The rating system is as follows:
- Read it so long ago I can't rate it now until I do a re-read.
- Don't bother reading this one. It was not worth the time.
- Probably not worth the bother, but if you like this author, you may want to
read it.
- A good read. You may or may not enjoy it, but I liked it.
- I recommend this book. I enjoyed it, and feel that others will too.
- Among my favorites of all time. I heartily recommend this book to any and all.
(unless otherwise noted in the paragraph)
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And this little symbol next to a book means that at some point in time it was
BANNED by someone, somewhere!! Click on the symbol to find out who banned or
challenged it when.
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And this little symbol means that there are more of my notes on the book on
another page. Interesting tid-bits I learned about the book, or from the book,
or around the book, that I found made the thing more interesting to read. You
might like to know some of these facts as well.
- This means I've seen the movie version of this book as well. It is also a link
to the IMDB description of the movie.
The links provided will lead you to Wikipedia for more information on the author, or the particular book. If you want to see what other people thought - click on the Amazon link and read the reviews.
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Called the archetypical African novel, this book is very easy to read, and, though the prose are simple and direct, the story will swing you up and down emotionally. In the end, you are ashamed to be a white person. It follows the life of Okonkwo, from a boy with a father he is not proud of, to a proud member of his tribe with three wives. Okonkwo has a good handle on life, and how he will rise to be an important member of his tribe. He is half way there when… well.. things fall apart. He struggles, using everything he has learned, but as the world changes (and not really for the better) all his learning and knowledge does him no good. He watches as his world does fall apart. This is an excellent read. |
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The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide A book with 5 novels and a short story... Containing:
This compendium of all the Hitchhiker stories is well worth the time. Douglas Adam's is consistently witty - though inconsistent in plot and pacing. If you like Pratchett or Fforde - You will like Adams. |
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The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul Okay, you probably already know this but Douglas Adams is a lunatic, and it comes out in his books. This, like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is another of his lunatic creations, but less well known. All I distinctly recall is the mystery of the couch in the stair case. How it managed to get stuck there and how they were going to get it out. When it is revealed how it first got stuck, you almost miss it, but if you catch it, you will roll over laughing. (The couch has nothing to do with the main story.. it's just something the characters remark on as they have to keep passing it in the apartment stairs.) |
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This book was a hit when I was younger, but I just couldn't bring myself to read a book wherein all the characters are rabbits. I thought it would be stupid. I was wrong. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters are different and interesting. You get into the lives and cares of the rabbits and start to worry about how things are going to turn out for them. Believe it or not, this is an adventure book with battles and intrigue, plots and action. Plenty to hold the interest of a young (or, like me old) reader. |
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Another book about a young girl growing up poor in the south (eg. Ellen Foster). I really enjoyed this book because it brought to mind many scenes from my own youth when we used to visit family in North Carolina. Now, my family was not abusive or exceedingly poor... but the flavor of the time is so present in this book it took me back so perfectly. I readily recommend this book for anyone who grew up in the south, or wants to taste what it was like to do so. |
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Jim Dixon is a not-very-qualified-nor-interested lecturer in History at some non-descript University outside London. He doesn’t much like his mentor, but sucks up because he sees no future for himself other than gaining a full time position at the University. He amuses himself (and you the reader) with an inner dialog that runs counter to his exterior ways. Then, one day, it all starts to fall apart. And it falls apart so spectacularly that even as you cringe, you enjoy the ride to the bottom. Ahh, but the bottom isn’t what is seems for a man who really needed a change, and things might work out better for LUCKY Jim once everything he “values” (for the wrong reasons) is gone and new hope dawns. In the end you are cheering him along as he destroys his life with one amusing blunder after another. I enjoyed this book. I am not recommending it to everyone. It’s a style of British novel that presages the dry humor of Have You Been Served or Mr. Bean or Monty Python (The dry stuff.. not the slapstick). It takes a while before you start to care for the character – after all, even he knows he is settling for a life he is not interested in. But once you warm up to him, you find yourself rooting for him, even as he self destructs. Remember, there is a reason its called LUCKY Jim, because, in the end, he is the luckiest of men. |
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This is not really a novel, but a series of short stories that revolve around the people of a small town in Ohio. Each story tries to discover a "truth" about that person...and there are many truths to be discovered. The writing is a little inconsistent from story to story, but compelling all the same. One person is fascinating. Another is repugnant. Another seems lost. Another discovers false wisdom. All of them are still interesting. Not sure how to recommend this book. I enjoyed it, but it's in a niche all it's own. |
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If you enjoyed 1984 or Brave New World then this will be right up your alley. A vision of a terrible future in which women have become infertile, and those that are fertile are forced to become "handmaids" - referencing the bible story where a handmaid is given to the husband to bear a child. It's a pretty chilling little environment with the wives hating the handmaids, and the husbands secretly desiring them. And it's revealed to be a hypocritical society too, with sex available freely to those in the upper stratum while morality is preached to everyone else. Though they preach morality... they are completely morally bankrupt. And the end is a complete shock.. |
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This was truly a strange book. At first you are reading the biography of two sisters told in flash back after the death of the younger sister. Suddenly you are in a hotel room with an unknown man and woman who, together, make up a fantasy tale about a fictitious middle east kingdom in which a guild of blind assassins work while the city is attacked by barbarians. Next you are in the past living the life of the older sister from age 8 until she is quite elderly. The book switches from past to "present" to fantasy so fast that at time you feel whipsawed about. About half way through things get really interesting.. It's obvious that the "unknown" woman in the hotel room is one of the sisters, but which one. Trust me, the final solution is completely satisfying. At the end of the book, all the strings are tied together and you find yourself grinning because the "blind assassin" really wins in the end. Difficult to start... takes a while to get going.. really satisfying once you get to the end. This one is worth the time. |
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After seeing the movie with Kira Knightley I wanted to read the book to see how well the characters were represented by the movie. I loved the movie, and I loved this book. The characters in the book were perfectly played in the movie. What I loved MOST about the book was its glimpse into how life was lived at the time of the novel. How people entertained themselves before mass entertainments took hold. The character of Mr. Bennet (Lizzie’s father) is just as Donald Sutherland played him in the movie. So to was the character of Mr. Darcy (played by Mathew McFayden – who was also fantastic in Death At A Funeral). I would recommend this book to anyone with even a slight interest in this time in history, or romance in general.
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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies What a total hoot !!!! There are only 2 reasons to read this book. 1) You loved Pride and Prejudice, and have enough of a twisted sense of humor to see what the addition of a plague of zombies would do to the story or 2) You would like to read Pride and Prejudice, but can’t bring yourself to just read a Victorian romance and need something a little spicier to get you take the jump. If either of these reasons sounds like you, then carry forth, dear reader. You will not be disappointed. The entire plot of the original Pride and Prejudice is here… all the characters being exactly as they are in the original… with the addition that the Bennet sisters are now highly skilled killers and capable of handling hoards of attacking zombies should the need arise. This is, exactly as the title implies, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and zombies. Here is a little for instance (that will also sound familiar if you saw the film version with Kera Knightley) From the original book: (Scene – Elizabeth talking to Lady Catherine) "My mother would have had no objection, but my father hates London" "Has your governess left you? " "We never had any governess’." "No governess! How is that possible? Five daughters brought up at home without a governess! I never heard of such a thing. Your mother must have been quite a slave to your education." Elizabeth could hardly help smiling as she assured her that that had not been the case. "Then who taught you? Who attended to you? Without a governess he must've been neglected." "Compare with some families, I believe we were; but such of us as wish to learn, never wanted the means. We were always encouraged to read, and had all the masters that were necessary. Those who chose to be idle, certainly might" "If I had known your mother, I should advise your most rigorously to engage one. I always say that nothing is to be done in education without steady and regular instruction and nobody but a governess can get it." (And now, the same scene from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) "My mother would've had no objection, but my father hates Japan." "Have your ninjas left you?" "We never had any ninjas." "No ninjas! How is that possible? Five daughters brought up at home without any ninjas! I never heard such a thing. Your mother must have been quite a slave to your safety." Elizabeth could hardly help smiling as she assured her that had not been the case. "Then, who protected you when you saw your first combat? Without ninjas, he must've been quite a sorry spectacle indeed." "Compared with some families, I believe we were; but such was our desire to prevail, and our affection for each other, we had no trouble vanquishing even our earliest opponents." "If I had known your mother, I should have advised her most strenuously to engage a team of ninjas. I always say that nothing is to be done in education without steady and regular instruction." |
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This book (so it is said) is very auto-biographical. If that is the case then James Baldwin faced tough times as a youth with an abusive father who was also a preacher with very fundamental Christian religious views. No one could live up to his expectations, mostly because he suffered from his own secret sins. Or so he thought they were secret. An interesting look into the world of black fundamentalism in the 1930's this book explores religion, sin, self-loathing, racism and family relationships and abuse. It may or may not be an easy read, depending on your views on religion. But in any case, it is something one should read if one wants to explore religion and race in American history. |
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Okay, I hate to say it, but the movie is 100 times better than the book. The plot hangs together so much more logically and makes so much more sense than the book. The book starts with the cyclone, and ends with Dorothy landing in Kansas - not even being re-united with Auntie Em !!! How lame is that. Also, the wizard fulfilled the wishes of the characters in a completely different way than the movie. The movie made more sense. The feeling was there - in that the wizard told each of them they didn't need what they were missing because they already had it... but the characters insisted that he "do something" physical to prove to themselves that they had what they came for. So he did. The book DID have some interesting things in it - for example: the TIN MAN was a real man once who accidentally chopped off all his parts and had them replaced because he loved a girl and his ax was cursed. The coming to life of the scare crow was amusing too. All in all ... see the movie. |
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Manifold: Time Manifold: Space Another hard science novel.. and boy does this one get strange at times. One of the theories presented in the novel is pretty depressing. So it the other. Once you get the point you have to wonder if Baxter isn't onto something. Basically this book, like the first in this series deals with Fermi's Paradox which basically says, if there is other life in the universe, the odds that they are not already here is astronomical... so where are they. He deals with expanding civilizations and how they would take over the galaxy... wave after wave of warring destructive civilizations.. expanding using CURRENT technology.. no big reach into fantasy science. Basically, as a civilization expands due to population pressure, it will wipe out any lesser civilization in its way - that being us. The other theory he offers (and right at the end of the book) explains why we have yet to see this happen - and talk about depressing - spin a couple of neutron stars at the center of the galaxy in unstable orbits... when they collide the pulse of gamma rays release pretty much wipes out all the life in the galaxy... problem solved.. everyone dead. So the question becomes... what do you do about both these problems you think you can handle this long deep book with some of the oddest twists and turns I have ever seen (like how to get along with Neanderthal's who happen to be living on Jupiter's Moon IO) well.. this might be for you. I liked it, though I think it could have been a tad more direct. Oh.. and if you read the first book MANIFOLD: TIME - well.. he uses the same characters over again. Not sure what is up with that, but I think the work MANIFOLD is a hint... lol - the exact same characters. Manifold: Origin Weird weird weird!!! In all 3 of the Manifold books, Baxter explores the Fermi Paradox. If you don’t know what that is, then wiki it. The most basic explanation is that, given the age of the galaxy, any civilization that didn’t manage to destroy itself should have expanded to occupy the entire galaxy by no. No faster than light travel needed. So the Fermi Paradox simply says, “Where are they?” There are plenty of reasons we might not see them; and most of those reasons are extremely frightening. Most of them involve conclusions that don’t bode well for the future of our race. Of the 3 books Baxter has written, this one is, for various reasons, the most disturbing. It takes place on a moon that has all the various human hominid ancestors living at the same time. How they live and interact is the most disturbing aspect of this book (ex. One group attacks another as food and there is a graphic description of an infant being torn apart while still alive and eaten.) I would only recommend this book to someone who enjoyed the first 2 in this series (Manifold: Time & Manifold: Space). To everyone else. Stay away!!! |
