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Garth Coghlan

@WildWoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy

6 followers 0 following 83 posts

I have #mecfs, which gives me lots of time to be an enthusiastic #reader of #books (particularly #sff, #SciFi & #fantasy) for which I do a short #BookReview […] [bridged from reviewdb.app/@WildWoila on the fediverse by fed.brid.gy ]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026

finished reading Children of Ruin 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Another case of interstellar evolutionary uplift, but this time with octopuses. Given their unusual neurology (where each tentacle is somewhat independent of the central nervous system), this makes for a lot of fun chaotic genius […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 19/06/2026

finished reading Familiar Things 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Hwang Sok-Yong. As South Korea undergoes rapid industrialisation, the marginalised are left to survive as modern-day gleaners by (literally) sorting through the mountains of trash produced by consumer society. Also lost in the rush of 'prosperity' are […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 02/06/2026

finished reading Babel by RF Kuang. Set in a world very similar to our early 19th century, except a sort of powerful magic has been harnessed via the pairing of silver and linguistic translation. The concentration of power this gives the English is used as a devastating metaphor for the actual […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 19/05/2026

wrote a review of Wifedom The infrastructure provided by women is kept invisible 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

The infrastructure provided by women is kept invisible (Wifedom)

Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 19/05/2026

finished reading Wifedom 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 by Anna Funder. Biography of George Orwell's impressive wife, Eileen, and how he and his biographers erased her contribution from history. Masterfully shows how the infrastructure provided by women is kept invisible. The fictionalised sections made me […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 15/05/2026

finished reading Where the Dark Stands Still 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by AB Poranek. A girl enters a spirit wood to rid herself of her magic, but instead finds power, purpose & love. Based on Polish fairytales, so reminiscent of Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale. Fairly simple YA story with one plot […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 24/04/2026

finished reading Enter the Aardvark 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Jessica Anthony. Two parallel stories connected across time by, of all things, a taxidermied aardvark. The ""Not Gay"" congressman is amusing in his superficiality and Reagan-esque pretensions. The Victorian-era taxidermist (also ""not gay"") is […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 21/04/2026

finished reading The Princess and the Goblin 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 A *very* early kids fantasy story (1872!) where a primodial race of humans living underground has evolved into brutish goblins who enjoy nothing more than to cause havoc. Plenty of classic tropes: working-class boy, brave princess, fairy […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 13/04/2026

finished reading Things I Don't Want to Know 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Deborah Levy. A brief memoir delving into feminism, identity and what it means to be a writer. Very much in the spirit of A Room Of One's Own, and of similar calibre. #BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #Autobiography #Feminism @WildWoila […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 09/04/2026

finished reading The Windup Girl 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 by Paolo Bacigalupi. In a dystopian future, Thailand has maintained independence despite rampant genetically-modified diseases destroying both humans & crops and fossil fuels becoming near unattainable. Western capitalists connive to inflame internal […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 07/04/2026

finished reading Foreign Soil 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Maxine Beneba Clarke. Short stories about being coloured in a white world. Hard-hitting, often left hanging without resolution, just the discomfort of injustice. #BookReview #Books #Bookstodon @WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 04/04/2026

finished reading Anne of Windy Willows 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by LM Montgomery. Now a respectable and well-behaved adult (but still with her whimsy), Anne spends three years as school principle away from her one true love Gilbert Blythe, keeping him updated via regular letters on the madcap happenings of her […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 04/02/2026

started listening - The Secret Garden (Complete audiobook with rain) - Down To Sleep by Frances Hodgson Burnett. 2 stars. [re-read] Illness is all in your head which can be overcome through fresh air & mental fortitude. Fuck that shit ... Surprised it didn't trigger me on my first read (4 […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 03/02/2026

finished reading The Hobbit 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by JRR Tolkien. [re-read] The dwarves are dead weight - it's all Bilbo and Gandalf. Gollum really gets a raw deal in the riddle game. #BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #SleepStory @WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 30/01/2026

finished reading The Veiled Throne 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Ken Liu. A silkpunk epic full of far-fetched but fun battles - of both the naval and MasterChef kind! A refreshing change from the usual fantasy fare, although rather too long & detailed. Explores the mess of identity, culture & colonisation […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 29/01/2026

finished reading Sula 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 by Toni Morrison. Tracks a black community from the 1920s onwards, focusing on two women who choose to live life on their own terms. A lot of eccentric characters and matter-of-factly told traumatic events, with a sardonic reflection on life at the bottom of the […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 28/01/2026

