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perceptual_set posted:If you're still interested, I promise it gets better. The first one was pretty slow. There is more graphic, awkward, with snickering aliens watching, sex scenes too! Turtledove is a hack. I just finish Gravity's Rainbow for the second time, I got a better handle on it this time I think.
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Jul 25, 2008 22:32
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I just finished Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I had some trouble getting into the book initially - the repetition seems ludicrous at first, and you have very little idea what is going on, what with the chronological jumps and the narrator constantly referencing events that the reader has not been told about yet. But the more I read, the more I got into it. All the things you feel are ludicrous in the beginning really are ludicrous - but that's the point. The last quarter of the book kind of drops the charade and shows the horror of war more bluntly, but the book somehow remains funny to the last page. Great book, one I'm sure I'll be thinking about for quite awhile.
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Jul 25, 2008 23:22
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I think I've finished off 3 books since I last posted. In order: Courtroom 302 by Steve Bogira. An excellent nonfiction book that follows one courtroom in Cook County Criminal Courthouse for a year. Though it has a pretty obvious argument (basically that defendants are shortchanged because the system is too clogged and the public would rather it dispense with cases quickly than take enough time to provide real justice), it really portrays both sides of the criminal justice system fairly in the end I think. For anyone interested in criminal law, I cannot recommend this enough. In the Woods by Tana French. A detective novel that takes place in Ireland. It's a nice change of pace from most other books in the genre--both because of the setting and because it manages to be unpredictable while not straying far from the usual mystery novel path. People who like mysteries that have cliffhangers every 10 pages and tie everything into a neat bow will probably be disappointed, but those who want a well-written mystery with some real depth will probably enjoy it as much as I did. This was French's first novel (the follow-up just came out last week and is discussed below) and shows she has a ton of promise. The Likeness, also by Tana French. This is the just-released follow-up to In the Woods. Like the first novel, it's well-written and manages to feel very different from most other mysteries/detective novels, even though a lot of what happens is standard in this genre. I think the writing here is sharper than the first book (there are some passages here that are so well-done I had to read them a few times to let it all soak in), but the plot is a little harder to swallow and is a little looser in its pacing. Overall though it was great. I love mysteries that don't make me feel guilty after reading them, and these two books definitely fit the bill with the quality of French's writing and the thematic richness of both stories.
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Jul 26, 2008 01:08
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Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck. I really liked this book. It's a bit simple, but that's not a bad thing. Steinbeck's attempt to recreate the Round Table in California is a really charming, funny, and touching story. And it kind of reminds me of college life, to be honest.
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Jul 26, 2008 03:55
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Cosmonauticus posted:There is more graphic, awkward, with snickering aliens watching, sex scenes too! Turtledove is a hack. It's a good thing you waited almost 2 years and 73 pages to correct me. I almost made a terrible mistake.
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Jul 26, 2008 04:43
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Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. Did not enjoy it very much. Too predictable and dry.
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Jul 26, 2008 09:42
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The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli The classic. I thought it was rather specific to Machiavelli's time rather than a generalized how-to for evil overlords. There was also a large rear end kissing feel, he was pretty clearly sucking up to the Medicis, to whom the book was written. Hornblower during the Crisis, C.S. Forester Incomplete novel, would have detailed a secret mission to deliver orders to Villeneuve to get him to sail out and get his rear end kicked at Trafalgar, but Forester only got to Hornblower's capturing and presenting to the admirality a dispatch signed by Napoleon before Forester died. Also included a couple short stories, I particularly liked "The Last Encounter" which has Napoleon's kid knocking on an elderly Hornblower's door begging for money. Hornblower and the Atropos, C.S. Forester The ending is like a country song, Hornblower loses his ship because a dipshit king wants a "navy", and when he's dumped off back in England his two young children have smallpox. To top it all off, he's well on his way to being pigeonholed into "secret" type missions.
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Jul 26, 2008 10:06
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BobDoleBobDole posted:Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. Did not enjoy it very much. Too predictable and dry. I just finished Snuff also and came to post the exact same reaction. Some parts were pretty hilarious though, but not hilarious enough to warrant a second read like some of his other books. The thing I disliked the most was a lack of a main character to keep the story focused. The transitions were absolutely terrible and made for a fairly boring, and sometimes confusing read.
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Jul 26, 2008 10:42
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The Moon Is Down by Steinbeck. It's a short novella about a fictional invasion and occupation of a small European village by Nazis. I really enjoyed the simple prose and dialogue and it was a very quick read. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. I heard tons of praise for this book by many of my friends and finally decided to borrow a copy. A fairly simple book, which I thought worked well to get the idea across to the most people, I thought some of the dialogue was far too forced at times. I enjoyed the book but would have rather read a 30 page philosophical paper that dove a bit deeper into some of the points Quinn was trying to make. Either way, this was another quick read. I'm currently reading Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan. Soma Soma Soma fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jul 26, 2008 |
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Jul 26, 2008 21:20
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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This was a reread... of a 800 page book. And it was worth it. All the details and side-stories and footnotes help to make it a very immersive story. Honestly, the more minor characters like Childermass and Lascelles were more interesting than some of the majors, but despite all that I found the more fanciful version of 19th-century England a lot more interesting than most of the era's writers made it. 