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This is a farce written in 1911 and set in Oxford. And it's funny. Not laugh out loud funny (well, not too much laugh out loud.. a snicker here and there), but you can tell the author was writing camp. What I find really amusing is how 90 years later, another author, Jasper Fforde, would be writting similar camp... one mechanism hit me as odd, and I have to believe that the later author read the former. In Fforde's The Fourth Bear, 2 characters are babbling a load of nonsense, when one turns to the other and says, "That's a long way to go for a bad joke." To which the other replies, "Yes. I don't know how he gets away with it." - Thus the author refers to himself in the book (and not to kindly). Beerbohm does the same in a minor scene when he says that the main character, Zuleika, got some of her mannerisms of speaking after having had lunch with Max Beerbohm. He insinuates himself into his own book. The only other author I know of who has done that was Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five where a G.I. is having a bad time in an out house at which point Vonnegut states, "That was me. That was I. That was the author of this book." Anyway.. if you like Jasper Fforde... and don't mind something a little more dry and drool.. a little more highbrow, but just as insane (the entire class of Oxford commits suicide over the love of a woman, while the Gods watch, and the marble statues comment).. then you will probably enjoy this one too. |
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The Island Another thriller by the author of JAWS. This time a society of pirates is still living the life on an isolated island, and making things miserable for a family that comes within their reach. Not a bad read, but not great. |
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Okay, having read HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR, I can tell you that this is a quest novel with vampire characters. What does that mean... It means that the characters are on a journey - in this case through parts of the Sahara desert. And vampire characters are characters who suck the life out of another character, using them up over time (not like actual vampires sucking blood - think "users"). The book follows 3 people who journey through post WWII Northern Africa in search of... well, what is not really clear. They all seem to want to find the meaning of the desert, but are wrapped up in various self worries that they fail to reach this goal. When the married couple, Paul and Kit, become separated from their traveling companion (on purpose), it becomes clear that Paul is the vampire character, and with only Kit left to "feed" on, he starts to unhinge her mind. He eventually sickens and dies, but by this time Kit is so lost that she is captured by desert native and made part of his harem. When she escapes this and is "re-captured" by the civilized world she has no sanity left - and retreats back to the wandering nomad she has become. There, I treated it like literature. As far as a read goes - it is mildly interesting in it's description of North Africa at this time in history (Paul Bowles grew up there). Beyond that the characters are not quite quirky enough to hold your interest, other than to wonder why they seem bent on destroying themselves. Its obvious that the author loves the country, and his descriptions are wonderful. I would only recommend this book to someone who had plenty of time, and an inclination to try and find out what it all means. Good luck. |
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A short but powerful book about censorship and desperation. I've read plenty of Bradbury in the context of Science Fiction, but I think this is the best book of his I have ever read. The edition I read contains an after word by Bradbury talking about what has happened to the novel in the years since it was first published - how, in fact, a book about strict censorship has itself been slowly censored over the years, and how requests have been made for him to revise it to cope with various people's offended feelings. Unbelievable!!! (NOTE: The amazon edition on the side is not the edition with the epilogue by Bradbury - as soon as I find that I will change the link. I recommend this to everyone for it's dystopian view of the future, and one man's look into his sudden dissatisfaction with his world. If we all don't feel that way once in life, I don't know what makes us more human. |
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Not as good at The DaVinci Code but still a fine thriller using artistic and architectural landmarks to move the plot along. If you enjoyed The DaVinci Code, you will like this one. |
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The premise is far fetched, but the plot moves along nicely. There are some twists and turns in the government conspiracy that are surprising. But still the premise is so far fetched that you it's really a stretch. A so-so thriller. |
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I would not recommend this to anyone who knows anything about computers. But to those who don’t, again, this is a so-so thriller. If you don't know how computers really work, then I imagine this could be a pretty exciting book. |
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I really enjoyed this book. Not so much because of the hype, but because I have followed the Grail story for much of my life, and this presents a nice rendering of a modern Grail quest. And a thriller to boot. It reminded me of when I read Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. If you liked this book you will like that one as well. More of the Grail mythology is woven into that book than this one, but this one is the easier read. |
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The Lost Symbol Not as good as DaVinci Code or Angels and Demons, but better than some of his other stuff, this would make a fun book to read and then carry around Washington. Like his other books all the landmarks are real, all the artwork and architecture he lists are real things that you can check out while in town. Some of it makes you wonder what people were thinking when they put that stuff up (like the painting on the Capitol Dome - Seriously.. George Washington becoming a god. This is a really fun romp around the nations capitol weaving a cool story together from some of the odd ball things you can find there, but the end is... less than satisfying. If you liked the others you will enjoy this one. |
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Necropath A psychic who has the ability to read a dying mind. Ugh.. the ability has made him reclusive and has driven him to run from the government organization that gave him the ability. Working as a sort of psychic customers officer at a space port he uncovers a plot by an alien race to murder people under the guise of a religious cult. This book meanders, but is not bad. A pretty good SciFi read. I plan on picking up some others in this series to see how they go. |
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Orphanage Orphan's Destiny Orphan's Journey What a great set of books. Plenty of people would call these science fiction. I would categorize them as military. There is plenty of military history to be had in here, if you're paying attention. In particular these books are about the burden's of command. It's about a man (a kid really) in the very near future who ends up in a futile war against an al alien invader, and ends up spending his whole life... and the lives of others, fighting them. It talks about why soldiers really fight - which hasn't changed since the Greeks fought the Persians. Its not about God, or country or ideology. Its about the guy next to you in line. Anyone who doesn't believe that only has to watch a few video's from trops in Iraq to realize its an eternal fact of war. If you liked Heinlein's STARSHIP TROOPER - and the ideas it explored. You will like this series of books. If you loved Joe Haldeman's FOREVER WAR - then these will knock your socks off. |
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When published in the U.S. they left off the last chapter. Chapter 21 – 21 being symbolic of maturity where the character ALEX finally “grows up”. The implication of the movie, and the book without this chapter, is completely different than it is with this chapter. The book is much more horrifying that the movie, in that the ages of the victims and the criminals is so much younger than represented on screen. (For example, the girl in the rape scene in the movie was an adult, while in the book she was twelve.) The cruelty is more pronounced. (I remember hearing a story that Stanley Kubrick expected people to be horrified when they saw A Clockwork Orange in the movies - and was surprised to find that people were not shocked at all. Course I think Sam Peckinpah was really getting started at this time too. Given that lions eating Christians used to be entertainment, I don't think we can ever underestimate the human capacity for violence.) And yes, it takes a while to get through the special vocabulary of Alex and his droogs, but after a while you begin to swing with it, and your brain takes in what is being said quiet readily. This was an interesting attempt at a new slang language and worth reading for that, and the moral dilemma it poses. |
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Gibberish. That's the kindest word I can use for this book. From page 1 to page 130 (where I gave up on it) this book is pure crap. Why does the fall of self destructive people make such great literature. This entire book is a series (which can be read in any order according to the author) of drug induced hallucinations culminating in NOTHING. There is no point. There is no story. There is gibberish. Under the Volcano & Appointment in Samarra are better books to read if you want to watch someone self destruct. But this book is crap. I would't wish this on my worst enemy I'm going to go to google image search and see if I can find a new symbol for this book... because I don't even want to give it one start. |
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Oh lord, what a painful book to read. Not painful in that it was difficult, no, this is a very easy to read book - you can finish it in one day. No, it's painful in the manner of Steinbeck, but not quite. In Steinbeck the characters are very human and you can identify with them such that, when tragedy hits them, you are just punched in the gut by it. In Tobacco Road, the characters are so flawed, so ignorant, so de-humanized, that it's just painful from start to finish to read what they do to themselves. You keep thinking, no one could be this ignorant; and yet, in the back of your head there is that bothersome thought that Caldwell is not making any of this up. That these are real people. That they are living in real circumstances. And that bothersome little thought comes charging to the fore every now and then as you read - and you want to vomit. My GOD, humanity can't be that bad - OH YES IT CAN. I seriously don't know how to rate this book. If a book is supposed to evoke a response (laughter, tears, perplextion) then this is a 5 star book, no doubt. Will you feel good after putting it down. No way. Will you be glad you read it. Probably. I seriously don't know how to rate it. So.. here goes... |
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A short easy read, and an interesting character who seems to be more of a nihilist than and existentialist. The main character doesn't seem to feel much about anything; every possibility is as good as any other since they all end the same way - in death. What difference does it make what day we die, we all die one way or the other. A pretty clear exposition of what it means to be a nihilist. |
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WOW. Just wow. This book is difficult to read sometimes because you feel for the victim’s of this seemingly random cold blooded crime. Capote is so good at painting their life; putting the picture in your mind of how simply normal these victims were, that you want to turn away before the crime and freeze them as they lived, and should have lived. The perpetrators also shine in Capote’s light; but it’s so hard to have sympathy for them. I can’t imagine how much work he must have done; how many people he talked to; how much time he spent; to create this amazing book. But WOW. |
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Death Comes for the Archbishop The title of this book is a little odd as it is not much concerned at all with death, but with life; and a religious life well lived. It is the historical story of 2 priests from France who are ordered to the territory of New Mexico to form a new dioceses there. It is the story of how they manage; of the people they encounter; of the growth of the area and the growth of their church. Willa Cather is one of those writers I love who can "take you there." When you read this book you are riding on a mule with the priest wondering if you will find water or die in the desert doing God's work. I really like books that can transport you to where the characters are acting and join them, for good or evil, in whatever befalls. Whether you are Catholic or not, I highly recommend this book. |
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A great little book about growing up in the early days of settlement in Nebraska. The author is speaking from personal experience so it is a really good and accurate look into what life was like for these relatively early settlers. Follows the life of some children as they grow up .. first on farms, and then moving into the closest town. I've never read "Little House", but I imagine it to be something like this, only with the children growing up and dealing with more and more adult lives as the book progresses. If you have an interest in this type and time... I recommend this book. I know at the end it really pulled at my heartstrings... nothing turned out the way you expected.. or hoped.. but still, the characters ended up well. |
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A short novel about a woman who, over the course of a couple of years, wakes up to her real desires. The house, the husband, the kids... are not what she is interested in. The ending REALLY REALLY sucks... as if the author was saying that, you may want it, but you can never have it, so.... This is an easy read, but kind of a waste of time unless you want to know what life was like for the middle class in New Orleans at the turn of the century. In that regard it's rather interesting |
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Another good one by Conrad, though much more muddled (I think) than Lord Jim. Some of the prose in here will carry you away, but the overall sense of the book is ... well.. strange. A journey into a dark and forbidding land.. a land that is untamed and untamable. With the moral descent of the characters as they move further into more primitive areas, its no wonder this book inspired the movie "Apocalypse Now" with Marlon Brando being the evil at the end. I believe Lord Jim is the better book, but this one has some powerful imagery - and some pretty accurate descriptions of the treatment of colonial natives. |
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Conrad can write. At first I had difficulty feeling sorry for Jim since he seemed inclined to constantly blame forces outside himself for his failure. But then, as he stands to take responsibility when no one else will; and as he takes on the task of bringing better lives to the people he finds himself among; you begin to feel that he has more than redeemed himself. So in the end, when he once again takes responsibility for things over which he had little control, his first failing does not seem so much a character flaw, and he has more than atoned for his error. Conrad was a psychologist long before the science existed. His insight into the minds of people is sometimes startling. Every now and then in the text you come across an insight that stands the test of time so well that you think to yourself, Yes, I know people like that, or I have to remember that when trying to read people. |
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What a fantastic book. The most amazing part of the book is that you find yourself being persuaded by the arguements of the evil Capt. Wolf as he pits his philosophy against that of the heroes. For sure, at the beginning of the book you agree with the Capt that Humphrey van Weyden (Hump) has never had to make a real living and that he has ".. no legs of his own to stand on." Van Weyden is a "gentleman", and as such has no real idea how the majority of people struggle to keep body and soul attached. He learns quickly though and, towards the end, actually incorporates some of Capt. Wolf's evil ideas as his own (for example, when the Capt. asserts his ownership of the boat, and Hump declares it is his by right of might. The Capt, has the grace to concede the point, but never gives up looking for a way to defeat Hump's plans.) This is not just a great sea adventure, but an interesting philosophical argument from start to finish. This was a fun read. And, as a bonus, it starts just down the street from my current house!!! In Mill Valley, California !! Give yourself a treat and read this book. |
