8:00PM
Hi everyone!
Just wanted to let those of you interested in romance novels that there is a blurty devoted to romance readers, it's called 
romance_novels
Thanks and hope some of you are interested in romance novels! :)
Hi everyone!
Just wanted to let those of you interested in romance novels that there is a blurty devoted to romance readers, it's called romance_novels
Thanks and hope some of you are interested in romance novels! :)
Some of what I have read...
The Sorrows of Young Werther Goethe: A+ (for the superb flow of events)
The Things They Carried O'Brien: A++ (for the amazing vignettes)
Candide Voltaire: B (too few details, but funny)
Cathedral Carver: D (blergh)
Sylvia Plath: A Biography Wagner-Martin: B (for the fifth grade reading level)
The Time of Our Lives Adler: B (for the big chunk of philosophical mumbo-gumbo in the middle)
Paroles Prévert: A+ (wonderful imagery)
The Silent Woman Malcolm: A- (I love it when someone gets down to the grit)
(cross-posted)
Kate Chopin's novel is, like the title suggests, about a woman's awakening. I think she was going to name it A Solitary Woman before she switched to The Awakening, but both can give you hints about the novel's contents. Personally, I loved the novel. Especially the ending, which made me close the book slowly and sit in my bed for half and hour in complete awe. If anyone decides to read it, it would probably enhance the reading if you paid attention to small events. And enjoy!
If you like psychological realism (and don't mind a delicate writer), then you'll probably like Daisy Miller: A Study. He does a wonderful job with his characters, which is the most important aspect of any novella (or any other type of work). Even though it's 19th century lit. (?), it's easy to read and very entertaining. I even felt sorry for Winterbourne (main character) which just shows that James really knows how to convey emotions. So, A+.
amusedObviously, this isn't a book, but it was indeed a great read. Although Luther can get a little repetitive, the argument/point of the essay is quite clear: faith is the only justification. What I really like about this essay is that it's well-suited for non-Christians as well as Christians and always a good beginning to an interesting debate. So, if you're looking for a short read by a smart man, then please look into this essay.
complacentby Hunter S. Thompson, the weirdo. Oh, that was editorializing.
Hey, I'm new 'round here and I thought I'd break in by giving a review of the book that I just read. I'm into Non-Fiction these days--research, research research!--so most of what I read is either non-fiction or a set of westerns that number around 60 volumes and all have the same characters/plot so reviews would be pointless.
It was written by a reporter guy in California before/during/after the Angels went national. This was back in '66 when you could wave to a cop with an open beer can in your hand as you whizzed past at 60 miles an hour. It essentially tells the story of the Angels as a whole, the public that dealt with them, and Sonny Barger. A few Angels pop up here and there for color, but most of the narrative seems to be more on how Thompson dealt with them than on the Angels themselves.
Overall, it was low on the information I was interested in--namely how Angels handle themselves. It did have some nice historical information about the group--for example the name came from a movie--and some really nice discussions about various colorful Angels as they went.
The ups: It apears to be pretty accurate; it's exceptionally easy to read, it's a narrative story rather than dry information; it's interesting in that it comes from someone who identifies with the group while remaining apart from it, there's bias in both directions; and it does a good job debunking the evil biker gang legends.
The downs: Thompson is fully enmeshed in a perverted romanticized hero-worship of the Angels, or more accurately, their lifestyle that he so obviously wants but doesn't have it in himself to have. The first chapter drove me nuts. He wrote it with lots of ellipses. Evil!
Final note: the use of dated slang like "righteous dude", "cat", and "squares" is just freaky and almost kind of a funny. "A righteous Angel loading up on a run. . . ." It was funny.
I wouldn't recommend this book for casual reading. If you want to know about early 60s Hell's Angels, good book. If you don't, avoid it.
A legend of India by Thomas Mann.
I'm not very familiar with Thomas Mann and his writings, so i do not know his writing quality or his language or even his content of preference. I do however know he writes in German, and i also know that the book i read was in English so i DEFINETLY know i'm missing a lot of the language and the beauty [unless of course Mann is a lousy writer].
