📝 First Impressions Going back to a book I read in 2017 is a strange experience, especially when the original review I wrote at the time is no longer accessible. I remember the overall impression far more clearly than the…
📝 First Impressions I read Însemnările damei de silicon many years ago, but unlike some books whose details have faded almost completely, this one left me with a very clear idea of what it was trying to do. For me,…
📝 First Impressions Some books stay with me because of a particular scene, a character or a twist. Basmania: Răspântia gândurilor stayed with me in a different way: after all these years, I may not remember every detail of the…
📝 First Impressions The title Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil was the first thing that caught my attention. It sounded dark, poetic and mysterious, although I somehow did not expect the novel to be about vampires. Looking back…
📝 First Impressions I read Fahrenheit 451 in 2014, and what stayed with me most was not just the story itself, but how uncomfortable it felt to realise that a book published in 1953 could still describe certain aspects of…
📝 First Impressions I read Rendezvous with Rama back in 2014, so I’m not going to pretend I still remember every technical detail or every stage of the expedition. What I do remember very clearly is the way my reaction…
📝 First Impressions I went into Babel expecting dark academia, and technically that is exactly what it is. We have Oxford, old buildings, brilliant students, obsessive study, ancient languages, libraries, privilege, academic rivalry and all the things that usually come…
📝 First Impressions I have a slightly complicated relationship with Rodica Ojog-Brașoveanu’s books. I absolutely love her crime novels, but her attempts at historical fiction have never worked nearly as well for me. That is why Răzbunarea sluților felt like…
📝 First Impressions I picked up Crăciunul în cele mai frumoase povestiri expecting exactly what the title promised: a collection of beautiful Christmas stories. Something warm, atmospheric, maybe a little nostalgic, the kind of book you can read in December…
📝 First Impressions I read Wyrm for the Nemira reading club, and one of the things I remember most clearly is how much discussion the book generated afterwards. We talked about Orson Scott Card’s recurring fascination with gifted children, about…