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I started this one, and could not finish it. After 250 pages I saw no point. When Don Quixote would help someone, they would fall back into their misery as soon as he rode off. It just seemed to go on and on, the story of a crazy man, doing crazy things. to no point. I did not finish this one. If someone who has finished it would tell me that this eventually had a point, then I might be inclined to continue as it is not difficult to read. | |
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Before reading this I was always under the impression that it was a history of one person's view of the civil war. Well, it is that, but most of the action takes place in one two-day battle. The range of emotions and reactions that Crane wanted to explore took no more than this. Our young protagonist goes through hell in 2 days - and most of it of his own making. The battle scenes are full of chaos, and rarely is the enemy even seen, though his presence is always imminent. At only one point is he clearly seen, and by then our hero has determined to face his demon's and devil take the hindmost. And easy short and entertaining read. |
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This is a great book. Crusoe's reflections on his life before and God - how God seems to have at first mistreated him by casting him away on an island, but then coming to terms with and finding faith in God are interesting for any Christian to read. It's also fun to read how he survives on the island, and how he makes his escape. How he treats the character Friday - whom he views as a savage at first, good for nothing but a slave, but then develops a real liking and respect for his companion is interesting as well, given the morality at the time the book was written. (Still, you can see that DeFoe had serious issues with anyone other than his fellow Britains. No country on the planet embodies civilization other than his home. Even the Spanish are cast in a very poor life, and left to fend for themselves in the end - even after he began to make an alliance with them.) As always, the look into the author's own mind is perhaps the most interesting of all. I may have to check out some more Defoe. |
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This is a quirky little book. It's a book about death.. or... all the different ways you can think about death and how death becomes and issue when you start to think about it. Course, that's not really what happens in the book. No one spends a bunch of time talking about death.. it's just always there, in the background (and sometimes the foreground) just like it is in real life and the characters are pin balls bouncing around the whole death issue. Hell, the title WHITE NOISE means death to one of the characters. Kinda funny in parts (the main character is a professor in Hitler studies - a department he created) and just plan strange in others (the non-sequiters don't seem entirely out of place, but I wonder what they are doing there - like between two paragraphs or at the end of a chapter something like this will pop out... Brill Cream, Lawn Mower, Oreo's ... and your like.. okay, what was that? I give this one a thumbs up, but only if you are trying to read all the books on a list.. like me. |
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I've read some strange fiction in my time. And this is one of the strangest. It's Science Fiction, but half-way through you are scratching your head and thinking, what the hell is going on. By the end you start to feel like you are on good footing again, and in the last page, Dick knocks the supports out again. I enjoyed this. It had themes in it unlike any sci-fi novel I've read before. There is a time-travel aspect to it, but time travel accomplished by the decay of things into their previous forms. A reference to Plato's cave of ideals is even mentioned in the text when one of the characters notices how things revert to earlier versions of themselves. Strange and entertaining. Go for it if you like Sci-Fi or psycho-thrillers; because this is both. |
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Dickens can write. There is no doubt about that. But lordy, if you want to sample his work then read something else. This book is a long swim in murky waters, though the ending is characteristicly Dickens (i.e. the father of the happy ending – well.. mostly happy.. if you can be happy about getting your head cut off at the end of Tale of Two Cities). I digress. This book is a long complicated read. There are absolute GEMS of writing in here. Read the first 10 pages and you will have read one of them (his description of Chancery Court and environs and denizens). They are sprinkled throughout. But there are long section of drudgery, and I put this down several times before making a run for the end of the book. If you like Dickens, you may like this. I like Dickens. I would recommend reading something else. |
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The first third of this book is as funny as it gets. In describing how PIP grows up, Dickens lets the jokes fly and I found myself laughing out loud. The middle part was a little slow, until Pip discovers who his benefactor really is (nope, not who you think it is at all). The final third of the book turns out a bit sad... as only Dickens can make it. In the end, Pip learns what is and is not valuable, who is and is not worthy, and what life really means once you sweep away all the Great Expectations !!! |
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The book with perhaps the most memorable opening and closing lines in all of literature (beyond David Copperfield’s “I am born.”) A little hard to follow at the start, you are soon swept up into the action that leads everyone to the awful conclusion in the blood lust of the French Revolution. I rate this one as a better read than Oliver Twist. |
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I’d seen OLIVER the play, and OLIVER the movie. But reading this, I can’t seem to find where either of these grew out of this book. This is a dark tale of a poor boy that is used and abused by everyone he meets in life.. and all through no fault of his own. (Granted he's a bit stupidly innocent throughout - perhaps, Dickens way of saying that true Christian character will always shine even in the worst of circumstances.) Once again, Dickens is talking about the social ills of the time; but if it was indeed this awful, then it must have been frightful indeed. |
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The book is basically the same as the movie, but you can tell the author is one of those well in touch with his own sense of the world around him; able to feel that world and put it into words where the rest of us simply could not. No wonder he was a poet. Not a bad read if you want a little something to read on the beach. |
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Doctorow uses language almost as well as Nabikov, but more straight forward. A brilliant look at the early 20th Century American scene before we plunged into WWI. A tragedy wherein a black man seeks justice and what happens when he can't find it. Like Dumas, Doctorow took actual history and weaved a set of fictional characters into it. I love how Charlie Chaplin appears in the book, though you don't know it is him. It's almost like reading newspapers of the time, but with a tragic story line woven in. A good read. |
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What can I say? Good literature. Crappy subject. I really really fail to see why authors write about people who are simply disgusting. Oh, in the reviews they call the main character a rogue. But that has a sort of dashing, positive connotation. There is nothing positive about Sebastian Dangerfield. He is lazy, supposedly pursuing a law degree, but really just wasting his time stealing things from other people, running up bills he will never pay. The only income he ever has is pawning what isn’t nailed down. He is a drunk. He is a lout. He will sleep with any woman he can; to hell with his wife and child. When he can’t get his way he resorts to violence, but only if he knows he can beat up the person he is threatening (like a woman); otherwise he is an unmitigated coward. Reading about this guy made me want to throw up. But, it is literature. I have learned to recognize that when I see it. There are better things to read for the same effect. Have a go at James Joyce, and leave this book in the dust bin where it belongs. |
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An interesting novel. I had a hard time starting it, but after a bit, what with all the twists and character interconnections I have to say I started to enjoy the ride. The main character, Raskolnikov, commits a murder which he thinks is justified because he is one of those rare people that is allowed to ignore the law for personal and greater good. Its obvious that he is not in possession of all his faculties as he does this, and realizes soon afterward that he was mistaken in his special status. The agonies he goes through from that point onward, and how the other people in his life are affected is fascinating. As the reader sometimes you want him to get away with it, and sometimes you realize that it's murder and he needs to be punished. You don't know right up to the end whether he will or will not get away with it, and whether or not the greater good was indeed served by his act. A moral dilemma all the way round with a somewhat satisfying ending. (Note: The novel contains some anti-semitic stereotypical references.) |
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A fun read with another glimpse into a historical time of the British Empire. Sherlock Holmes putting together clues while Dr. Watson assists (even without knowing it). The stuff of many a movie past, and I am sure, future. It's fun. You'll like it. |
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Fun… From beginning to end. One could say that what Dumas was writing was non-fiction. He takes actual history, and weaves his characters into it so seamlessly that you would think this was a true story. The Musketeers are as fun as you have seen them portrayed in various movies (the 1973 version being my favorite, and very close to the book). The book is an adventure for all time. |
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An excellent thriller that weaves much of the Grail myth history into a story about a man who learns too much. You learn about the Knight’s of the Rosy Cross, and how they are protectors of the Grail secret to this day. You learn what the Grail really is (the same as Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code). So well written that you begin to believe it yourself… and who’s to say it’s not all true. |
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A fun little mystery set in a middle ages monastery where monks are dropping dead for some reason or other. Made into a fun little movie by the same name. |
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Not to be confused with the HG Wells novel, this great book is the story of a black man who learns that he is invisible because no one can really see him. Oh they all see a person and they all see someone they can use, but the don't see him. By the end he begins to revel in his invisibility realizing that, as an invisible man, he has a freedom he never realized. This book, along the lines of E.L. Doctorow's RAGTIME is about racial injustice and racial relations. It's a big book, but I found to be a page turner. Once I started it, I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to see where our man was going next, what would befall him and how he would learn from it. His dream of a letter in the beginning that said, "Keep this nigger-boy running." presaged much of what happened in the book. Big time recommended. |
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This has been called Farrell's Magnum Opus, and at over 800 pages, I would say it qualified. I was a little hesitant to start this, but once I did, I couldn't put it down. Not because the story was so compelling... the story is just a series of events in a life... but because I've never read a book that looked so carefully and so accurately at the internal goings on of one character, Studs. Lots of books let you look into the mind of a character, but that mind is often depicted as a straight forward monologue, keeping to one topic to advance the story. Rarely is it a chaotic mix of conflicting emotions, motivations, insecurities, wishful thinking and self analysis that is written here. Studs mind flits from thing to thing, influenced by the world around him and his own desires. He starts as a boy wanting respect and admiration, and knowing of only one way to get that - by being a "tough". But as he grows older he is always afraid of letting his real thoughts show, and constantly puts on a facade that he thinks will gain him what he wants from life. Course, he has no clue what he wants from life, and so he ends up directionless. I enjoyed this because I've been told that I too spend much of my time in my own head, and though I am nothing like Studs Lonigan in character... I recognized how his mind worked and saw myself in him. I saw many people in him. It was pretty amazing. BUT... these characters are not nice people. Be prepared for racism, anti-semitism, sexism, and just plain criminal behavior. Sometimes this is difficult to read. It does seem to be an accurate reflection of these kind of people - I imagine Farrel grew up with just this gang. |
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I had a difficult time starting this book. The imagery is written such that I could not tell what was real, and what was in the mind of the character at the time. What looked like a dream turned out to be real. As the book progressed, however, and the characters became more finely etched, I found myself enjoying this book more and more. And by the end, when I felt I had finally gotten the hang of how to read this, it ended with a twist that I am still trying to understand. |
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This is rated as one of the best novels of all time – though I cannot understand why. The characters are shallow people. The plot is thin, and a little obvious. The whole mess is a tragedy from beginning to end (you can feel it throughout the book, even if you don’t know what is coming). I never felt strongly for or against any of the people I read about here. And at the end I felt no sympathy for Gatsby or anyone else. |
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This was the first of the Bond books. Honestly, his character is not very likable. His hate for Communism is jingoistic. He's completely sexist - women are only be used for one thing. And he's not a very good spy either - he falls into an obvious trap and only luck gets him out. I read some of these when I was a teenager, but re-read this one recently just to reform my impression. It's interesting how they updated the story for the movies - what they took from the book and what they made up. For that reason alone you might want to read these, but other than that... stick to the movies. |
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Oh boy. Ian Fleming is a racist. Who knew. Well, at least Bond is not so down on women in this novel. No, he has a totally different group of people to cast aspersions on. Negro's. The Negro race is this... The Negro race is that... Ugh. If you are a real Bond junkie then you might want to see how the original story went (it had nothing to do with drugs... gold was the motive and Communism was behind it). And Bond is bent on nothing but revenge. |
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Not as outlandish as the movie... in fact.. nothing like the movie at all. A rocket is involved (the Moonraker) and it's funny to read all the nonsense that was written before anyone really knew how rockets worked (would the heat of the atmosphere melt them... some kind of super material was needed on the fins.. etc). But not a bad little read. |
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Well, Mr. Fleming once again exhibits a bit of racism and homophobia, and once again.. the movie has no bearing on the book except for diamond smuggling and the names of the 2 assassin's and the Bond Girl (Tiffany Case). You know.. I really wonder where they came up with the movie plots... definately out of thin air. Again.. not a bad little read. This can be read in a day. |
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A fun book with adventure, mystery, comedy and literature all wrapped in a tidy, fast paced little package. Presents an alternate world in which the boundary between fiction and reality is permeable and needs to be watched in case nefarious characters should use this permeability for evil purposes. The character Thursday Next will be fun to follow into future books. The title has to do with the Charlotte Bronte book Jane Eyre. An evil criminal threatens to change the plot by kidnapping the main character. Thursday Next is the only person who can challenge this master criminal, both in reality and inside the fictional novel itself. If you like Chris Moore, you will love this! |
