Category: Book Reviews

Pages: 540
Purchased from: Kobo

My second non-fiction of the year and I liked this one even more than the first one. A unique look at how Apple’s company culture slowly morphed after the death of Steve Jobs and what Jony Ive’s role was. It left me feeling a bit sad about the state of Apple now and since I was reading this during the same week as WWDC 2022 happened, I felt a lot of mixed feelings about the stuff that was announced there.

Especially the Continuity Camera which is quite possibly the least Jony Ive thing I’ve seen Apple announce in a while.

Pages: 650
Purchased from: Kobo

It was nice to return to some fantasy set in Middle Eastern mythology after last week’s sci-fi jaunt. I loved the characters in this one, especially the main character Nahri. The complicated dynamics amongst the djinn was also very interesting and I’m sure that plays a major role in the sequel which I have added to my wishlist for a later date.

This book is now the longest I’ve read this year at 650 pages, it mostly doesn’t overstay its welcome despite its length. There is a significant amount of it that is worldbuilding which I didn’t mind since this is the first book in the series. I hope the sequel focuses more on the character dynamics though.

Pages: 319
Purchased from: Kobo

I really like the premise for this book’s sci-fi world but I found the quality of the writing to be uneven. The writing is at its best during the action scenes and at its worst when it comes to describing a character’s inner thoughts and emotions.

The best way to describe the bad writing here is: unsubtle. It is overly descriptive and dare say I bit cringeworthy especially when describing a situation involving romantic love. I don’t have a problem with romance in my sci-fi but this ain’t the way to do it. There is no tension, no buildup, none of the textual yearning that I associate with the best of fictional romances (see week 5’s The Beautiful Ones for a good example of this).

Pages: 452
Purchased from: Kobo

An absolute delight of a fantasy novel with varied and vibrant characters in a unique world. The tension between Nasir and Zafira by itself really makes the book so much fun to read.

And this is the author’s debut book! I really enjoyed this one and I put the sequel in my wishlist.

Pages: 275
Purchased from: Kobo

The first non-fiction book for the packetcat Reads 2022 series! This one was a very interesting look at the development of the iPhone and Apple’s design process during the golden age of Steve Jobs. I especially found the story about the initial development of Safari particularly intriguing.