China – DaneCobain.com

Title: Language

Author: Xiaolu Guo

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 108

Rating: 4.5/5

This was fantastic! I wasn’t expecting particularly great things from it for some reason, perhaps because of what I’ve made of the other books in the Vintage Mini Moderns box set, but this was thought provoking and enlightening, offering me a different perspective on the society that I live in.

This bookis basically Guo’s first impressions afterarriving in the UK from communist China,and it’s all written in her vernacular to echo the way that she spoke. I’d recommend giving this a read if you can.

Click here to buyXiaolu Guo.

Ryan Pyle – Tough Rides: Brazil | Review

Title: Tough Rides: Brazil

Author: Ryan Pyle

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 178

Rating: 4*/5

Ryan Pyle – Tough Rides: Brazil

I’ve read one of Ryan Pyle’s books before – The Middle Kingdom Ride, when he rode around China on a motorbike. This one follows the same concept, except he’s driving around Brazil and instead of being accompanied by his brother, he goes solo.

You can pretty much tell what you’re getting here, then. It’s a travel book, a non-fiction ride through the Amazon, and it’s good at what it does. Pyle doesn’t try to be funny – he just tells it like it is, and the book is better because of that. Better still, because Pyle was filming the trip for his TV series, it includes a bunch of photographs from his travels.

Overall then, I’m pretty pleased with this book. I knew what to expect before I started it, and it lived up to my expectations without exceeding them. Pyle’s adventures are fun, but they’re more than that – they’re interesting. You learn about the countries he travels through.