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Jul 26, 2008 23:25
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Into the Wild: This has become my #1 favorite book replacing Masters of Doom. Unbelievable story. Though the author has kind of a weird writing style, however he addresses it in the beginning so you have a better idea. For anyone who has read this are there any other books like this. 
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Jul 27, 2008 02:52
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Jsquared posted:For anyone who has read this are there any other books like this. Never read any of Jon Krakauer's books, but I know he also wrote Into Thin Air about a group of climbers who die going up Mt.Everest. Its based on a real event and was a pretty popular book. Just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and I thought it was alright. It dragged a lot in the middle for me and I'm starting to notice the same formula he seems to always use. I still like it though and I just read his work for some fun in between my serious reading.
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Jul 27, 2008 03:57
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I just finished reading the Sabriel series by Garth Nix. I thought that the first and second book (Sabriel and Lirael respectively) were really good. The third, Abhorsen, was pretty good also but I didn't like it nearly as much as the previous two. It did tie up all the loose ends pretty well though. In case anyone is interested, it's a fantasy trilogy that focuses mostly around a Necromancer as the main character. You don't see necromancers portrayed as good guys often in stories like this and Nix really came up with some creative ideas to explain how it all works out. Just started Snow Crash today and am really enjoying it.
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Jul 27, 2008 06:03
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On Writing by Stephen King. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that it's the first book by him that I've ever read. I really enjoyed it though and it's inspired me to write a bit more, which is to be expected. I think I might also actually read some of his fiction.
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Jul 27, 2008 07:46
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I've been on a bit of a streak recently, and in the last month was able to polish off three good ones. The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien by Oscar Hijuelos A slice of life epic about a Cuban-Irish immigrant family living in Central Pennsylvania during the 20th century. For the scope of the family, each character is well rounded and believable, although some obviously play second-tier to other siblings. My only complaint is that it seems inconsistent in who to treat as the protagonist, split constantly between Margarita and Emilio. The ending leaves a bit to be desired as well, but considering the novel's intent, I wonder how much of the ending is deliberate. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Everyone seems to be on a Cormac kick since [i]The Road[/b] and the No Country film. I chose this one since I heard a lot about it, but its been pretty much ignored by the forum. Great book, great characters. Felt like a page-turner more than anything, but was handled with a scope uncommon for the "western." In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez Probably my favorite of the three. Adds the scope of human life that Hijuelos' novel has with a political and moral message that only adds to the power of the novel. Makes the relatively unknown Dominican martyr's human in their experiences, and draws the reader to hold a strong emotional tie to the history of the island.
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Jul 27, 2008 22:54
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His Dark Materials Trilogy I started reading The Golden Compass about a month ago, got hooked and whizzed straight through The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. It'll go down as another great series that I enjoyed and would recommend it to anyone who's into those fantasy sorts of books.
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Jul 28, 2008 02:54
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Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk I really wish I had read this before seeing the movie. Or even immediately after. But after so many years, and seeing the movie so many times, there is no impact to the book for me. Every thoughtful line has already been stewing in my subconscious for years. Every idea, every theme is something I'm intricately familiar with. It also doesn't help that I like the ending of the movie better. I don't know if it's just because I saw that ending first, but it feels much more satisfying to me. I'm very glad I chose to read Choke before I see the movie later this year. Chuck's little insights can be wonderful when they're fresh.
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Jul 28, 2008 17:38
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This week: Power, Sex, Suicide by Nick Lane - a pop science book about mitochondria with a saucy title. It was a bit disappointing since Tyler Cowen called it one of the best non-fiction books he's read in years, even though at times it was so technical that I might just as well read a real science book. On the other hand, I really like evolutionary biology even if a lot of the hypotheses are bullshit, so parts were pretty good. Two Hemingway novels, an author I've somehow never read except for a few short stories: Old Man and the Sea - so beautiful that I read the entire thing in one sitting even though it was past 1 am when I started. I felt like self-deception is the central theme of this novella, even though as I read about it I'm not seeing much analysis that touches on that. A Farewell to Arms - I found it a little boring but the ending amazed me. I loved Santiago's internal monologue and felt left out when Hemingway largely excluded us from Henry's thoughts, even if that was intentional. Up until Catherine's death I expected Henry's feelings for her to wear off after the war and I was amazed that they didn't.