finished reading Limberlost 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Robbie Arnott. With his elder brothers away at war, a teenage boy attempts to fill the uncertain hole of their incommunicado absence by restoring a decrepit sailboat. In it he finds freedom and love for his surroundings. And there's a quoll and a crazy whale […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 27/01/2026

finished reading My Cat Yugoslavia 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by Pajtim Statovci. Interleaves the story of a young Albanian refugee in Finland, excluded & traumatised, with that of his mother's wedding & her hopes for a future filled with love. The symbolism of the cats & snakes is a bit weird but I think I finally […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 21/01/2026

finished reading Just One Damned Thing After Another 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by Jodi Taylor. A shameless rip-off of Connie Willis' time travelling historian concept, but with much more chaotic excitement. A bit too much, perhaps, and not enough historic immersion. Don't think too hard, just enjoy the ride […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 20/01/2026

finished reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Gabrielle Zevin. Two friends become productive creative partners in computer game design, but their emotional blocks cause regular estrangements (gets a bit frustrating - grow up already!). I enjoyed the nostalgia of old-school […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 18/01/2026

finished reading Becoming Mrs Mulberry 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Jackie French. In the aftermath of WW1, a woman strives to build a new life despite the sacrifices she has made. Eventful & enjoyable, if implausible, with an excellent cast of characters and strong Miss Fisher vibes. #BookReview #Books […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 16/01/2026

finished reading I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Ed Yong. Delves into the many varied & amazing ways humans & animals have evolved to depend upon microbes. Most of this was familiar to me already, though told in the author's excellent clear & […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 13/01/2026

finished reading The Strangest Criminals: A Funny and Heartwarming Cosy Fantasy Mystery About Crime, Magic, and Found Family 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 by Blake Polden. In a world where the Occult lives along side the Ordinary, a magical mafia family turns bad. Has potential, with some fresh creativity, but the […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 11/01/2026

finished reading Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 by Eric Posner & Glen Weyl. Proposes a number of dramatic reforms to foundational institutions: including property, voting & migration. A perennial auction of property would result in shared public […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 09/01/2026

finished reading To Be Taught, If Fortunate 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Becky Chambers. A small crew of scientists leave Earth, and their time period, forever to explore life on distant planets. But what will they do when Earth goes silent? An ode to science, discovery and the inherent worth of knowledge. The […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 08/01/2026

finished reading A Room of One’s Own 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 by Virginia Woolf. A classic that is actually good! An essay on women & fiction (thus, feminism) that rambles along in a relaxed fashion without losing any of its coherency or piercing insight. And damn she can write. Sadly still relevant, nearly 100 […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 07/01/2026

finished reading Once There Were Wolves 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Charlotte McConaghy. An attempt to reintroduce wolves to the Scottish Highlands faces strong pushback from the locals. In wilderness we fear monsters, but perhaps the true monsters are within. A thoroughly enjoyable thriller featuring the deep […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 06/01/2026

finished reading The Lebs 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. A deeply uncomfortable portrayal of Lebanese teenage boys in western Sydney as dumb, racist, misogynistic, sex-obsessed fundamentalists. The last third was more interesting, as the protagonist struggles with the foreignness & ugliness […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 04/01/2026

finished reading The Shadow of the Wind 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. A rare book sets a teenage boy on a path of mystery, love & revenge. This was nearly great, with an intriguing setup, smooth prose, vibrant characters and an evocative sense of time & place (mid-century Barcelona). But it ran […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 03/01/2026

finished reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. In a particular seat in an otherwise unremarkable cafe, it is possible to travel through time. Despite stringent limitations, the customers and workers nonetheless find solace from the travails of life. Its a pleasing […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 29/12/2025

finished reading Blackout 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by Connie Willis. The Oxford time travellers are back, back to the London Blitz in WW2. But they are having trouble returning home, and getting caught up in all sorts of trouble in the meantime. Slow moving and overly detailed, but the near slapstick humour saves […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 18/12/2025

finished reading We Are the Stars 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 by Gina Chick. That wild woman who captivated us on Alone Australia is the product of genes, a generous upbringing, and intense tempering in the crucible of life. A remarkable range of life experience, and an impressive capacity to learn & evolve from […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 13/12/2025

finished reading Contact 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Carl Sagan. A message from outer space is detected, and humanity sets about decoding it, then attempts to make contact with the originators. Delves into the nexus of science & religion, the complexity of international collaboration, and the social upheaval of […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 09/12/2025

