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Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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About Berry

CBR 6
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Berry's Reviews:

> FAQ Home
> Articles by: Berry

Miserable Weather + Terrible Taxes = Happy People?

The Almost Nearly Perfect People by Michael Booth

January 22, 2015 by Berry 27 Comments

If I’d just seen Michael Booth’s The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia, I never would have read it. First of all, the cover of the Finnish edition is hokey as hell. Bad publisher. Go to your room and think of what you’ve done. Second of all, what would you think, if you saw a book that’s just 300 odd pages about Scandinavia and Scandinavian people? Boring, right? Booth mentions very early on that many people to whom he talked about his book project […]

Filed Under: History, Non-Fiction Tagged With: CBR7, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden

Berry's CBR7 Review No:3 · Genres: History, Non-Fiction · Tags: CBR7, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden ·
Rating:
· 27 Comments

It’s Drafty in the Trenches, Oh

Goddamn This War! by Jacques Tardi

January 14, 2015 by Berry 6 Comments

Jacques Tardi’s World War I opus, Goddamn This War!, is a hard beast to categorize, at least when using English terminology. It’s not a comic book, and for a graphic novel it’s not very novelistic. But call it what you will, it’s hard to deny its power. This is a harrowing masterpiece of one unnamed soldier’s experiences in the Great War that so wholly failed to be the war to end all wars. Things the reader won’t find in Goddamn This War! include plot and dialogue. Does […]

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Berry, French, Graphic Novel, historical, World War I

Berry's CBR7 Review No:2 · Genres: History · Tags: Berry, French, Graphic Novel, historical, World War I ·
Rating:
· 6 Comments

Just Stay Home

The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan

January 11, 2015 by Berry 5 Comments

There are no doubt piles upon piles of books that make you want to travel, and there’s probably no shortage of books that make you want to visit Venice in particular. Then there’s Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers, the book that makes you dread just the thought of Venice. Or really any travelling. After finishing this book, you will want to stay home forever, and lock all the doors to keep the outside world and its evils at bay. Mary and Colin encounter those […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Berry, crime, Fiction, horror, ian mcewan, sex & violence, Venice

Berry's CBR7 Review No:1 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Berry, crime, Fiction, horror, ian mcewan, sex & violence, Venice ·
Rating:
· 5 Comments

How to Survive the Unsurvivable

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

October 16, 2014 by Berry Leave a Comment

Reading The Shock of the Fall took me back to my early teens a little bit. Because back then, before wizard, vampires, and dystopian societies had exploded the YA market, the age-appropriate books found in my local library fell mostly into two categories: the ones with horses and the ones with problems. Sometimes the categories overlapped of course, so you’d get books with horses and problems. For a few years, after picture books and Nancy Drew, but before my brief Serious Adult Classics Only phase […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: #CBR6, mental illness, Nathan Filer, The Shock of the Fall, YA

Berry's CBR6 Review No:15 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: #CBR6, mental illness, Nathan Filer, The Shock of the Fall, YA ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

This Review Was Written in a Hurry

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

October 4, 2014 by Berry 9 Comments

My TV-show inspired reread of Outlander confirmed few things I thought I remembered about this book. Namely, that I liked it, but also found it almost silly at times. An enjoyable read, but not a great one. The good: inventive take on time-travel. Great female character in Claire. Historical milieus well realized and intriguing. Jamie. The cheerful abandon with which Gabaldon treats genre conventions. Is it science fiction? Is is romance? Is it supernatural romance? Historical fiction? Who knows? Who cares? It’s all that and […]

Filed Under: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Romance, Science Fiction, Suspense Tagged With: #CBR6, Diana Gabaldon, Fiction, historical fiction, historical romance, Outlander, science fiction

Berry's CBR6 Review No:14 · Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, History, Romance, Science Fiction, Suspense · Tags: #CBR6, Diana Gabaldon, Fiction, historical fiction, historical romance, Outlander, science fiction ·
Rating:
· 9 Comments

Okay, and?

Batman, Vol. 1: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion

August 26, 2014 by Berry 2 Comments

I’ve read comic books as long as I’ve been able to read, but I’d never be allowed to call myself a “comic book geek”, because the Anglo-American super hero thing remains terra incognita for me, at least for large parts. Whenever I think of changing this, the few decades worth of “canon” seems daunting. Where to even start getting to know these characters and their stories? But last week in the library I decided to just do it: pick a Batman book and read it, […]

Filed Under: Fiction, Suspense Tagged With: #CBR6, crime, Graphic Novel

Berry's CBR6 Review No:11 · Genres: Fiction, Suspense · Tags: #CBR6, crime, Graphic Novel ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments
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