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Jul 29, 2008 08:28
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Neo_Reloaded posted:Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk I think that the Fight Club "wins" in the movie's "happy" ending results in an actually darker resolution that raises more interesting questions than the book's ending. There's also the fact that "Where is my Mind" fit that scene so perfectly.
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Jul 29, 2008 19:19
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When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris Really enjoyed this book. I had always heard a few of his short stories on This American Life and found them pretty funny. I have to say there were only a few stories that made me laugh out loud, but I was definitely smiling throughout the entire book. I really recommend purchasing the audio book, as Sedaris has an awesome delivery and to really enjoy the stories you need to hear that voice of his. There are also a few recordings of his live readings on the audio book.
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Jul 30, 2008 07:18
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Just finished Anthony Burgess's The Wanting Seed. It was...interesting. Not as tightly written as A Clockwork Orange. The plot was sort of clunky, as well. On top of that the book is massively homophobic. If it was severely cut down (from a pretty bloated 280 pages), it'd be a lot more interesting, but it tends to ramble and really doesn't present anything in a neat order. As a whole, it feels more like a nearly-final draft than a finished novel.
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Jul 30, 2008 08:08
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FloydianOne posted:When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris I definitely feel like this was one of his weaker books. But despite that, it was more Sedaris, which is always good.
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Jul 30, 2008 14:33
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In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami. I'd describe it as torture porn trying to mimic Delillo.
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Jul 30, 2008 17:41
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The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold arrived yesterday. It was a lot shorter than I expected and I was a little disappointed given that I'd spent almost $20 for it. However, I sat down and finished the story in one sitting and I thought it was fantastic. A really great time travel science fiction story that made me think and I even found myself identifying with the character quite a bit.
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Jul 30, 2008 18:27
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The Penultimate Truth by Philip K Dick. It's basically about fakeposting in a future where the internet doesn't exist. I also finished House of Leaves a couple of days ago but pretty much everything that needs to be said about that book has already been said more eloquently by someone else.
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Jul 30, 2008 19:18
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I just finished Virtual Light for like the sixth or seventh time. The Bridge books are my favorites of Gibson's. Compared to his earlier books, these have a much more believable world and much more fleshed out characters. One thing I really enjoyed on this read through was the juxtaposition of all these weird and elaborate Christian Cults against the very simple and real "religion" dedicated to the Christ figure, Shapely.
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Jul 31, 2008 04:36
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Finished The Rum Diary tonight, after sipping it more slowly than I do rum itself. So many people call it his "love story," and I guess it's the closest thing he ever wrote to one. Whatever it was, I liked it because I like Hunter's writing voice. Simple as that. In addition, I also see the difficulty in considering a film version. Even though it would be really quite easy to film and Johnny Depp has instant drawing power, it could still be a tough sell for most audiences. Rampant moral ambiguity has that effect, I fear. Still, can't wait.
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Jul 31, 2008 08:59
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A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami. Liked it better than Wind Up Bird Chronicles. I kind of wished the two books preceding it weren't so rare but then I found out they weren't terribly important to this book.
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Jul 31, 2008 18:32
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I just finished Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami. I dug the hell out of it - it was beautiful and funny and wonderfully enjoyable. I am now just finishing Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour. I cannot recommend this book enough. There is a "new" trend in culture called gastropornography and this is the best of the bunch. His descriptions of not only the food he encountered but also the cultures are like gourmand eating for the brain. The best part is that he is a regular person - a dumb schmuck that likes really good food.
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Jul 31, 2008 20:34
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Finished Quantum Psychology by Robert Anton Wilson. I love this dude, he exists somewhere between soft-science, philosophy and weirdoland. The basic premise is that our primary understanding of reality is rooted in Aristolean logic/Newtonian physics and that we should update our understanding/brain programming based on all the poo poo we've since learned. Each chapter has a bunch of exercises that are fun and drive the points home... pretty funny stuff like trying to translate the chorus from "Every Sperm Is Sacred" into E-Prime. Also killed Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard and it definitely didn't disappoint. Basically a well-to-do architect crashes his car near a massive highway interchange outside of London and ends up injured and marooned on a concrete "island." I can't say too much without giving it away but I really enjoyed it - it went to the strange place I hoped it would and is a lot like Crash in that it involves characters who follow their (imaginative) obsessions to their logical end. I'm hoping to finish Maldoror and the Illuminatus! Trilogy by Summer's end. Got a bunch of SF to read too: Little Brother, Mirrorshades Anthology, Semiotext(e) SF, and Harlan Ellison's Alone Against Tomorrow.
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Jul 31, 2008 20:37
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Propskill posted:I just finished Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami. I dug the hell out of it - it was beautiful and funny and wonderfully enjoyable. Glad to hear that Dance Dance Dance was good. Also funny that you just finished it given I just finished A Wild Sheep Chase this morning. How is it as a follow up? I was happy to find out about because of the loose ends that weren't tied up by the end of A Wild Sheep Chase. I'm gonna pick it up after I read a few other books I've got on my plate.