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Thursday Next in her second book, and the rabbit hole that started in the first just gets deeper and deeper as the boundary between reality and fiction simply disappears. I love this character (Thursday). The jaundiced view of reality and fiction she gives is a really fun time. I totally recommend this book. |
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Thursday Next's world just keeps getting stranger and stranger. The fact that this book in the series takes place almost completely inside the world of fiction, just makes it that much easier to get very strange very fast. Jasper Fforde has a really vivid imagination for what happens behind the scenes of all the books ever written. If you love literature, and you love comedy... read on!!! |
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The next of the Thursday Next books. Thursday has left the world of fiction for the ever stranger real world. The book is slower and less glib than the others in the series, but ties up many loose ends nicely with an interesting ending. You don't have to be a literature buff to read this one. In fact, other works of fiction (other than Hamlet) are barely mentioned. But it won't mean a thing unless you've read the others, so go back to the beginning. |
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Thursday Next: First Amoung Sequels The next of the Next books... and still amazing. How Jasper Fforde manages to be this funny, this creative, and this hilariously insane, I don't know. I guess that's what they call talent. In this book, Thursday Next is trying to live a normal life with her re-constituted husband and 2 real and one imaginary child. She no longer has a job with Special Operations, but works in a flooring business... which is actually a front for her (et al) continued secret special operations.. which is actually a front for her job in the world of books (no.. actually INSIDE books). Her time-traveling son from the future is telling her that he can replace her un-interested in time travel son in the now so they can save all of history. And the British government has come up with a scheme to reduce the built up surplus of stupidity by doing something really dumb that will have the effect of destroying all history. Even Harry Potter is supposed to make an appearance in the book... but I can't say anymore to give you an idea of the insanity and hilarity Jasper Fforde strings together in this great book. If you want to laugh out loud... read this series... |
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Jasper Fforde is a genius when it comes to writing comedy novels on the strangest topics. This book is the first "Nursery Crime" novel where Jack Spratt investigates the murder of Humpty Dumpty, his financial dealings, his philandering, and the competition between foot product companies in Reading, England. It's a fun fill mystery as good as anything Dashiel Hammet wrote, but with more puns and farce than you can imagine being packed into one book. Need a little laugh and some amused smirks. Pick up this book and read it now. |
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The second of the "Nursery Crime" books, investigator Jack Spratt, head of the Nursery Crime Division and his 2nd in command Mary Mary get deep into mysterious explosions, giant cucumbers, illegal porridge and honey smuggling by bears, and face danger at every turn from the escaped psychopath killer, the Gingerbread Man. Again, you will laugh out loud while reading this, and get strange looks from the people around you. Who cares. It's too much fun. |
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A really great novel about the people, politics and way of life in the middle ages from the years 1123 to 1174 revolving around a cast of characters whose lives and ambitions you get to know intimately. A long book, but a very easy read. You will learn about monastic life, courtly politics, and the building of cathedrals. (And if you have never been in a real medieval cathedral.. well, you are missing the experience of a lifetime.) I couldn't put it down and spent several late nights wrapped with these characters and their situations. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a little history, a little learning, and some romance with their fiction. |
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A novel that tries to understand, explain, and make clear the impossibility of the British domination of India. The British occupation is seen through both sets of eyes, Indian and British; the misunderstandings and problems looked at from both points of view - each of which is flawed. The only conclusion that can be reached is that British and Indian can never be friends until the are separate. |
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How to Read Literature Like a Professor This is a great book. It makes it clear that some things in any bit of literature have meaning and when you see them it clues you in to look for that meaning. Examples? The weather - no author is going to write about weather in a book unless it is serving a purpose. Physical deformaties - These always have a meaning, otherwise, why include them (Harry Potter's scar for instance). Journeys - are always quests. Sex - is never about sex, unless it is. (Yes, this is a pretty humorous book to read.) Each chapter explores a different tool that authors have used for ages to convey meaning. Foster readily admits that not every symbol ever used can be covered in a book that might fit on a reasonably sized shelf. He's just giving you a heads up on some of them, and pointing out how you can find the rest yourself. What I love about Mr. Foster's treatment is how readable he makes it all. Not your typical stuffy English professor, but a humorous ability to allow different interpretations of the same material - he realizes that, after all, only the author can really know what a book was about and whatever you get out of a book is good enough for you. I plan on buying and reading his other book - on how to read novels. How to Read Novels Like a Professor Another fun book from Foster talking about the Novel; why it is the way it is, and what parts go into making a good novel. For example: Modern novels are different from Victorian novels (think Dickens) because they are published as one part, where as Victorian novels were serialized in periodicals. This difference causes differences in the way they flow and how they are organized. He discusses chapters and what they mean, points of view, the 18 things a first page can and should do (and that is just the first page). If you ever read a novel, then you will probably enjoy this tongue in cheek book about novel. I highly recommend this book along with his other, How To Read Literature Like A Professor. |
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Repo Men There was a movie out last year of this title, and it looked more like a SciFi Slasher movie than anything really interesting. About guys who repossess artificial organs from living people. Repo-Men. The book however turned out to be quite good. The man character finds himself in a completely untenable situation, and as the book progresses he reviews his life to see exactly how he managed to get there. The exploration of this past is fun and interesting.. how he ends up as a repo-man.. how he tries to stop being a repo-man, and how (as it's said in the Godfather) they pull him back in. A repo-man on the run from other repo men because he can't pay for the artificial heart he never asked for.. how will this be resolved. And yet, the resolution it quite satisfactory. A story of our near future. |
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WOW. What a great little book. It is written from the perspective of a girl who starts out as 9 and ends when she is 11. Her life is awful. Her mother dies. Her father is a drunk and a molester. Her only family want nothing to do with her. Her grandmother blames her for her mother's death and can't stand to look at her as she reminds her of the worthless son-in-law. The grandmother even sends her to work in the fields with the black laborers. But Ellen triumphs!! She learns from every knock and figures out how to take care of herself, and what is important in life (at least for a 10 year old). She triumphs over abuse by getting smart. She triumphs over racism by maintaining her best friendship with a black girl her own age. She is an amazing, and completely believable character. I had a tear in my eye when I got to the end of this book. (NOTE: There is a sequel for this girl.. and I may have to read it. TOTALLY RECOMMEND !!!! |
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I have to guess that this is on the "top book list" because it was a first of it's kind. An exploration into a future of cyberspace before the word really existed - and the potential of AI. Well, I didn't think this was very good. And I've read a lot of science fiction. Feel free to skip by this one, unless you are interested in story developmental history and how we got to where we are today. |
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I read this in high school, and again a few years ago. I scary look at how thin the veneer of civilization is, but then, as the years go by, and we see beheadings and mass slaughter on our TV screens, perhaps that lesson should be more obvious. |
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The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure I simply cannot sing the praises of this book enough. If you saw the movie then you heard the tale, but you missed the magic of this book. First: Note the title. William Goldman claims this to be an abridgment of a book written much earlier, and read to him by his father when he was 10. Of course, he didn't realize when he was 10 that his father was abridging the book as he read it, and so, when he gave it to his on son when he reached 10, he was dumfounded to discover that his son didn't like the book. And then Goldman read the book himself - and discovered it was truely bad. So he set out to abridge S. Morgenstern's original work and leave us the good parts that he remembered from his youth. Of course, he humorously interjects himself into the abridgment - explaining what he is removing - and attempting to add parts he believes are missing. This attempted addition leads to legal troubles from the Morgenstern estate, and well... things just turn more bizarre from that point. Yep.. I'm telling you it's a whole lot more than the movie. One of the few times when both the movie and the book get big thumbs up... and for different reasons. READ THIS BOOK!!! |
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The
VOID Trilogy: If you start this trilogy, you better be able to multitask. The first book in the series tells 5 different and completely unconnected stories.. two thirds of the way through you are wondering what the hell is going on, as these things just don't have anything to do with each other, with one of them taking place in a whole different universe. But in books 2 and 3 all the threads get pulled together into a climax that could destroy the entire galaxy. Wow.. this is a long, convoluted ride that has so many ideas that could be novels in and of themselves. If you like SciFi, you will like this. |
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This is the novel that created the whole "hard-boiled" detective genre - both books and movies. It's tightly written, and centered in San Francisco (which made it extra fun for me). The story stands the test of time, though police work has changed over the years. Not entirely admirable, Sam Spade, the detective, is a character you find you can like in the end. One of the good guys, if certainly no angel A good read |
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Be prepared to keep track of LOTS of characters... and keep a drink close by, because, with all the booze flowing in this detective novel, your're gonna want a drink yourself. I'm not so sure this should even be called a detective novel... as the main character, Nick Charles, keeps denying that he is even working on the case (the murder of the secretary of an old client of his). He denies it to the police; he denies it to the suspects ex-wife; he denies it to a mob hood who attempts to shoot him. Yet, everyone is so convinced that he must be working on the case that all the facts and clues end up in his lap anyway, when all he wanted to do was take a vacation. Nick is married, and his wife added into the mix, makes this even more fun. A good read. |
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This is the story that came BEFORE Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter doing his thing before he ended up in prison for Clarrise Starling to interview. A great read if you like this kind of thriller. |
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This book was fun to read though in the early part is was strange getting into. Once you start to believe in the insanity, then it all starts to make a twisted sense, and becomes entertaining. Not having served in the military it’s hard to believe what you read here, but somehow, the insanity all seems just about right. Poor Yossarian, trying to make sense of the crazy around him; then learning that one of the most crazy people actually had a plan !!! It’s fun. |
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Why is Hemmingway considered such a great writer? This novel seemed to make no point one way or the other - about life, war, relationships, or anything. It's about a character who spends very little time involved in the war, and much more, involved in hospital life, and a woman he meets while recovering from an injury. This character, Fredric Henry, doesn't even CARRY arms as a soldier - he is captain of an ambulance corp. He eventually deserts (though, under the circumstances no one can blame him), and makes his way to Switzerland with his (now pregnant) girlfriend. The dialog is stilted. The plot meandering. The book... pointless. In the end you are left wondering why you bothered to read it - no great impression is left other than ... well.. the uselessness of just about everything. Don't waste your time on this one. |
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Not really a novel. More of a short story and parable. Could be a bedtime story. It's a simple story, well told. But it also seems to have deeper meanings and references to religion - and paganism, if you will in the brotherly connection between the old man and the fish. I leave to other people to explore the depths of all this. It's a nice read of itself. |
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I read this when I was probably too young to appreciate it. I just kept thinking that Hemingway committed suicide, so why should I pay attention. I won’t rate this til I re-read it. |
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This novel has been compared to The Lord of the Flies, but it doesn't offer the morality play that LOTF does. Instead it tries to present an adventure through the eyes of children who have little concept of right and wrong, and no concept of a future in which their actions of today will mater. They are completely heedless of the consequences of what they do on others. The book starts and ends at no particular point... in the same disjointed way that the children look at time. I don't really think the author managed to capture the lives of children at all. The children I know are simple not that heedless of the goings on around them. They are not likely to forget their parents or their previous lives, though I think he may have nailed the adaptability to circumstance right on. Interesting only if you loved LOTF. |
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A great book. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in reading about someone's discovery of life. Hurston is a black author, and the dialog is deep southern black of the last century, and sometimes hard to read because of that. But after a while you begin to get used to it and the characters shine through. |
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After Many a Summer Dies the Swan I read this ages ago, but I still carry the impression of enjoyment, and tragedy with me. If you know something about Buddhism, you might want to read this book – since some of it seems to be talking about Buddhist philosophy. I read this when I was studying comparative religions – which are naturally giant discussions of how to live life, death and the odds of immortality. |
