100+ Books in 2025 discussion

In 2009 I read 53 books so 50 books a year doesn't some like a challenge at all. Then I joined 144 books a year but that's just crazy, I will disappoint myself so badly. I think 100+ is perfect - challenging but still somewhat realistic. Plus I had no idea what books people in 144 books were talking about. It seemed to be mostly paranormal romance or just regular romance. I hope here I find people with more similar taste to mine so I can actually participate in the discussion. :)))

I started off the year with fluff, but I hope it will not set a trend.

1) Vicky Myron - Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched The World



277 pages
2 stars

My review:
I didn't expect this book to be quality literature and of course it wasn't. It was a feel-good book, only I've noticed that most feel-good books actually make me feel nauseous instead of good. Especially those that idealize small town America.
I thought I was going to scream if I read another paragraph about how amazing the town of Spencer, Iowa is. To give you a taste:
"That's another of Spencer's unique and valuable assets: its people. We are good, solid, hardworking midwesterners. We are proud but humble. We don't brag."
Sure they don't. I have just read a 275 page long eulogy to Spencer and its people.
Try as she might Vicki Myron didn't fool me. Under a heavy sugar coat I could see rotten flesh bubbling with old grudges, grievances and hostilities. I would love to read more about that but I guess it was a no go as the people's real names were used.
The book was really chopped (a bit like my review). There were parts about Dewey, bits about Vicky's life, and the history of the town all thrown in together. They didn't blend very well but I was slightly entertained by some chapters so I am giving it two stars.
Oh yeah, the cat was cute.

Finally. Done with 2/100.

2) Howard Marks - Mr Nice: an autobiography



466 pages
4 stars

My review:
Howard Marks was Britain's most wanted man, apparently. He was one of the world's top drug smugglers. But I missed all that because busy playing toys in communist Poland at the time. And my favourite drug was cough syrup.
So I got to know Howard Marks through Howard Marks' own words. His story was fascinating and the writing was surprisingly good (for an autobiography). He was at the top, he was at the bottom. He has been to the world's most luxury hotels and toughest prisons. He met financial elite, politicians, celebrities, spies, and criminals of all backgrounds and nationalities.
As nice as Marks tried to present himself I couldn't help thinking that he was rather egocentric. In the first part of his autobiography he boasts about his expensive lifestyle and travels. He brags about fooling the system with ease through his well thought out scams. When he gets busted, though, all of a sudden it's "woe is me". We now have to be sorry and symphatize. His arguement is that weed should be legal and no one should be jailed for selling it. I concur. However, if weed was legal Howard Marks would've never been interesting in trading it. It would've been just as boring as his on the side wine business. He was not a rebel with a cause. He just liked the thrill and the money. His final conclusion isn't: 'crime is bad because it is bad' but 'crime is bad because you can go to prison'. Which is why Howard Marks now makes money writing best selling books, being a celebrity or even (according to his website) renting out the apartment where he wrote 'Mr Nice' for only £500 per week per 4 people.
All of us should look and learn. 'Mr Nice' apart from being a very entertaining story is a textbook on how to always land on your feet thanks to being brazen.

As a footnote I would like to mention that even if half of what Marks says about American DEA and its judicial system is true, then the US should start its fight for freedom and democracy on its own yard. But what's new.

January is almost over and I am only on my 3rd book!!! This is bad! Very bad!

3) Ann Packer - Songs Without Words



354 pages
3 stars

My review:
I went from strongly disliking this book to liking it and to eventually becoming indifferent.
It was purposedly plotless and sometimes it worked but others times it didn't. First hundred pages got me wondering - will anything ever happen? As it turned out the first half of the book was building up to the book's only event and rest of it was just the aftermath. It was a very meticulous study of how people come close, fall apart, come close again. I was impressed with certain paragraphs but there were also those that struck me as extremely cheesy and romance novels-like. The descriptions of people's eye and hair colours made me gag a little. The narration was done in the 3rd person but there constant changes of points of view. Some of them executed rather clumsily which made me think: "Oh, we're in his head now?"
It is essentially a story about friendship between two women and how complicated such things can be. However I was more interested in the story that was used as a catalyst. I recommend "Songs Without Words" to anyone who is interested in reading a profound analysis of sadness.