view, Hadfield's book is really revealing.

Nevertheless, this is a book full of life lessons as the author himself experienced them through events that changed his life and his perspective over people and situations. Through its pages he shows that being humble, determined, focused and hardworking always pays back the right way. Space is a hostile environment for humans where good teamwork, leadership and personal integrity are elements that save lives. Did you know that most astronauts who train never fly in space? This may seem disappointing, however Hadfield suggests that the joy is not to be found only in the end, that an astronaut should try to find satisfaction and pleasure in the other things which form part of their life, e.g. training, assisting missions from Earth, talking and promoting public awareness about everything being done in space. This applies to all of us who are stuck here on this planet as well. 

So, this is a book about how people should find happiness in whatever they do: how to work hard, be focused, do not lose hope, work with others and for others, be humble, enjoy little things and be prepared for the worse. The author shows ways to be successful and his message is that we should always learn, always strive to become better humans. 

Once, on Q&A sessions on Reddit, Hadfield had said:

Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time tonight, turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. Look at who you want to be, and start sculpting yourself into that person. You may not get exactly where you thought you’d be, but you will be doing things that suit you in a profession you believe in. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become.

It is an encouraging and inspirational text.

Worth reading even if you have already achieved going to Space.

+ perfect for space enthusiasts, motivating, enjoyable, insightful, informative
- a bit repetitive

Have you read this book? Feel free to leave us a comment.

[written by FK for Walkley Library]

Book review: All the light we cannot see

"Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever."

Marie-Laure is a young girl living in Paris. She loves to explore the world around her, learn about snails and fossils and read Jules Verne's books. Her father is working as a locksmith in the Museum of Natural History and takes her with him every day. Due to a rare disease, Marie-Laure lost her eyesight when she was little and in order to help her learn how to walk to and from the museum, her father builds a detailed miniature model of their neighbourhood. In it every street, corner and house is exactly as the original ones and Marie-Laure soon becomes able to orientate herself in the vastness of Paris. When the Second Wold War breaks out, her father takes her to Saint-Malo, where his uncle has a house. And he builds another miniature model of the town so that his daughter has no problem to find her way easily. 

Hundred kilometres away, another story runs parallel to Marie-Laure's. A young boy, Werner Pfennig and his sister grow up in an orphanage in Nazi Germany. They are both fascinated by science and Werner is very capable making and repairing things with his hand, especially radios. Werner dreams of a future that will allow him to learn more about maths and physics, yet his talents lead him to a Hitler Youth Academy, which is his only chance to escape working in the mines of his town and dying like his father. When the war starts, he is sent to the front to track down the enemy's radio stations. 

The story moves back and forth in time - before, during and after the war - between the main characters. It navigates from the ugliness of life to its beauty, from the morality of the one's actions to their sensitivity, hopes and dreams. The stories seem to have nothing in common as they run parallel to one another; towards the end the lines meet and all the pieces come together. 

Doerr has a magical way to write. It is a prose that uses words so beautifully that the lines flow beneath the reader's eyes and lead him more and more into the story and the lives narrated. The movements of the body, the feel of something touched, the words spoken, the feelings endured; the reader is in there, too. 

There is a lack of dialogues, but this acts in favour of the story; in this case the descriptive writing captivates all the senses and helps the author to invite us into the atmosphere of that time. What I, personally, did not like that much is the attempt to put something of a mystery novel within a historical one; the story also involves the quest of a mythical precious stone, which is said to have magical powers for who possesses it. The fantasy may give something original to the rest of the setting, but it does not bind that well.

Nevertheless, it is book so well written that you will not regret the time spent on it.

+ beautiful prose, engaging story

- the attempt to mix two types of novels in one

Anthony Doerr speaks about what inspired him to write this novel in this video.

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Have you read this book? We would love to hear your opinion on it.

Book review: God help the child

When Lula Ann is born, her mother can hardly stand to look at her. Being coloured herself but with a fair complexion, she cannot believe how a daughter of hers could be born with such a dark skin. Her husband, convinced that the baby is not his, decides to leave and lead his life away from them.

The revulsion the mother feels towards her baby's colour will determine her whole behaviour towards the child and the way she will bring her up. Lula Ann is a deeply unloved kid, desperate to get her mom's attention and affection. She even lies in court and her testimony has an innocent woman sent to prison only to have her mother touch her and feel close to her. 

As Lula Ann grows, her blue black complexion becomes her biggest advantage. She leaves home, becomes successful running her own cosmetic line and dresses only in white to give her appearance a striking effect. She even changes her name to Bride. No one has the option not to notice and admire her.

Yet, the unloving relationship she had with her mother still remains a crucial factor in her life, something that does not let her live a satisfied, fulfilled life. And then, when the woman she had accused at court is released and her boyfriend abandons her, Bride makes a decision. Will she be able to get over what happened in the past and gets her share of happiness?

The new novel by Toni Morrison is inspiring, daring and thought provoking. It shows how our childhood experiences can form our adult life, how bad decisions and memories can haunt us and how human will can overcome them and move forward. It is very well written and structured, with chapters that connect perfectly with one another. The only disadvantage is that it could be a bit longer so that the issues it deals with - self acceptance, emotional scarring, child abuse, race and colour - could be explored further.