finished reading Wind and Truth 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Brandon Sanderson. An absolute brick of a book - possibly the longest I've ever read. Could certainly have been shorter (successful authors get way too much latitude), with too frequent changes in PoV, and while I appreciate his use of mental health to […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 26/11/2025

finished reading Prophet Song 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗 by Paul Lynch. A horrifying realistic account of an everyday Western country being gradually consumed by an authoritarian regime. Every moment of encroaching terror is disturbingly relatable. Writing style felt like a monotone ramble, which masked its […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 24/11/2025

finished reading The World We Make 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by NK Jemisin. New York finishes the job against the Multiverse, despite the conservative reticence of the Old Cities. Clunkier and without the freshness of the original. But fun to see more city avatars. I think Mamdani could easily be a character in […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 17/11/2025

finished reading The Scar 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by China Mieville. An exuberant, barely believeable steampunk world with cactus & mosquito people, underwater & floating cities, and mysterious powers. Very very long, and rather too serious. #BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #SFF @WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgli

Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 14/11/2025

finished reading Bookshops & Bonedust 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Travis Baldree. A worthy prequel to Legends & Lattes. New friends come together to reinvigorate a bookshop, with a couple of baddies dealt with along the way. Loved Satchel the animated skeleton. Moist! #BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #SFF #Fantasy […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 12/11/2025

finished reading Playground 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Richard Powers. The glorious wonder of the ocean, the fraught love of competitive friends, our tangled dependence on both extraction & love of the natural world, the tempting appeal of AI. Felt like there was too much to wrap up in so short a space, but he […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 11/11/2025

finished reading The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by David Spiegelhalter. A fairly readable overview of probability & uncertainty, from the straightforward games of chance through to the deep uncertainty of future risks such as climate change & AI […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 01/11/2025

finished reading A Court of Thorns and Roses 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 by Sarah Maas. My first foray into #romantasy. The plot is so-so (humans vs faeries, love & intrigue) but finishes strongly. The romance is weak - it's never clear why she loves the faerie lord, except for his sexy man-beastiness. Hopefully […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 28/10/2025

finished reading The Cruel Stars 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by John Birmingham. Action space opera that doesn't take itself too seriously. Humanity has become a diverse species dangerously dependent on digital & genomic enhancement - a zealous puritan strain plans to change that. A few too many characters to begin […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 24/10/2025

finished reading The Help 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Kathryn Stockett. In 1960s Mississippi, white women and the black maids they employ navigate the upheaval of the civil rights movement. The contrast of ingrained racism and the deep emotional integration of black women into white family life is astounding […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 22/10/2025

finished reading Skyward Flight: The Collection: Sunreach / ReDawn / Evershore 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑 by Brandon Sanderson & Janci Patterson. While the hero of the series is lost in the Nowhere, her fellow pilots get on with being awesome and taking the fight to the oppressors. Decent YA fare with lots of […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 20/10/2025

finished reading Slade House 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by David Mitchell. Every nine years, people disappear into a house which otherwise can't be found. The author's usual layering of stories across different time periods gradually reveals the truth, though it's not particularly clever this time around. Dark arts […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2025

finished reading Comes the Night 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 by Isabelle Carmody. YA dystopian set in Canberra! In a polluted world, cities have been enclosed in domes and pervasive tech & propaganda keep the population in line. A teenage boy gets entangled in mysterious intrigue, and soon starts to wonder if his […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2025

finished reading The Mars House 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Natasha Pulley. A sci-fi romance set on Mars, where recent refugees from climate-riven Earth are so strong in the low gravity that they are a mortal accidental risk to Martians. Excellent premise, and the contradictory reactions of the protagonist feel […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2025

finished reading The Season 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 by Helen Garner. The author shadows her grandson's under-16 Aussie Rules team for a season. A glimpse from the boundary line of boys on the cusp on manhood, the solidarity of teammates, the strange spiritual appeal of sport. Wonderfully written & absorbing, but […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2025

finished reading Watership Down 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 by Richard Adams. The trials & adventures of rabbits setting up a new warren: strange cultures, claw-biting escapades and the terror of war. Similar to Wind in the Willows but the anthropomorphism is weaker and the characters less vibrant. It's just as […]

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Garth Coghlan @wildwoila.reviewdb.app.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2025

finished reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 by Robert Louis Stevenson. When our baser urges are allowed to run free, they end up dominating. Disturbing, even if the 'science' is a bit amusing […]

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