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Aug 1, 2008 04:41
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Propskill posted:I am now just finishing Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour. I cannot recommend this book enough. There is a "new" trend in culture called gastropornography and this is the best of the bunch. His descriptions of not only the food he encountered but also the cultures are like gourmand eating for the brain. The best part is that he is a regular person - a dumb schmuck that likes really good food. The book is so much better than the pared down TV series that he did and the executives hosed up. Also, he may be a normal dude, but he's also been a head chef for years in New York, so that hardly qualifies him as dumb. [img][/img]
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Aug 1, 2008 06:10
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I finished Cannery Row a couple of hours ago. Beautiful book. I have a stack of other stuff in the wings, but how's Sweet Thursday? It is one of those Steinbeck novels I never hear about, but the cast and setting of CR was so fantastic that I'm curious about his follow-up.
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Aug 1, 2008 07:20
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I just finished The Motorcycle Diaries By Ernesto Guevara. It was by turns fascinating (particularly in capturing from the inside the feel of that era and the politics and culture of the region), touching, and in places a tad banal. The latter quality springs from the fact that this retains the authenticity of a travel account written by a young man only just beginning to be sensitive to the issues that would later inspire his revolutionary zeal. An interesting read, which overall I'd recommend.
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Aug 1, 2008 23:48
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I read Dance Dance Dance by itself, I had no clue it was part of a series - but it was good enough to stand alone and be interesting with no prior knowledge of his "world." Bourdain comes off as a cooking bonehead, I saw his lecture in Pittsburgh a couple of months ago - he open with saying that Rachel Ray killed his dog and went on to describe Emril in a speedo (hurk.) THEN, he spoke with such passion about what he saw and ate in the villages he visited! Amazing! I would suggest reading Kitchen Confidential first before A Cook's Tour, tho - Confidential is more autobiographical, a little rougher, but just as wonderful to read.
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Aug 2, 2008 02:10
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Catherynne M. Valente's two-part series The Orphan's Tales - An enjoyable homage to classic fairy tales and the Arabian Nights which consists of an orphan girl telling stories to a prince. Valente's continual inventing of ever more fantastical people, places and creatures and the style of telling stories-within-stories is a great combination and keeps it fresh throughout. The Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart - I've never read much in the way of Arthurian legends, but this was an interesting look at the legends from Merlin's perspective, which portrays him as much more of a human figure rather than the all-powerful enchanter that he's usually portrayed as. I'm just now starting Stewart's The Wicked Day, which picks up some time after the Merlin books and focuses on Mordred.
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Aug 2, 2008 05:40
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I finished The God Delusion on Thursday and it was an excellent read. Much to my (naive) surprise, Dawkins is not simply a shrill atheist but one who provides compelling evidence for his lack of "belief" in religion; often via evolutionary biology and various other empirical methods of proof or, where unavailable, logic as well as philosophical arguments. It was also extremely readable and the man is quite witty! I'm most certainly going to pick up what I assume are his "big three" books: The Selfish Gene, Unweaving The Rainbow, and The Blind Watchmaker. Next, however, I was planning to read Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon wherein [b]Daniel Dennett[/u], a philosopher (of mind and of science) at Tufts University, works though the same themes as The God Delusion. Namely, whether or not religion can be studied in a scientific framework at all, an explanation thereof via evolutionary biology, and its subsequent societal impacts upon humankind. What I am wondering, then, is whether or not it would be worth it? Is Dennett's book simply a re-treading of Dawkins' hypotheses (the two are friends and colleagues, after all) or is it different enough to warrant a read directly after?
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Aug 2, 2008 05:56
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Soma Soma Soma posted:The Moon Is Down by Steinbeck. It's a short novella about a fictional invasion and occupation of a small European village by Nazis. I really enjoyed the simple prose and dialogue and it was a very quick read. I found that book at a local book store and bought it on a whim last summer. I loved it. The tension between the soldiers and villagers is great. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I had to read this way back in high school and I decided to try re-reading a book from the past and seeing how I reacted to it another time through. When I read it I can hear Gershwin playing in the background. I really enjoy the setting and time period of the book and Gatsby is such an suave character.
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Aug 3, 2008 01:30
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Jsquared posted:Into the Wild: This has become my #1 favorite book replacing Masters of Doom. Unbelievable story. Though the author has kind of a weird writing style, however he addresses it in the beginning so you have a better idea. I have read several books by Krakauer. I love Into The Wild, but to this day Into Thin Air is my favorite book by him.
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Aug 3, 2008 03:14
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I finished Starship Trooper and I'm not sure how I feel about it, nor do I even know if I got it. All I know is that it made me feel like a pussy for not being in the military. Was that the point?
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Aug 3, 2008 05:58
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