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Okay, I have to say that I find the world that Huxley created as a distopia to be really not so bad. People are happy. They are free to do as they please within their social class and conditioning. (Are we any freer or less conditioned?) The people in control are not blind to the lack of stimulation and variety, but they have come to the decision that the greatest good comes from less of this - less conflict. The people who are "free" - the native - are miserable the entire time they live. Perhaps misery is a natural condition, but I imagine much of the human population on the planet would not mind living in Huxley's Brave New World. You read it an you decide. |
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What a nice novel. Well, actually, what a terrible novel. So many things happen that are terrible, and yet, you want to keep reading to see how life is going to turn out for these great characters. John Irving has a way of putting the fear of doom in you, before anything even happens; and when it does you go "so now I know what I was afraid of...". Later in the book he even manages to create a tool to give you that sense of impending doominess - the Under Toad - who, whenever it is mentioned instantly fills you, the reader, with that "Uh oh... I can see it coming again." And still it's kind of a happy book about family, friends, creativity, and how life can be strange no matter who you are - eccentric or not - it's well worth the time invested in reading. |
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Histories I must have been a weird teenager. Josephus (37-100+ A.D.) was a Roman Jew who wrote a Jewish history, including the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Now, I picked this up because in it he actually did an interview with Pontius Pilate - the Roman governor who had Jesus Christ crucified. By the time he wrote, various followers of Jesus where making waves in Rome. So Josephus goes and asks Pilate if her remembers the Jew he had crucified back when. "No. Nope. Can say as I recall him." says Pilate (translated into the modern by me.. grin). Anyway. That is a tiny part of the book, but I picked it up for that and then started reading large portions of it. It's worth a peek. I'm clueless on how to rate this.. I will give it 2 stars because, I imagine, the interest level on this would be pretty darn narrow. And, I put this in the fiction section because much of the book is Old Testament history... which may as well be fiction. |
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No stars as you will need to make up your own mind. |
I confess right up front that I could not finish this book. I got about halfway through and decided I could not go on. This was not because the book is poorly written; it's probably one of the most amazing books ever written; but because I was simply not getting enough out of it. There are many references that are so obscure that I would be running to the internet every 10 pages to try and figure out what Joyce was talking about. I started reading with a dictionary by my side, but gave up on that when I realized that Joyce will often make up words just to give the reader a feeling that goes beyond meaning. This is perhaps the "densest" book I have ever read excepting Kant's Prolegommena to Pure Reason. Some page simply drip with obscure religious and cultural references that you would take quite some time to understand. Example: "Is that then the divine substance wherein Father and Son are consubstantial? Whereis poor dear Arius to try conclusions? Warring his life long upon the contransmagnificandjewbangtantiality. Illstarred heresiarch! In a Greek watercloset he breathed his last: euthanasia. Withe beaded mitre and crozier, stalled upon his throne, widower of a widowed see, with upstiffed omophorion, with clotted hinderpars." Just to understand that part of a paragraph you need to know:
There are, however, other parts that use words so poetically that it doesn't really matter what they are saying, but inside you get the feeling that Joyce was tyring to give... as in a feast scene in a restaurant which, though full of descriptions of food aind people eating with gusto, leaves you a tad sick as if you were watching some sort of awful orgy. And then there is the scene in the outhouse where Bloom takes his morning relief... an odd bit of detail to which each and every human being can relate. I can see why Joyce is hailed as one of the greatest writers in the English language. Anyone who wants to learn how to get more out of language than just the meaning of words and sentences should read this. I simply could not continue to fight my way through. I admit defeat. |
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Poltergeist I read this book while sitting in a house in the middle of the mountains – with no radio, TV or even private phone line.I’ll never forget sitting there in bed at 3 a.m. when my wife wakes up and I say, “If the movie is half as good as the book, it’s going to be great.” … and Lo… it was. |
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"It is often considered a defining work of the postwar Beat Generation that was inspired by jazz, poetry, and drug experiences." So says Wikipedia. I don't know. Maybe if I had read this book as a teenager I would have enjoyed the irrepressible freedom of the characters. But reading this in my 50's I found the people in this book totally despicable. They stole constantly. Stole food, stole cars. stole anything they could easily get away with stealing. They used people - One character marries a gal for her money to fuel a trip across country, and then abandons her in Texas when the money runs out. One character father's children left and right, and could care less. They talk about how they are going to "dig" a place and how fantastic it is; and in a week are bored with it, and want to be on the road again. If this book defines a generation, I'm glad I didn't grow up in it. There was a scene near the end of the book, where they are wandering the jazz joints in San Francisco. The descriptions of the music and the players is real art. Kerouac shines in small sections like this. But overall the book gets to be tedious as we follow one character who relentlessly sinks into mania. I barely finished this, and only because I promised myself I would finish it. |
I'll put the link here, even though I didn't much like the book. Who knows, maybe you will have a different opinion. |
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest This book is an easy read on one level, and a harder read on another. As a story it's easy; none of the deep literary references or symbolic imagery that makes other books a tough read. But on another level the more you learn about the patients, and the control by Nurse Ratched, the more you start to think they are not the crazy ones. Big Cheif sure sounds crazy in the beginning, but after a while you start to believe that his description of the controls in the wall sounds about right. |
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I bought this because it was in English and it was big.I was in Denmark at the time and had finished my other reading material.Walking into a Danish book store I found this and read it.I don’t know about others, but many horror books have seemed pretty contrived to me, and this one seemed so as well, but it served its purpose and entertained me for a time while I had nothing else to do (but go to movies which were all subtitled in English). |
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There are books you know you are going to like as soon as you finish the first page. This is one of them.. Like Ellen Foster, this first page of this novel sets the tone for what is to come and makes you really want to jump on the bus to see where it ends up. A young woman named Taylor (the name she gives herself because that’s where she ran out of gas) manages to avoid the pitfalls of teen pregnancy in rural (hillbilly) Kentucky and makes her way across country ending up in Tucson, Arizona. Along the way she acquires a Native American child she calls Turtle, and on arriving meets the people with whom she will make a family. In the end she realizes that what she is, is a mother. And when that is threatened, she goes on a journey to keep what is now hers. This story of self discovery, love, motherhood and hope will grab you and keep you until the very end. If you don’t enjoy this, then there is something seriously wrong with your emotion-o-meter. (I could'nt put it down.) |
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I really enjoyed this book. It’s about a white boy, son of a British soldier, who’s mother is gone and whose father has died, growing up as a Hindu boy in the streets of the bazaar in Lahore, India. His color is so dark and his manners so street wise that know one knows he is a sahib – master. He befriends a traveling Buddhist monk, and their fates become intertwined. During his travels, Kim performs a small service for a horse trader – who, he realizes is actually a spy for the British Government. As Kim and the monk travel together and grow to love one another, but then Kim’s true heritage is discovered and he is shipped off to the white man’s school. His beloved monk pays to have him sent to the best school where he grows in white man’s knowledge and white man’s ways, and is recruited to also be a spy for the British. On his holiday’s and after graduation he always travels and learns from his Buddhist master. Eventually there is intrigue and a mission accomplished through skill and luck – with always the monk by his side. This book is spectacular. My problem is whether I would recommend it to others. The Indian cultural and religious (as well as geographic) references are so thick that one can become frustrated at it. The footnotes are invaluable. But the picture it paints of India awash in all the different religions (Hindu, Buddhist, Islam, Christian) and cultures (British rulers/soldiers, differing castes of Indians, foreigners who are spies) is so detailed and rich it just takes one away. (And that is my ultimate measure of a good book.. does it take you where the author wants to go.) Kim is a great book. Read it and get lost in India. |
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Another high school reading assignment.I don’t even remember it. |
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This book is excellent. If you want to delve into communist party thinking, then this is the book to do it. If you want to understand how revolutions tear themselves apart, then this it the book to read. So much better than 1984 because it exposes the underpinnings of the logic used to come to the conclusion that the "ends justify the means". We so often say that this is not true, but how do we know that? Can reason alone be a guide to human governance? Can the "masses" (a.k.a. "we the people") really understand enough to govern themselves? All these questions and so much more are explored by the poor prisoner Rubashov as he waits in his cell for the state to decide his fate. His logic is perfect... and, he comes to realize, perfectly flawed. I totally recommend this book. I found it to be a page turner that was hard to put down. It might not be to everyone's taste, but it's a great book, none the less. |
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This is the story of a little boy, and how he survived being sent away by his parents during World War II. It's really a tale of bloody human ignorance; or at least, that's how I read it. This boy is abused by belief systems, one after another. First its peasant ignorance and superstition, then its church ignorance and superstition, then its Nazi ignorance and superstition, next comes Communism. No matter what the system, this poor child is abused over and over until the end of the book, at which point at the ripe old age of about 12, he is starting to realize that every system manages to have its share of ignorance and superstition. The book was mildly auto-biographical, but there was lots of controversy about that. Having listened to an interview with the author's son, it's easy to believe that there was indeed abuse in the author's childhood. Still and all, I rate this book with a thumbs up, if only because I happen to agree with the author's assessment of most of humanity. |
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Racism and justice through the eyes of a child. This book is great. I had seen the movie years ago, and it is faithful to the book.The scenery and some of the characters are autobiographical – the boy Dill is actually Truman Capote as a child – he and Harper Lee were friends for life. I would recommend this book to everyone. |
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What a great little book. The story of a dog's life from easy living in California, to the wilds of Alaska in the gold rush. A very nice story. Well written, and a page turner. Completely recommended. |
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What a fantastic book. The most amazing part of the book is that you find yourself being persuaded by the arguments of the evil Capt. Wolf as he pits his philosophy against that of the heroes. For sure, at the beginning of the book you agree with the Capt that Humphrey van Weyden (Hump) has never had to make a real living and that he has ".. no legs of his own to stand on." Van Weyden is a "gentleman", and as such has no real idea how the majority of people struggle to keep body and soul attached. He learns quickly though and, towards the end, actually incorporates some of Capt. Wolf's evil ideas as his own (for example, when the Capt. asserts his ownership of the boat, and Hump declares it is his by right of might. The Capt, has the grace to concede the point, but never gives up looking for a way to defeat Hump's plans.) This is not just a great sea adventure, but an interesting philosophical argument from start to finish. This was a fun read. And, as a bonus, it starts just down the street from my current house!!! In Mill Valley, California !! Give yourself a treat and read this one !! |
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The Solar Clipper Trader Series Suddenly orphaned on a planet he has to leave, Ishmael (yep, named after that Ishmael) joins a trader ship and starts to learn his way around a star ship. Spending most of the first book in the galley, no less. There are no aliens. There are no space battles. There is just a teenager who has to come of age working on a space trader; and learn to cook a perfect omelet. If you like coming of age novels then you will like these books. IMPORTANT NOTE: After finishing the first book, I was hooked and intended to read the next 4 on the kindle. Hell, they only take 2 days to read. But I discovered after finishing the 2nd that the rest are not available except as audio books. Major bummer. When/If the rest come out as books I will be buying them to find out how Ish works his way up in rank. I can hardly wait. |
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I'm begining to understand what makes a book "great literature". This book hits the list as one of the greatest bits of literature of the 20th century. And as I read it, I can completely see why it would be on the list. But that doesn't make it a good book. This book stunk. It was awful. The main character is an irredeemable drunkard. You never develop any sympathy for him. His wife; his brother; the doctor; all are trying to see him to a better life - and he cannot climb out of the bottle long enough to care. Who really cares what happens to this guy. It's no spoiler to say that he ends up dead at the end of the book... that was the obvious ending about 1/4 of the way in. And the trip to that ending was a complete bore. Oh.. and it's semi-autobiographical - meaning that Lowry was a drunk too, and self-destructive. So if you want to read about being a drunk from the drunk's point of view - well, there is no better book for it. (ugh) Read this ONLY if you want lessons in writing. Otherwise, if you really must read a book about a characters self-destruction read Appointment in Sammara. That book has the blessing of being much shorter, and more interesting than this hunk of junk. |
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The Engines of God- Priscilla Hutchins Series The first of the Priscilla Hutchins series from this author, and a
fun ride. Some mystery of the omega clouds is introduced (to be solved 3
novels later) while terra-formers and archaeologists fight over the
rights to a planet. Enjoyed this book and the series it leads to...
Deep Six- Priscilla Hutchins Series I did not read these in the order they are listed here, so by the
time I got to this one the formula was clear. They are listed here in
the order they SHOULD be read. But still the formula is fun. Put people
in a situation that is both tantalizing and dangerous, and see what they
will risk to learn more before everything goes to hell in a hand basket.