+very good structure, well written, provoking
- short



(written by FK for Walkley Library)



Have you read this book? Feel free to leave us a comment.

Book review: Dark places

"I was not a lovable child, and I'd grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it'd be a scribble with fangs."

Libby Day was the only member of her family who survived when the rest were massacred and strangled in 1985. She was the only witness, too and based on her testimony, her brother Ben was the one accused of the murders. Decades later and after a difficult upbringing, Libby is a "broken", hardly normal adult; she still tries to forget this traumatic incident and to avoid going back to those "dark places" in her mind.

However, the money people had donated to her all these years are about to run out and she does not want to begin a conventional life to earn her living. The Kill Club approach her; its members have an obsession with famous crimes and a group of people are fascinated by the slaughter of Libby's mother and sisters. They, also, believe that Ben was not the one who killed his family. They agree to pay Libby to visit the people who played a role in the story in order to find out what really happened.

The story alternates between the present and 1985, and among three characters; Ben, Libby and their mother offer their perspective of the accounts that led to the crime. The end of the story and the answer to "who did it" could not be more surprising. Gillian Flynn offers an exquisite thriller with the ability to keep the reader till the final page and very well developed characters. All of them have issues, all do horrible, unforgivable things. The story touches issues like drugs, underage sex, Satanic worship, bullying; but it is full of suspense, well-paced, beautifully wrought.

It is a fantastic, freaking, gripping, Southern gothic, twisted, fascinatingly insane novel. Get yourself hooked.

+ well written, gripping, well developed/realistic characters

- violence, language, disturbing

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Have you read the book? Give us your opinion in the comment section.

Book review: The girl on the train

Have you ever been commuting and wondering what the lives of the people were in the houses you looked at out the window? Making up stories about them? Rachel does exactly this. 

The train she takes every day to London stops at a red signal on the tracks, just opposite the house "Jason" & "Jess" live. She does not know these people, she has given them names herself and she imagines the perfect loving life they have together. Until something different happens one day and it completely changes her view. The next day the woman disappears and Rachel feels she is connected to this event, but she cannot remember how. You see, she is an alcoholic, still attached to her ex-husband, who lives with this new wife and baby girl in a couple of houses down "Jason's" and "Jess'" place. 

Rachel is desperate to find something to keep her out of the unhappiness, loneliness and misery she lives in. She pretends to know something about the disappearance and is pulled into the other characters' lives with unexpected results towards the final twist of the story.

The book is unputdownable. It keeps the reader's interest and curiosity until the last page, a psychological thriller that is well planned, well written and gripping. The three narrators of the story, who give their own perspective, are all unreliable and horrible in their own way; but the development of their characters is very strong and the readers find themselves engaged with what is happening. However, one should not expect to actually like these characters; all with their secrets and dark past in their life. Frustration, anger, pity, disgust....one may feel all these over a few pages. You will either love or hate it. Totally recommended.

+ good plot, well developed characters

- disturbing

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

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Book review: The Lowland

Subhash and Udayan are two brothers growing up in the years after the Indian Independence. They are very close to each other, but they end up taking different paths. The '60s is a turbulent decade for India and Udayan opts to join the Communist Party while Subhash continues his studies in the USA.

The years go by and practically the two brothers have very little contact, just a few letters sent by Udayan with news about India, their family and his marriage to a girl that their parents did not approve of. One day Subhash is called back home by his parents; his brother was killed due to his illegal activities.

Subhash goes to India in a house filled with memories. He meets his sister-in-law, who is pregnant to Udayan's baby and decides to relieve her from a life in a house she is not wanted. He marries her and she follows him to Rhode Island, where he completes his PhD research. Will Subhash and Gauri be able to forget the past and carry on? Will there be a happy ending for them?

The story itself is quite interesting, although the pattern of family sagas has been used by authors so many times. Lahiri's writing is quite good and the sentences flow easily. However, there are some major drawbacks.

The style is very descriptive, there are hardly any dialogues between the characters and this does not allow them to come closer to the readers. There is, also, a strong focus on the Indian history; the narrative informs on the events that took place in the country during the '60s and the '70s, trying to incorporate the story into them instead of the opposite. One feels the characters come second and some parts are more like an essay than a work of fiction. As a consequence, the storytelling becomes stiff, impersonal and dull. Moreover, the characters' lives span for around five decades and one expects that during this period their personalities, thoughts and feelings evolve and change. Yet, in this book the characters remain static; the same feelings around immigration, longing, grief, bitterness, love and sadness are found until the end. They do not grow, do not express themselves, they are not explored.

Personal opinion: unless you are into modern Indian social/political history or eager to get informed about it, try something else.




+ good writing, focus on the modern socio-political history of India
- too descriptive and stiff storytelling, characters lack of depth




(written by FK for Walkley Library)



Have you read this book? If you feel like sharing your thoughts about it, please leave a comment.

Book review: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

"Life was very different when you walked through it."

