Jo

Reviews

• A Little Life reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  3/ 103 out of 10

  DNF at p.310, 19 September

  A Little Life

• The Overstory reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  8/ 108 out of 10

  Finished, and I don't finish much. The opening section is eight short stories and it's the best thing I read all last year; the novel that grows out of it is baggier and I forgave it. Eight.

  The Overstory

• Never Let Me Go reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  8/ 108 out of 10

  Finished, then sat in the car a while before going in. Eight. He tells you what it is early on and it doesn't help at all.

  Never Let Me Go

• Ulysses reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  5/ 105 out of 10

  Stopped on Proteus, 14 March

  Ulysses

  1010 readers agree with this review

• The Way of Kings reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  2/ 102 out of 10

  Abandoned p.94, 2 January

  The Way of Kings

• The Goldfinch reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  5/ 105 out of 10

  DNF at p.402

  The Goldfinch

• Braiding Sweetgrass reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  7/ 107 out of 10

  Read over about a year, forty pages at a time, which is the correct dose. Seven. The pecan chapter is the one.

  Braiding Sweetgrass

• The Corrections reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  5/ 105 out of 10

  DNF at p.90, 27 October. Nobody in it likes anybody, and the book appears to want credit for having noticed. Read instead: Stoner, twice in one fortnight, which is not at all like me.

  The Corrections

• Odd Thomas reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  7/ 107 out of 10

  Picked it up in a holiday cottage because there was nothing else in the house, expected to abandon it by lunch, and didn't put it down until it was done. Genuinely surprised. Seven; the tone slips at the end, but he's good company.

  Odd Thomas

• Infinite Jest reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  4/ 104 out of 10

  Abandoned at endnote 110, 6 August. It isn't a con; it's a very clever man with no editor.

  Infinite Jest

• Atomic Habits reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  6/ 106 out of 10

  Finished it, which surprised me. Four ideas and a great deal of restating; the four ideas work. I moved the running shoes to the front door and it worked, so who am I to be clever about it. Six.

  Atomic Habits

• Thinking, Fast and Slow reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  5/ 105 out of 10

  DNF at p.180, 11 May. The findings are interesting and the prose is a committee; I kept reading the same paragraph twice and finding it had not moved. Read instead: the summaries, honestly.

  Thinking, Fast and Slow

• Sapiens reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  3/ 103 out of 10

  DNF at p.211, 4 February

  Sapiens

• Gone Girl reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  6/ 106 out of 10

  Finished in two days; admired the machinery, didn't believe a person in it. Six.

  Gone Girl

• Small Things Like These reviewed by @dnf_diaries

  9/ 109 out of 10

  Finished in one sitting, which I have not done in years

  Small Things Like These