The phrase, "We will only do 'X' until things start going south.", pops
up in various forms many times in all the books, but no one ever defines
"going south" until it's too late and something happens that drives the
plot even more. But the fun is in the anticipation and the surprise...
We will never know what the light in the harbor was because the planet
gets destroyed.... maybe a later novel. Chindi- Priscilla Hutchins Series Great... Great... Great... SciFi at it's best. Okay I confess... when
I get bored with something I run back to Sci Fi because it was my first
love. And this one nails it. The story is interesting (even if some of
the characters are caricatures) and the science it really good... (ex.
Suppose you needed 9 hours to rescue someone who was trapped on a ship
moving 0.25c who only had 6 hours of air left........... well? It was 3
am and I was like OOH OOH OOH TUDDY!!!! Anyway with a little help from
Einstein and general relativity you'll get the answer.) This book nails
it... I didn't put it down until I was done. Omega- Priscilla Hutchins Series Excellent. Finally someone discovers another civilization in space...
just before it's going to get destroyed. What can we do to save it?
Almost nothing. But....
This was another page turner for me. Enjoyed the created world and the people in it. Enjoyed the frustrations of the folks trying to help and how human the characters were. Odyssey - Priscilla Hutchins Series This is not as good as CHINDI... too much time spent on politics
(which, no matter the time, The Roman Empire or Congress today... is
inevitably stupid) and not enough getting out there and seeing what's
what. Some bits are unbelievable (like the Senator letting his daughter
ride out on an FTL ship when he is trying to kill the whole program),
but well... c'est la vie. This is not a page turner like the first, but
even bad SciFi can be good sometimes. Cauldron - Priscilla Hutchins Series The last of the Priscilla Hutchins series.. she's is aging after
all.. and she will be missed. In this final version it's obvious that
there was room for at least 3 other novels, but not enough time in the
characters life to write them, so they are all packed in here, and the
last 3rd of the book is a roller coaster. Enjoy the ride - who knows..
perhaps we will revisit some of these places in the future.
A Talent for War - Alex Bennedict Series A pretty complex detective novel about an antiques dealer who starts
to investigate the myths behind a legendary war hero, and discovers
things are not always what they seem. Pretty darn entertaining if you
like both SciFi and Mystery novels. I didn't see the end coming until
pretty darn close to it (course, they keep one of the big secrets right
up to the end... so you can't really blame me. Polaris - Alex Bennedict Series Another mystery novel, with the same characters as A Talent for War,
but this time told from the point of view, not of the main character,
but of his pilot and business partner. As a result, you don't get to see
what the main character is thinking, but I think Jack McDevitt just
likes writting things with a female as his main character... so.. he
managed to pull that off again.
Seeker - Alex Bennedict Series Wow, talk about a find - in the plot that is, not the book. A
convoluted mystery that will lead you this way and that, and have you
wondering who the bad guys are almost to the end. (Nope. Not who you
think it is.) And the ending has a final twist that is great fun.
The Devil's Eye - Alex Bennedict Series Another mystery that continues even after the mystery is solved. I
don't want to give anything away, but the ending is very satisfying as
war between humans and the "Mutes" is averted.. probably for good. Infinity Beach A stand alone by Jack McDevitt, it tells the story of people who are
searching for other life in the universe, and not finding it. Or, at
least, they don't think they found it, until one woman starts the search
for her lost clone sister. Part detective novel and part high SciFi
adventure this one was a fun read (as all of McDevitt's books have been
so far). Eternity Road Post apocalyptic explorations in a world devastated by a plague that
wiped out most of mankind. We are back to the days before the printing
press, and one of Jack's strong female characters (all his main
characters are female) is off to explore the world, and solve the
mystery of the origin of the book A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur's Court. Slightly better than standard fare for these type of
novels.
Ancient Shores A stand alone novel by McDevitt who is know for his series and who I really enjoy. I read this on a coast to coast flight, and enjoyed it the whole way. If you are a SciFi buff, then this makes a good read. In this book a farmer discovers a boat buried on his land that proves to be several thousand years old.. leading regular people to make some extraordinary discoveries - and nearly ruin the world economy in the process. |
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If you liked Kerouac's ON THE ROAD, then you will like this one. I
didn't. I found Kerouac's book reprehensible. Miller's book is much the
same, but at least the main character has some interesting thoughts once
in a while. It's not an endless litany of dishonesty and sloth. Miller
has a descriptive power that beyond anything you are going to find in ON
THE ROAD. |
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Moby Dick counts as my favorite
book of all time. I picked this up one day because I thought
I should read some of the books I was supposed to read in High School
English. |
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This was on the "top books" list I compiled and so I decided to read it. What a smart decision!! These stories are really wonderful. I would love to share them with a child, but I also enjoyed sharing them with my inner child. The small poetry within the stories, the innocence of all the characters, the amusing way they interact .. its all great. If you have a child, or want to visit your childhood again, I really recommend these stories. (Oh.. be sure to get the originals, not the Disneyfied extensions... the originals are great.) |
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I've never read a "graphic novel" before. I have to tell you this book is an experience. There is so much more you can do in a graphic novel - okay - call it a comic book if you want. Time is so much more flexible since the panels tell you where you are (one scene in particular is very impressive). Parralell stories can be weaved together much more seamlessly - in fact from panel to panel the story can be a different one - with the artwork in the panels helping you to keep track of which is which and how they inter-relate. I was honestly impressed by this. The story might not be to everyone's taste, but the way it was done was massively impressive (like LOLITA). I give this a thumbs up. |
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A Dirty Job It’s a dirty job being DEATH, but, hey… someone has to do it. This book is funny from start to finish, and its set in San Francisco on streets and parks that I am very familiar with. It’s a comedic take on how Death gets the job done, and how every job has its ups and downs. |
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Blood Sucking Fiends This one was funny and fast paced. I recommend this to everyone. Takes place in San Francisco, with several of the same characters as A DIRTY JOB, but funnier. One of the really fun things is that you can read this book and find all the places in it. A lot of action takes place in the Safeway across from Fort Mason. Well, I've been by that Safeway many times... right across from Fort Mason, and I want to stop in some night and ask if I can watch the turkey bowling contests said to take place there. Funny. Easy. Vampires... what more could you want. |
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Coyote Blue Another Moore fun job. This book was like candy after reading Under the Volcano by Lowry. And, God, did I need it. The story of a native American man who is messed around with by his god... and how he gets his god to make it right in the end. Funny and light. I really enjoyed it. |
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Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal Funny and inspirational (if you can stop laughing). What was Christ doing for all those years we never hear about in the Bible. Well, here they are.. where he got his teachings, where he traveled, and how his pal Biff tried to teach him about the evils of sex by demonstrating it again and again and again.. just to help his friend out. One beautiful part of this book was how it tied up all the gospels at the end. The bible is pretty dry, but here are those same events seen through the eyes of the people that loved Jesus and were his friends. How they begged him not to fulfill his destiny, and how, he knew what needed to be done and why. It hangs together so much better than the bible. You will love it. |
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Fluke Another Chris Moore tongue in cheek treatise, only this time involving the folks who study whales. Course, in the middle of the book it takes a decided turn for the really really strange, and you're going "what the hell was that". Chris Moore does strange pretty well. |
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Island of the Sequined Love Nun Yes, it's as strange as the title implies. Another good one from Chris Moore mixing the idyllic South Seas with cargo cult natives, a drunken pilot, some nefarious missionaries, and one lonely cannibal looking for his next meal into a tale that will cross your eyes and make you laugh. How the hell will it all end... and when the end comes.. how the hell did they pull that off. A good book to read at the beach. |
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Practical Demon-Keeping Not as good as the others I've read from this author, but still amusing. You can tell that same sense of humor is sharpening with this book about a Demon, and how his "owner" deals with him. |
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You Suck! The sequel to Blood Sucking Fiends with the same characters, is just as fun to read as the first - though the ending is a little less satisfactory. Set in San Francisco (so you can drive around and look at the places in the story if you want), it even includes a scene from A Dirty Job that didn't quite make sense in that book, but now totally does. (I love it when an author makes two or more books overlap... even when they are different stories. For instance, the same city homicide detectives show up in all 3 books... and you really get to like these guys.) A fun read. |
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This was a much tougher read than I was expecting. I was expecting horrific stories of slavery and the struggle to be free, and these are there, though mostly oblique as the characters themselves don't want to remember what happened to them. What I didn't expect was a ghost story - a shocking killing - a ghostly retribution - and desperation caused by a terrible shared past. Time is so fluid that you have a had time knowing exactly where you are in the story on any given page. Baby Suggs dies early, but then she is back and preaching. One minute you are in the house at 124, and the next in Sweet Home (the plantation) trying to keep track of which Paul is which (several slaves were named Paul - A, B, C, and D) This is not a book I am going to recommend since it is such a tough read, BUT... if you want to know how newly freed slaves lived - in fear that it might all come to an end, and that even decent white folk could not be trusted - this would be a good one to pick up. |
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Towing Jehovah Okay. God dies, and his giant body falls into the arctic ocean. A group of people hired by the Vatican go out to tow his body with an oil tanker to an angelically built tomb. Strange plot that allows all kinds of strange (and amusing) speculation on life, religion, and the universe. This is alot like a Chris Moore novel, only without the just plain crazy that those have. |
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This was a short book and was supposed to be humorous. I'm guessing it was (there were some funny bits and twists and characters) but maybe I was not in the right head space to read this. It didn't hold my interest until the end when I finally began to care enough about the characters to wonder what the heck would happen to them. At least the dog made out okay (never having to work again). A kind of cute exploration of some different people, but I think I must have missed the point. |
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Wow, can Nabakov write. I can totally see how this book became one of the top novels of the century, even if the subject matter is, to most minds, distasteful. At first it was a bit dull because we spend so much time in Humbert’s mind, and so little actually interacting with the world. But then he finally meets his Lolita, and from there the book really takes off. Pay attention, because dropped here and there in the text is foreshadows, hints, and signs of what is going on in other characters, and how the book is going to end tragically. Though it ends tragically, I feel that Humbert Humbert (not his real name) turns out to be a mildly decent sort in the end (strange as that may seem). This is worth reading just to taste what Nabakov can do with the English language – not his native one in fact. |
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This book is listed as one of the top books of all time, and I can see why. It's quite powerfully written, and contains logic that seems undeniable. The dystopian society makes sense in horrible, twisted manner. The main character is ground down to nothing.. completely destroyed. It's easy to imagine that such a society could actually exist and actually work. What a horror show. A good reflection of the fears of the time. I give this a thumps up. |
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Well written, but not as powerful or as insightful as some of the others that are rated less on the best books list. This is an easy read, but, once you know that the title means, the downward progress of the main character seems pretty inevitable - and pretty un-motivated. I must have missed it, but I can't see why this guy collapsed the way he did. Good marriage, good job, reasonable people around him, and he just self destructs. I think Phillip Roth is the better writer, but from a different perspective. |
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I re-read this recently, and it’s still as obvious as it was back when. A heavy dose of allegory to make points about greed and government that we all should remember. |
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A wonderful book about a black minister in South Africa in the late 1940's near the beginning of the formalization of Apartheid. He travels from his small village area to the metropolis of Johannesburg - along the way meeting people both bad and good who have all been affected by the discrimination against the black by the white. In the city he learns that his son has committed murder and is to go on trial. He finds is daughter has been a prostitute, and discovers that the girl his son was to marry is pregnant with his grandchild. Through all this he and others think much on the problem of black oppression by a white minority. In another section, the a white man travels to Johannesburg only to discover that his son has been killed by a black man. What he learns about his sons work changes him and disposes him to help the people living around his estate - the very place where the black minister is from The two men meet by accident, and realize how their sons are connected. Both are forever changed. Read this book if you have any interest in good story and the struggles of South Africa. It is very readable and very touching. If at some point you don't have tears in your eyes, there is something wrong with you. |
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Did you ever read one of those books ... and your within 30 pages of the end, and you are wondering, "What is the point?" and "How is the author going to wrap this mess up in the little bit remaining?" - Well, this is one of those books. It's about a guy who's life is empty; who drifts from girl to girl; from day to day; kind of wondering what is interesting in life, but making no great effort to find it. One of those guys. And one day he does something mildly stupid, and the people around him (mostly his Aunt) come to realize what an empty person he really is. That pretty much sums up what I got out of this book. Almost another Appointment in Sammarra, but not as blatant. While reading this book it suddenly dawned on me (in words I could describe) what makes a good book for me. It's a book that takes me there - THERE being with the characters in a place, or inside their minds - I read a few lines and I am no longer in my world, but in the creation of the authors. This book did not take me there. A shame too as it had such a fantastic backdrop to play against - New Orleans during Mardi Gras. |