Harold Fry is a retired middle-class old man living a conventional life with his wife, Maureen. He has never done anything unexpected; every day is the same for him. Until one morning when he receives a letter from an old friend and work colleague, who is dying of cancer and wishes to say goodbye to him. He decides to reply and leaves home to post the letter, however he realises that a letter would not be enough and he makes the decision to walk all the way from Kingsbridge to Berwick Upton Tweed to save this woman’s life.

He walks 600 miles wearing the same shoes he had on when he left home, buying some new clothes on the way, passing through villages and towns, meeting people and listening to their stories, reflecting on his life, his marriage, his past and his future. 

It is an unlikely journey. Some people encourage him to go on and sympathise with his cause. Others are negative about it and try to persuade him to give up. Indeed, there are times Harold Fry has doubts and is on the verge of returning home. Yet, something inside him urges him to continue and soon he and his “pilgrimage” become widely known and many decide to follow him. Will Harold succeed in reaching his friend on time and save her in spite of the hardships and difficulties he faces during his journey?

From one point of view, this is an extraordinary book. It refers to not only a physical but, also, a mental journey and it shows that the destination is what counts in the end. How someone finds himself through the mere act of walking, turning into his self, going through memories, emotions, regrets and the ghosts that have been haunting him all his life. Alone on this quest, Harold has the chance to face all these, and redefine the way he lives his future. He is an ordinary hero, with a sweetness and a sadness that will make you remember him long after you finish the book.

+ touching, thought-provoking story

-  a slow, bit repetitive narrative 




(written by FK for Walkley Library)




Have you read this book? What did you like/not like in it? Leave us a comment.

Book review: The Son

Niccolo Machiavelli had said very wisely that 

Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared.

Yet, this is not the case in this story. 

Sonny Lofthus' father, a police officer, committed suicide when his son was still young. He left a note in which he admitted to corruption, leaving his son and wife devastated. After his mother died of an overdose, Sonny becomes a heroin addict and agrees to go to prison as a scapegoat for a number of murders getting supplies of the drug in return. 

During the twelve years he spends in prison, Sonny is being treated as a saint by the other inmates, who believe his hands have healing power and they go to him and confess their crimes. One day one of them tells the boy that his father was actually killed, that he was not the mole the police force had been looking for all those years and that the corruption accusation was fake. Sonny decides to stop using drugs, escapes from prison and starts his plan to avenge his father and, at the same time, take revenge on all those who had committed the crimes for which he stayed in prison for over a decade. 

The chapters go back and forth between Sonny and Simon Kefas, the main detective character of the book and the one who causes the final catharsis. Junkies, gangsters, corrupted state employees, ordinary people - all act and interact in the warm Norwegian summer.

The book is an excellent example of the Scandinavian noir, as all Nesbo's books. The characters could have been more developed to engage the readers, but the story still remains captivating, the action is fast and, at last, the 600+ pages do not seem as intimidating as in the beginning. 

The fans of Nordic noir are going to be more than satisfied.

+ excellent translation into English, fast plot, suspense 

- violence, characters lacking of depth, too long

(written by FK for Walkley Library)

Have you read this book? What did you like/not like in it? Leave us a comment.

Book review: Child 44

I decided to have a look on "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith when I saw the advertisement for the film, which is based on this book, on the tram. The "best-selling" phrase caught my eye. And after I had an idea what it's about and read reviews on the Internet, I placed a reservation at the library.

The book covers the last years of Stalin's regime in Russia in the early '50s and a bit of the period after his succession by Khrushchev. Apart from the political, moral and social issues it raises due to the totalitarianism of that era, it is a thriller that keeps readers' interest till the last page.  

The setting could be compared to a paranoid, totalitarian dystopia: no one is safe. Stalin's enemies are the enemies of the State. The uneasiness of a dictator to solidify his regime leads millions to their devastation, humiliation, death or exile to the other side of the Soviet Union. The State does horrible things to people; they live in a nightmarish world of mistrust where it is a matter of luck not to be accused of treason. The political system has to survive at all costs and the individual is sacrificed for the common good. Moreover, crime is a notion and practice that simply does not exist. Crime is a product of the West and in Stalinist Russia it has no place among the people that are committed to work for, produce for and consume what the State has decided. All needs are met by the Nation.

So, when a series of hideous murders start to occur the authorities do not believe there is a serial killer who travels all over the country and goes after children. Leo Demidov, a secret MGB agent, is reluctant to do any investigations when the four-year-old child of one of his colleagues is found gutted next to the railway lines. However, the regime does not trust anyone; when Leo refuses to turn his own wife in when she is accused of being a spy, he becomes dispensable for the State, an enemy like those he used to arrest and torture. He and his family are deprived of all privileges and he is sent with Raisa in a remote province to work for the militia as a low rank officer. From there the story proceeds with a fast pace towards the solution of the mystery: who is the killer, why he kills children in such an appalling way, how Leo finds him and in what way his past is intertwined with the present. 

It is a fascinating story, grim and dark. It may be disturbing to those who have a sensitivity around crimes against children and animals. However, it is a book that will not let you down; a perfect companion for that (boring) hour of commuting. 

+ good plot, strong characters, thought-provoking 

- screenplay-like story, weak ending, violence against children



(written by FK for Walkley Library)