The Inkfish

Just a techie making more room to read Follow me on Instagram @theinkfish 2018: 17/36 CR: Abundance, A Brief History of Time Msg me, I like new friends! @onestorydesigns: THEINKFISH

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Mini Review - Murder on the Orient Express

Goodreads Summary: What more can a mystery addict desire than a much-loathed murder victim found aboard the luxurious Orient Express with multiple stab wounds, thirteen likely suspects, an incomparably brilliant detective in Hercule Poirot, and the most ingenious crime ever conceived?

My Thoughts: Wow - I blew through this classic murder mystery in an afternoon because every time I thought I had figured it out I was totally confounded by what was revealed next. Poirot was always just fractionally ahead of me, which was great because it kept my brain engaged and made me want to keep reading! This is one I’ll want to come back to later, just to see if I can pick out the pieces and clues that I missed the first time around. The way it all wraps up is a little contrived, which is the only thing that keeps it from being five stars - but it’s very clever all around and tautly written in classic Agatha Christie style!

Bottom Line: Don’t overcomplicate things, my dear - if you’re into murder most foul, this is your book. 4/5 stars.

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Mini Review - Mr. G

Goodreads Summary: So begins Alan Lightman’s playful and profound new novel, Mr g, the story of Creation as told by God. Barraged by the constant advisements and bickerings of Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva, who live with their nephew in the shimmering Void, Mr g proceeds to create time, space, and matter. Then come stars, planets, animate matter, consciousness, and, finally, intelligent beings with moral dilemmas. Mr g is all powerful but not all knowing and does much of his invention by trial and error. Even the best-laid plans can go awry, and Mr g discovers that with his creation of space and time come some unforeseen consequences—especially in the form of the mysterious Belhor, a clever and devious rival. An intellectual equal to Mr g, Belhor delights in provoking him: Belhor demands an explanation for the inexplicable, requests that the newly created intelligent creatures not be subject to rational laws, and maintains the necessity of evil. As Mr g watches his favorite universe grow into maturity, he begins to understand how the act of creation can change himself, the Creator. With echoes of Calvino, Rushdie, and Saramago, combining science, theology, and moral philosophy, Mr g is a stunningly imaginative work that celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of existence on the grandest possible scale.

My Thoughts: Man I wish I could say I loved this book and found it utterly profound but... I didn’t, so here we are. This book is an interesting but slightly odd take on the creation of the universe - exactly what it claims to be, so there’s that, at least. I enjoyed the philosophical discussions that emerged and loved that it didn’t try to force any particular “answer” or interpretation, but that’s about all I have to say. It was tricky to read and trickier to follow conceptually, and I basically just worked my way through it. It prompted some interesting thoughts about morality and the concept of a higher power, but I don’t feel compelled to revisit it. 

Bottom Line: I’ll make you look smart on the train... but like anyone trying to look too smart on the train, I’m trying too hard. 3/5 stars.

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Mini Review - The Bookshop on the Corner

Goodreads Summary: Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more. Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile—a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling. From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending.

My Thoughts: **here there be spoilers - ye be warned!** A fun, lighthearted romp that I found truly charming and overall thoroughly enjoyable! I loved reading about Nina and her book van. I was thoroughly invested in her from the start and found myself talking to her in my head, encouraging her. However, if I can have one minor nit to pick it’s this: I didn’t love the second romance that felt like it was shoehorned into the later part of the book. I would have been perfectly pleased with this woman who moved to a new place and found her own way, without feeling like she needed a romance to complete her story. I would have loved more about Ainslee and her brother, and feel that the relationship with Lennox would have been better served as a close friendship. Overall though, really a lovely book about following your heart and making it work, come what may.

Bottom Line: Take me to the beach, beloved, but don’t expect earth shattering wisdom. 4/5 stars.

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Mini Review - The Time Traveler’s Wife

Goodreads Summary: A funny, often poignant tale of boy meets girl with a twist: what if one of them couldn't stop slipping in and out of time? Highly original and imaginative, this debut novel raises questions about life, love, and the effects of time on relationships. Audrey Niffenegger’s innovative debut, The Time Traveler’s Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing. The Time Traveler’s Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare’s marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals—steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

My Thoughts:  I know I’m about 10 years late to this book but WOW what a great one!  “Ow, my heart” is basically all I have to say about it, but what a soaring, amazing story of love across time and the complex, irreversible nature of decisions and actions in all our lives. The concept is novel. the execution is brilliant, and the tear jerking moments were abundant and brutal. I had the end figured out about a hundred pages or so in advance and it still broke me. Absolutely fantastic.