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This is a wonderful little book about a disturbing topic; one woman's descent into mental illness and her slow climb back out. It's told from the inside, and what struck me was the cohesion. Her thoughts made sense, and yet, grew more ill as time went on, until the final straw of her attempted suicide. At which point she describes how the right doctor finally met her, and how she came back from that brink - a brink which is always there, no matter how far back you come. Given that some say this is autobiographical, it makes it an even more interesting read. At times I didn't want to put this down. The story pulls you in, and you want to go with it. I would recommend this one along with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - so you get both sides of the mental illness picture. |
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The Republic is surprising in many ways. Every philosopher lays out what he believes the perfect government should be, and it’s surprising that Plato, an Athenian Greek, would not chose to go with Democracy, but his belief in “ideals” causes him to chose a system that is idealized. Unfortunately human frailty is not addressed, but that’s okay – it’s a utopia after all, and they never address that. One interesting thing is the mis-match between the current day interpretation of PLATONIC LOVE and that talked about in The Republic. The Philosopher Kings where not to be burdened with the distractions love and jealousy; of pursuit and conquest for love. Instead they were to fulfill the sexual and passionate urges amongst themselves without recourse to marriage or commitment. It was sex without love rather than the modern meaning of love without sex. I think this also applied to the Warrior class as well, but cannot recall. I give this 3 stars, though I would not recommend it to anyone other than a philosophy major. Other Essays within this same collection that I have read include: |
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The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade (proving that Poe also had a sense of humor) Poe is great for a night when you feel like reading something creepy. His stories are short and to the point. Not alot of background or character development, which let Vincent Price to plenty with them. I recommend these to everyone who likes a little creepy now and then. |
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I got to watch the part of the old John Wayne version of this movie recently, and decided that I would read the book. If you liked the movie, you will like the book. Mattie Ross is exactly the character we all love from both movies.. with more depth as to exactly WHY she is that way. (Have to get my bible out to look up some of the references.) I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a western. |
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What a nice little book. The story of a broken man who, through tough times and odd events, finds himself on the road to wholeness (along with his children). This was wonderfully readable and engaging. Illustrates the harsh life of people trying to make their way in a dying culture (Newfoundland fishing communities). People who have grown up around the water and the water is all they know and love. The main character, Quoyle, is deeply broken from his love for his abusive first wife (who dies early in the book, thank goodness). Over time he learns some disturbing things about his ancestors and family, but also learns that he can heal and grow and fall in love again. I really enjoyed this book - it is one of the ones that "takes me there". I recommend it completely. |
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If you saw the movie, then you read the book. There is very little more (in terms of action) in the book that Puzo didn't manage to get up on the screen; which, given the length of the book manes that he was a pretty masterful screen writer as well as novelist. Still, the book is a very enjoyable read. I can imagine when this book came out it was a shock to people to learn just how organized italian crime worked. What was meant by "respect" and "business". The motivations for and origins of the Mafia crime families is made clear - and you develop sympathy even for the why's if not the methods of how these people lived. I'm not exactly sure how this book got it's place on the "best books" list. Its not great literature. But it was awful popular in it's day and a good solid story. If you enjoyed the movie, you will enjoy the book. If you have never seen the movie.. the book is a good engrossing read. Give it a try. Oh.. and the ending is not the same as the movie... in the last 5 pages there is a complete turn around from the movie version that is ... touching.
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It's obvious that Thomas Pynchon had a sense of humor and the command of the language to let is shine. There are many funny bits in this book.. Especially if you know LA and the Bay Area in California. His description of the whole LA area is great. But, well, for me, something was missing. Fun to read, but not engaging, Pynchon tries to generate a historical and world spanning conspiracy that is just not interesting enough make me care about what the main character Oedipa Maas is going through. Lots of good scenes. A little suspense. Plenty of good jokes and puns. Some nice satire. An incoherent whole. I won't spoil the ending... because you can't spoil the ending. Read it for the humor. But there's much better out there. |
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I only finished half this book. It was dull. Preachy. The conclusion was obvious. The message was obvious. The sexism was a bit tough to take. I hated it. I do not recommend this book - which is going to piss off a whole lot of people - but really... really.. do you believe the premise. Are you one of the elect? I seriously doubt it. If you are, then you have a serious narcissistic streak. |
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Once Bitten, Twice Shy Okay, I was bored one day and forgot to follow my rule about always bringing a book to ANYTHING. So I popped into the book store and looked for something. I passed over Faulkner and grabbed this because I've like vampire stories in the past, and figured this would be fun. It wasn't. Don't get me wrong, if you are a vampire novel addict, this might entertain you, but I found the main character... unbelievable. The plot was filled with "Deus ex machina" bits that looked to be put in at random just to make sure there was enough unexplained junk left over for a bunch of sequels. And the evil plot... completely unbelievable. A big disappointment. (Teach me to wander off without my list again) |
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All Quiet on the Western Front Another book that will punch you in the guts... and that is exactly what it should do. It's about one soldier and World War I - trench warfare - a phrase that many younger people have never heard of. It's about what war does to a man (to a boy really). The pleasure in the mundane.. the horror.. the mechanisms you use to cope. There really isn't anything different between these boys and the boys we send to Iraq today - there may be a century of time between them, but the human mind has to cope with horror.. and that hasn't changed since written history began. Now, don't get me wrong. This book is not all horror stories. Most if it, in fact, is pretty mundane. Someone once described war as "hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer panic"... and this book is the same. It follows the soldiers as they try to get along between those moments of panic. But the moments of panic are vivid, and affect the reader like they affect the characters. This one gets a big thumbs up. |
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This is an odd book. It's supposed to be a "pre-quel" to Jayne Eyre - explaining the backgrounds of the characters - how Rochester came to be married to a "mad" woman - and how the woman (Bertha Antoinette) married Rochester and became mad. Having not read Jayne Eyre (but knowing the plot from The Eyre Affair) this was, in some sense an interesting introduction. But it was a difficult read as there were many local references and character/time changes without pre-amble. (The edition I had had many notes to explain local references, but the book read much better when I started to ignore them.) This is a very short book, and if you enjoyed Jayne Eyre, then you might be interested in reading this. Otherwise I am not recommending it. |
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Wow. This book is dense. It's a little like reading Lolita in that every page is just fantastically written, and it takes a long time to absorb what you are reading. I'm a quick reader and this took me two weeks plus. But the roller coaster ride is worth it. Phillip Roth is one of the great American writers. If you want a deep book touching on family, religion, the 60's, rebellion and the despair of life and why things go wrong; this is a good book for you. |
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“Then came adolescents…” Thus begins chapter 2 of Portnoy’s Complaint – and boy what a roller coaster ride it is. I read this when I was in High School.I have no clue why I picked it up, but I have never regretted it. I learned so much about Jewish culture and the pressures on young Jewish males to make just the right choices in life. And Alexander Portnoy tells us everything he encounters in the years of sexual frustration that start with adolescents and masturbation. I also learned most of the Yiddish I know today from this book. I would recommend this book to anyone (particularly to men) who can relate to growing up and trying to figure out how sex is supposed to work. |
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Well, I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie, and both of them lived up to the hype at the time. I did not read any further into the series, but many people (children and adults) did, and it seems to have been time well spent. The Harry Potter series seems to have engendered plenty of controversy and attempts at banning the books. If the people who are constantly attempting to ban books would sit down and write a book once in a while I might have more respect for them. Oh well... I enjoyed it.. so will you. |
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I read it so long ago – high school – and honestly cannot remember a thing about it except the name Holden Caulfield and the dream of wanting to catch the children in the rye – which symbolized something I’m sure.Got to re-read to rate. |
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John Scalzi writes great SciFi - and now I know he can handle a little farce mixed in as well. I won't go into detail, but if you like a bit of SciFi, a bit of a spy novel, a bit of action, and a whole complicated mess-o-interplanetary politics - then you will probably enjoy this one. I give it a Thumbs UP. |
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This was and extremely short book, which I read while standing in the book store. Seeing how short it was, it didn't make any sense for me to buy it. Having said that, I can see how there might be enough stuff in here to make a movie from... though it didn't really catch my imagination I can totally see how a parent might love to share this with their child and then talk about all the "wild things" that people will encounter while they grow up (and beyond). |
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If you have an interest in the history of the Civil War, then you must read this book. Our family had relatives on both sides of the battle, and I have been to Gettysburg. I never understood the battle of Gettysburg as I do now. This book is a completely accurate description of what took place during the 3 days of that battle. It is listed under fiction because Shaara has written it from the viewpoint of the various commanders of that battle - including what they thought internally and how they interacted with each other. No one knows enough to say what Shaara says, but his speculation is based on extensive research, and makes this lesson in history extremely readable. Having read this, I hope to go back to Gettysburg, book in hand, and re-live some of what my forefathers suffered in those days. |
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Read this in High School, and again years later. This is a classic, and perhaps everyone should give it a try, though seeing it on stage is much easier. |
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A classic horror novel, which is much more horrible in the movies than in the reading. I found myself in much more sympathy with the monster than with Frankenstein. The entire book is told in the form of a letter, though you quickly forget this. The Dr. Frankenstein is picked up by a ship seeking the famous North-West passage, and relates the tale of how he created the creature and then shunned it. The creature, for his part, seems to be a perfectly fine human being, motivated by the same needs that move us all. He is, however, incredibly hideous and is rejected by everyone who sees him. He turns finally to his creator and asks Frankenstein to make for him a companion. Frankenstein at first agrees, but then refuses. What follows is a tragedy of revenge and hate. Written in the style of the times, some people might not enjoy it, but it is a fine read, and an interesting glimpse into what people of the time thought of science - how, though it held much promise, also held much fear. |
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Almost required reading for everyone in either High School or College, this is the story about an immigrant family that tries to make a living in the appalling conditions in Chicago's Meat Packing district in the early 1900's. Sinclair researched this book heavily, and when it came out American's were shocked at what went on with their food supply. After the book came out laws were passed to clean up the industry. Poor Mr. Sinclair however never realized his dream. He spends the whole book describing how awful conditions are for workers under what he calls "wage slavery", and how capitalists will always keep the working man down. Then he spends the last 2 chapters talking about socialism, and how socialism can solve everything! He was really hoping to foment a socialist revolution in this country. Unfortunately, the socialist world he describes sounds like an even worse situation than the "wage slavery" he decries. Under socialist rule a worker would have no choice about what to consume.. it would all be decided for him. He even would not be able to settle in one place because workers could be moved by society to wherever they are most needed. He doesn't even get to chose what he wants to EAT!!! Meat production would cease because it's not as efficient as vegetarianism. Every aspect of life would be controlled and dictated. Wouldn't that be just wonderful!!! UGH... Sinclair failed in his primary goal, but succeeded amazingly in changing society for the better. |
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A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Powerful good reading. Ivan Denisovich is a prisoner in the Russian Gulag somewhere in Siberia. How does he manage to live from day to day on little food, and less hope makes for an amazing story. Unfortunately, it’s also probably pretty accurate considering the author spent time there as well. Consider it autobiographical. |
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Power won’t save you in the cancer ward. Solzhenitsyn takes on the Russian medical system in this novel that throws people from very different walks of life together in a ward where they all face the same killer. Talk about a great premise to explore human nature. In the end, I felt relieved that everyone seemed to get what was coming to them. |
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The Gulag
Archipelago
– All 3 volumes – not really fiction, unfortunately. I am clueless why a high school kid would pick up this massive work and read it. I had heard about this great Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and how he was being allowed to immigrate to the west after years of persecution. I guess I was just in awe of the whole thing. This tome takes on the Russian Prison system – where political prisoners by the hundreds of thousands could simply disappear for years on end; many never heard from again. Solzhenitsyn walks you through the whole system.. how you get in.. how you get out.. where you go.. who your fellows are.. how it all works – like a threshing machine grabbing up the guilty and the innocent and the merely troublesome, and processing these souls through it’s dark, horrible, yet manically efficient mechanism. If you want a vision of hell, I would suggest reading this over Dante. |
