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I know life is hard, I think everyone knows that in their hearts, but why dos it have to be cruel, as well? Why does it have to bite?

This is very much not a normal Stephen King book, but at the same time it is. It’s both mysterious and familiar. It’s full of little things to make you stop and think about your days and how they impact the future.What would you do if you could travel back in time and actually change things? Well as it turns out our hero-to-be is pushed to save JFK from being shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. But the past pushes back and does not want to be changed and throws things at him. Not to mention butterfly effect being in full swing.It’s not just about JFK assassination, it paints a beautiful picture of the past - post-war America full of hope, sexism, racism, cigarettes and milk in glass bottles. Not all good, not all bad - but as past tends to be - somewhat twisted. Imagine throwing a person from 2011 into this past. Seeing him deal with all of that was the fun part.I have mixed feelings about the ending (hence 4/5). Or perhaps not the ending itself which I liked, but the mysterious and unexplained butterfly effects on the scale that are hard to explain. But then again, time travel is not something that’s meant to be easy to explain so perhaps that’s OK.

Nikoros came away from the meeting having learned several new words, as well as some novel hyphenations of familiar ones, and a fascinating twist to the art of negotiation that his education had previously neglected

Oh boy, was my review of previous Gentlemen Bastards book Red Seas Under Red Skies an unknown premonition. The mages reappear and what a fun adventure they create for our heroes.What more fun could there be than to try and fix an election for sport under watchful eyes of mages of Karthain (and with their blessing). Once again the book is really two stories - one happening “now” and the other one during Locke’s childhood - providing more background and insight into characters and their motivations. Politics and theater were never so fun before.How can you steal an election if everybody cheats and (almost) everything goes? Blackmail, subterfuge, thieving and other skulldaggery. And oh what joy it is to read the banter between Locke & Sabetha and learn about their past in the theatre troupe.Scott Lynch always seems to strike a great balance between providing enough interesting information and background, while not overwhelming. I didn’t realize how much history he held back in the previous books and it did not even bother me - he doles out history and context as needed and it’s masterfully done.This might have been my favourite Gentlemen Bastards book yet. Looking forward to the next ones.

When you can’t cheat the game, you’d best find a means to cheat the players.

This has been a fun continuation of style set in the original Gentlemen Bastards (The Lies of Locke Lamora). It repeats much the same recipe - glorious (mis)adventures, schemes that are several layers deep and mixture of luck and misfortune in equal measure.There has been a little less back-and-forth through the timelines compared with the first book since the characters were all set, however there was still some of that to set up “the game”. The sailing parts are actually pretty fun, even for a landlubber like me. Maybe I won’t even confuse lardboard and starboard from now on.One thing I missed was a really good antagonist. Archon somehow didn’t cut it as a proper villain/anti-hero for me. Just a general aiming to keep and expand his power. The mages are still pulling the strings to some degree so hopefully we can still see them suffer in some later book.

I've got kids that enjoy stealing. I've got kids that don't think about stealing one way or the
other, and I've got kids that just tolerate stealing because they know they've got nothing else to
do. But nobody--and I mean nobody--has ever been hungry for it like this boy. If he had a bloody
gash across his throat and a physiker was trying to sew it up, Lamora would steal the needle and
thread and die laughing. He...steals too much.

This has been one magnificent introduction of a new fantasy series. It is a bit of a "con game" setin fantasy land. By far the most enjoyable read I've had lately. Pace is just right, there's alwaysthings going on and it does not get overwhelming. Characters are built in jumps that give themenough background without lingering too much in the past. And what characters they are...One thought that came up again and again as I read the book - this was probably the first book whereI very much enjoyed little time-jumps forward-backward. They were done well, the past events settingup the "current time" events and explaining how/why. It did not feel forced and it was notconfusing. This in itself is an achievement based on my past experience with such attempts.In addition there are little overlapping storylines that are described from multipleperspectives. They are short enough to not cause boredom due to repetition and always add somethingnew. But they provide a fun little avenue to let you guess what really happened before it getsproperly explained. I loved that. After all - half the fun of reading a "con game" book is figuringout how you'd do it.Looking forward to next books in the series.

The politically incorrect advice I would (of course never) give is this: go to the pub for a drink
in the morning.

This books is a revelation. It describes in a vivid way what happens when we don't get enough sleep(it's worse than I imagined in my wildest dreams). Lack of sleep disrupts learning, memoryformation, compromises immune system and contributes to various ailments. It even diminishesvaccination efficacy which should have been something that I would have been useful for vaccinationplanning for Covid-19 I would hope. And it does not take much to reach the "lack of sleep" stage.We as human society have completely self-sabotaged our ability to sleep properly. Lighting(especially LED), early morning work and school schedules, keeping our bedrooms too warm andmore...I will note that while Mr. Walker does often point out unfinished or unclear science it's not alwaysclear. Certainly take some things with a grain of salt and careful scepticism. But even if only halfof the things is true, I'd want to sleep properly to avoid the damage. What's the downside?Congratulations Mr. Walker, you have a convert for your sleep revolution. I will look for ways tomake my sleep better going forward.

I do not generally read this type of stories so it took me longer than
usual to get through it.

An interesting mystery book nicely weaving between different times and
occasionally connecting different points in time. Interestingly enough
the whole point of the story is more about a house, rather than people
or any specific adventure. There are bits and pieces of people and
adventures but they seem unimportant and often disconnected from each
other. Perhaps the largest storyline focuses on a big blue diamond
that disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

I have generally enjoyed parts of the story happening in the past much
more than the present timeline. All the thieving and Victorian England
life seems more interesting than how much a current-day woman does not
want to marry her fiancé.

On the other hand Kate Morton really does have a great way with words
when descibing nature and environments, making it really easy to
picture places in my mind. Perhaps in a time like this when we are all
bound to stay home a bit of travelling in my mind is what I need.

And I definitely wanted to know more about (at least some of) the
characters. It's a shame I didn't get there through this book however.

It struck her now that maybe she needed to let go a bit more often. To
try and, yes, occasionally to fail. To accept that life is messy and
sometimes mistakes are made; that sometimes they’re not even really
mistakes, because life isn’t linear, and it comprises countless small
and large decisions every day.