Bottom Line: 5/5 stars, I would travel through time to read this for the first time again.

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It’s Monday, but my heart is still in the Sunday sunshine in my reading nook - nothing better! What’s your favorite place to read? ⠀⠀ #bookstagram #bibliophile #books #bookworm #read #booklove #bookporn #manhattan #midtown #sunshine #booknook #reading #lovebooks #sunday #lazysunday

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Found this gem walking home from brunch - what an amazing little store packed chock full of books! One of my favorite things about my new city is all the little shops I find as I’m moving around ☺️☺️ #bookstagram #bibliophile #books #bookworm #read #booklove #bookporn #bookstore #bookshop #usedbooks #antiques #shoplocal #manhattan #upperwestside (at Westsider Books)

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Mini Review - Call Me By Your Name

Goodreads Summary: Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks' duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy. The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman's frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.

My Thoughts: Beautiful and heartbreaking. I usually find extended internal sidebars distracting in my narrators, and in some cases here I did and had to go back to pick up the thread of what was happening or to make sure I didn’t miss something that had been woven in, but it didn’t bother me like it sometimes does. Instead it felt very raw and honest - like I was experiencing Elio’s mind as he was experiencing it, without any filters. It forced me to read more closely than I might have otherwise been comfortable doing with a story this powerful and moving. I spent the last 50 or so pages of the book near tears and can’t wait to go back and read it again! What a complex, moving ode to the tenuous and everlasting nature of love and relationships.

Bottom Line: 5/5 stars. Get thee to a library, go, farewell! Read this is a soon as possible!

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Confession time friends - what book has been on your ‘TBR’ shelf for an embarrassingly long time? Snow days always make me look at my bookshelf and go “oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to read that!” I loved @kenfollettauthor Kingsbridge trilogy, and I’ve been meaning to get into his Century trilogy for going on 6 years 🙈💩 #bookstagram #bibliophile #books #bookworm #read #booklove #bookporn #kenfollet #kingsbridge #snowday #tbr #fallofgiants #manhattan

[tothewordgarden]

‘Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading.’ -Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

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I’m home sick today and on top of that it’s snowing so what better way to spend the day than curled up with a book? This is the sequel to a book I read last summer, and honestly I think I might need to go back and reread it but I’m enjoying it anyways! #bookstagram #bibliophile #books #bookworm #read #booklove #bookporn #amreading #unincorporatedwar #snowday #sickday

[peanuts-comics]

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So my “To Read” pile is getting a little out of hand but that didn’t stop me from making a stop at @nypl today! ⠀⠀ #Bookstagram #bibliophile #books #bookworm #read #booklove #bookporn #tbr #amreading #bookfordays #stacksonstacks #booksforever #nypl #loveyourlibrary (at 53rd Street Library)

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Quick detour from your regularly scheduled bookstagramming, but it’s related I swear! I can’t say enough good things about @puffsplay. What a delightful, hilarious romp, particularly if you’re a potterhead like me. Totally amazing, definitely go see it if you get the chance!! #notbookstagram #bookrelated #books #plays #harrypotter #hogwarts #hufflepuff #puffs #puffpride #offbroadway (at New World Stages)

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The trailer for the new Fantastic Beasts movie has me all ready to go back to Hogwarts! I’ve got my textbooks and everything 🤓🔮💫 ⠀⠀ #bookstagram #bibliophile #books #bookworm #read #booklove #bookporn #harrypotter #fantasticbeasts #crimesofgrindelwald #hogwarts #newtscamander #hufflepuff #hufflepuffpride #maraudersmap #crystalball #magic #beedlethebard #quidditch #quidditchthroughtheages (at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry)

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What are you thankful for this week? I am thankful for my new job and all the opportunities that it affords me to learn and grow and contribute - and also for the killer view of Midtown it provides me from the balcony! I’m working on finishing Abundance and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s this - the future really is better than you think. ⠀⠀ #thankfulthursday #bookstagram #bibliophile #bookworm #booklover #coverlove #books #midtown #manhattan #abundance #peterdiamandis #stevenkotler #singularity #singularityuniversity (at SoHo)

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Seen on the MTA on my way to work this morning #bookstagram #wordsofwisdom #poetry #mta (at MTA Subway - Canal St)

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The inaugural book for my new kindle is Stephen Hawking’s ‘A Brief History of Time’, in tribute to the brilliant mind and amazing writer that we lost today. Rest easy with the stars 💫 ⠀⠀ #bookstagram #bookworm #stephenhawking #rip #booklover #read #kindle #kindleoasis #glassybaby #inspiration #bibliophile #abriefhistoryoftime #coverlove