Note: This link is for Vol. 1 only. There is more if you can stomach it. |
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This is a WONDERFUL novel. Humorous and touching with a mystery not revealed until almost the last page. About cultures clashing and mixing; about parents and the conflicts with their children raised in a different culture. About how things work out... and how they don't. This is a really fun book to read. Two best friends, one British and the other Bangladeshi, who served in the war together, start this novel. Their children and their cross cultural struggles are the fodder for the plot. It is hard to describe how enjoyable this book is. The characters, even when acting foolishly, are everyman in which you should see so much of yourself. Their struggles, though not your particular struggles, are the struggles with life that we all deal with. How they all come to different conclusions given the same set of facts will ring with odd familiarity. Read this book. |
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This is a fun and interesting little book about a teacher (Jean Brodie) who is constantly telling her select set of students that she is in her "prime" and that they shall be the crème de la crème of students in the school. Miss Brodie is quite unorthodox in her manner of teaching and her manner of love life. The girls who start at age 9 and are carried to age 17 or 18 in the book, get to explore life through the eyes of Miss Brodie, accepting and rejecting and wondering constantly about the real Miss Brodie and who and how she loves. The book jumps forwards and backwards in time, sometimes from paragraph to paragraph, but is all the more fun to read because of it. Miss Brodie's manner is disapproved of by the school's Head Mistress who grills the girls through the years and who, through the betrayal of one of the girls, manages to get rid of this strange teacher. We learn of the betrayal early in the book, but not who or how, until just before the end. I enjoyed this, and would recommend it. It was fun. |
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OH MY GOD. If this book doesn’t move you, then you have no soul. The Joads make their way to California at the promise of a better life and are ill used at every turn. Once it was the Chinese – today it is the Hispanics – In this novel it’s the Oakies; enticed to California by the hope of making a living, only to have those hopes dashed time and again. Yet they remain strong in the face of it. The very last scene of this book was so powerful, and had such an affect on me that I vowed I would not be reading any more Steinbeck – because I never wanted to feel that way again. I highly recommend this book even after that statement. |
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Short and tragic; a story about two men trying to make it in a hard world and a hard place. Another look into how California used to run, and still runs today with a different race of workers. |
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The adventure of a poor country boy who, on visiting his uncle after his fathers death, is kidnapped and made to work on a ship - eventually to be sold into slavery in the Americas. How he makes his way back home and his revenge on the person responsible are the main subject of this book. Now... this is not at good at Treasure Island because it involves some interesting political history about Scotland. History that was relevent to me and my family history - but not so much to other folk. Still and all, and interesting read, containing some interesting bits of politics, law, and language. |
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What an adventure this is. As good today as when it was written. I can still remember when I was a kid watching the Disney movie based on this book. The Black Spot - and the terror it evoked in the receiver. This is a great yarn for young and old. Totally Recommended. |
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The legend of Dracula has been served up in so many different ways that it's kind of fun to go back and read the original. The book consists of a series of letters, journals, diary entries, and new articles - laid out in chronological order. The main characters do most of the writing and pass their writings among themselves to keep each other up to date. Mina acts as secretary to the group of hero's by transcribing everything using the new fangled typewriter and the amazing carbon paper to make multiple copies. Dracula himself appears very little after the begining of the book. The book is an interesting look at Victorian sexism and morality. And much longer than I at first thought it would be. A little tedious at times, still, you want to keep reading to see what it going to happen next. The defeat of Dracula is almost anti-climactic. Read this one for fun, then jump ahead to Anne Rice. |
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An American classic that retains so much power today that I can't even imagine the impact it had when it first came out prior to the civil war. Harriet Beecher Stowe shines her light on the inherent cruelties of the system of slavery - cruelty that is built into the system regardless of the intentions of the most well meaning slave owner. Slave owners, both good and bad, are in for a rude examination in this book. But she didn't stop there. She cast light on the non-slave owning northerners who still held such racist views that they would never want to mix with former slaves on any kind of equal basis. She puts light were it didn't exist before no matter who gets exposed. No one escapes her examination - except herself. Yes, Ms. Stowe shows her own prejudice many times in the book - constantly making statements about the Negro race; that they have this character or that character - apparently she believed that "races" did have characteristics that made them different - and as such she was, herself, a racist. Oddly, every educated Negro in her book wound up in Liberia - where she thought it would be appropriate for them to go.. and any others would become America's White Man's Burden. People at the time had such a hard time believing what she wrote that at the end of the story she had to include a chapter just to explain that all the stories were, in essence, true and where she got her information. Some of this is still hard to read today. Banned and censored many times, this book was one of the factors that started the Civil War (according to Pres. Lincoln who, on meeting Ms. Stowe said, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.") It still has the power to offend today - and would be banned still for it's constant use of the "N-word". In an interesting side note; Ms. Stowe was not only writing against slavery but was making a strong appeal for the country to become a Christian nation - along the lines of her beliefs in Christianity. Like Sinclair's The Jungle, which was trying to change the country to socialism, Stowe's book is not remembered for this. I highly recommend that anyone with any interest in American history read this book. |
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Holy Cow. This book is so packed with ideas and predictions about the near future that it takes a while to read and absorb. And, it offers yet another explanation for the Fermi Paradox – the Matrioshka brain – where our entire solar system is turned into a giant computer and everyone uploads into it. (No.. a for real concept http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrioshka_Brain - and pretty reasonable). And this is just one tiny portion of the 100’s of outrageous ideas this book explores. (Seems like everything I read lately touches on the Fermi Paradox one way or another.) This book is not for the faint of heart – it’s dense and needs thinking while your reading it. Definitely not beach material. I’m not recommending it unless you are a hard core Sci Fi fan with a nice background in physics. |
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I can understand completely why it would not appeal to men. It's a book about the the relationship between mothers and daughters. It reminded me a bit of the book My Mother, Myself - where a women wonders about all those things her mother tried to tell her - what she got and what she missed. Only in The Joy Luck Club the problem is magnified because the daughters have grown up in a completely different culture than their mothers, so they miss much of the wisdom and much of the humanity of their mother's lives. I really enjoyed it. I'd recommend it for women, and a few guys I know. |
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Bilbo’s adventures are wonderful – and tragic when you know the results. An innocent loses it, and grows to manhood (or hobbithood) by exploring the wide world outside his comfortable little home. Good reading. |
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One of the best fantasies of all time. The quintessential battle between good and innocence, and pure evil and darkness. The movies did the books justice, but only the books can make you understand how the characters relate and love each other. I completely recommend these (though they could lose the Tom Bombadill character as far as I am concerned. Never quite got what he was about.) |
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court This is one of those books that I knew from the movies before I knew it from the book.And again, Oh My, what a difference. Sure there are several points where they match up, and there are lots of interesting times in the book, but when you get to then you’re left with a sick feeling in your stomach that something had indeed gone wrong. Our hero turns out not to be much of a hero after all, and he winds up surrounded by destruction of his own creation. If you want some fun from Mark Twain – go read Huckleberry. |
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Fun from start to finish. Huck Finn and run away slave Jim have howling adventures as they make their way down the river – each running from something and to something. Huck is a little more down to earth than his friend Tom Sawyer, and so handles his moral dilemmas in a very straightforward manner. As you read, you beg for him to come to the right choice, and in a round about and strange way, he eventually does. Then, in the end, he and Tom Sawyer team up again for one last rousing adventure to make sure slave Jim gets freed up right and proper. You will enjoy it. |
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Around the World in Eighty Days This was a light read that took less than 2 days to get through. The main character was rather plain, but the others around him were rather fun. Presents and interesting view of the world at the time of Verne's writing - with Britain, and everything British representing the pinnacle of civilization. |
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A Journey to the Center of the Earth This was the most fun of the Verne books I have read for 2 reasons. First, the characters were fun (Prof. Liddenbrook is quite irritating at times), and second, the theory of the earths creation is so outlandish as to be laughable - that is until you realize that once upon a time they thought it could be true, and that the earth did not have a molten center. A quick and entertaining read for those who enjoy classic science fiction. And nothing like any movie you've seen in your life. |
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Verne must have done an amazing amount of research on oceanography to write this book. Of course there are errors, and scenes which make simply no sense today, but it's still a fun read. And, before reading this I always thought that 20,000 leagues was a depth. In fact it is the distance they traveled under the sea. Most of the time the Natillus traveled at a depth of a few yards - I don't know why I thought that, but I always did. |
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I can see why this book caused such a stir when it was first written in 1759. I pokes fun at everyone and every thing. Voltaire has no respect for kings, religion, monks, inquisitors, philosophers, soldiers, or romantic love. Everything is lambasted at one point or another, though the main character, Candide, stays optimistic throughout. A very fast read, but one I would only recommend to someone with an interest in old French comedy, or a bit of history and philosophy combined. |
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Slaughterhouse
5; or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death
I loved this book. It was strange to be slipping backward and forward in time, but the whole thing was a fun ride. I would recommend this to anyone. |
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This was an easy one day read, and really enjoyable. Wells was writing at the time that Darwin's ideas were starting to take hold, and he incorporated them into his vision of the future. Where the HAVE's and the HAVE-NOT's (the aristocracy and the working class) would actually evolve into two different species of humans. Funny. A naive view of evolution, but, it being a new idea at the time, forgivable. H.G. Wells, is the inventor of science fiction. His attempt at the start of the book to present TIME as a 4th dimension (which we know it to be) allows him to then play with the concept of a machine that can travel through it, and the future evolution of mankind and the planet. Read it. You'll like it. |
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This was a nice little book that makes a huge point in very few pages. It's not a hard read, but it addresses one of the biggest questions of the human race... WHY? Why... anything? Why are we here? Why do things happen the way they do? Why to good people suffer and bad people not? The monk who is trying to figure this all out after the tragedy at the bridge (it collapses and 5 people fall to their deaths) never comes to a satisfactory solution. But one character does, and though its not grand, it is enough. This book is somewhat along the lines of Of Mice And Men - but with a few more characters.. and a tad more tragic (though no one does tragedy like Steinbeck). It's short and to the point. Mildly disturbing as you realize who it was who died, and who lived, and how random it all was. Read it. It's worth it. |
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Before starting this book I understood that the plot was about Mrs. Dalloway going through her day, and that it was written using stream of consciousness. "Hey", I figured, "I can deal with that. I have a stream of consciousness. I know how that works." Then I started reading. What I found so confusing at first was that it's stream of consciousness for every character. You jump from the inside of one mind to another, sometimes without a clear boundary being set. And the odd thoughts that pop up while another thought is being explicated... you hit tangents and impressions of things.. they suddenly swerve to another topic, and back again, rounding corners that you didn't see coming. And suddenly you're thinking who is doing the thinking here. Who am I now? But if you stick with it.. it starts to flow and becomes fun. This is a book you cannot read in little 2 page bites (like I read many books). This is a book you have to set aside an hour to read at least, and then pause now and then to re-cap it in your mind while you play in other peoples. |
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It is absolutely no wonder at all to me anymore why Virginia Woolf committed suicide. Anyone who can extract so much excruciating detail from the tiniest little thing is living WAY to much inside their own head. Did she think that other people around her perceived the world the way she wrote about it? If she did, then her entire life must have been one huge disappointment after another. Her fellow human beings must have seemed shallow and more like mechanical robots than herself. And the swing of emotions occurring within seconds of each other must have been worse than any manic-depression I have ever heard described. Okay - I can see why this is listed as one of the greatest books of all time. If you want to learn how to describe a scene or the inside thoughts of a character, then nothing holds a candle to Woolf. But, damn, it's nearly an impossible read. James Joyce's Ulysses makes more sense from paragraph to paragraph then this small but weighty book. One star because it's very hard to read; not because it is no good. Read Mrs. Dalloway instead, if you want to read Woolf. If you love that one, then this one might be your cup of tea. |