The story in itself is very interesting. "More than a love story, or a story about marriage or friendship. It is a story that addresses the ever present dilema of whether we ought to make decisions based on our feelings or our intelect."Very very dumbly put, it is about two friends:
Shridaman- brought up with Brahman like teachings, grammar, astronomy and ontology and
Nanda-- raised to work as a black smith and a shepherd not as learned as teh other but where one lacks the other makes up for it.
and how their friendship changes inadvertently upon meeting the daughter of a cattle breeder, "Sita the woman with the beautiful hips."
I came to hate her character, but because of it, this story would've been nothing. It is an incredible little story, about 115 pages for those who do not like lengthy books, and a bit bizzare and sanguinary.
The tone and language however is lacking. I hold it fault to the translator, H.T. Lowe-Porter, who made the story seem to go in circles and with the slight intent of trying to confuse the reader [or perhaps it was Mann?]. So if you can, do try to read, if not in it's original tongue then by a different translator. It's worth it.
Note: Make sure to have a dictionary at hand for those who do not know about Indian culture or religion. It will help since they mention various Gods and Goddesses and some Indian terminology, ie... Linga and Yoni [Penis and Vagina].
Enjoy!
*sigh* So, Margaret Atwood is my favorite author. I love the work she does with the characters in her novels and just the general beauty in her writing. Oryx and Crake just didn't spark anything in me. It was like reading a novel by someone completely different. I only noticed a few glimpses into what I really love about Atwood. The novel was rushed and incomplete. It left me asking a lot of questions. The storyline was good, but I don't think she really focused on the strong aspects. I didn't even think I'd have to courage to finish it. So, there's my short 'n' shitty review. Don't bother reading this book.
The end!
(cross-posted)
A Washington Tragedy: How The Death Of Vincent Foster Ignited A Political Firestorm by Dan E Moldea
Whenever the name of Vince Foster is mentioned, there is the inevitable reference to his suicide and what, if anything, the Clintons had to do with it. Moldea does a decent job of outlining the police investigation into Foster's death as well as the investigation of the special prosecutor. He details the news coverage of this event during that time, and he does a decent job of separating fact from fiction. If ever there was a case made for different people having widely different memories of the same event, this is it.
It is helpful in reading this book to have some knowledge of who the people in the White House were at that time. There are a lot of names. It's helpful to have a face in mind for them.
Where this book falls short is in that there are not adequate explanations for some of the problems with which Vince Foster found himself involved. I believe those details could have been addressed without making judgements about the Clinton administration or those who investigated it. But the worst flaw of the book, in my opinion, was the final sentence. After making a case for 388 pages that Vince Foster was a complicated person involved in many complicated matters both personally and professionally, the author decides to completely abandon one side of the equation. While his book included all sides of Foster's issues, it did not provide the foundation for that kind of final decision. If the police and the special prosecutor couldn't do it, then Moldea certainly couldn't.
House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski
Read this book!
Cut from Amazon.com:
"...Mark Z. Danielewski's first novel has a lot going on: notably the discovery of a pseudoacademic monograph called The Navidson Record, written by a blind man named Zampanò, about a nonexistent documentary film--which itself is about a photojournalist who finds a house that has supernatural, surreal qualities. (The inner dimensions, for example, are measurably larger than the outer ones.) In addition to this Russian-doll layering of narrators, Danielewski packs in poems, scientific lists, collages, Polaroids, appendices of fake correspondence and "various quotes," single lines of prose placed any which way on the page, crossed-out passages, and so on."
It's fairly long and Danielewski goes into great detail for some parts...which I, sadly, skipped over out of anxiousness. I don't want to spoil anything. It's a great work in so many ways. I highly recommend it.
(cross-posted)
I became curious about a young Austrian-American woman named Eva Kollisch after reading in "der Standard" a review of the new German translation of her memoir just recently published in Austria--the cover of the German edition shows a beautiful, smiling proletarian woman worker photographed in the classic, black-and-white film of the era. I want to order the book just for the delicious cover--I love black-and-white images of beautiful, WWII-era women factory workers with overalls and bandanas tied over their heads (a favorite look sported by my first girlfriend). Below is the text of a rave review posted at Amazon written by a New York reader and feminist named Amy Swerdlow. Most interesting for me was Eva's short-lived marriage to the American Trotskyist Max Schachtman, and her inability to reconcile how "true" socialism should be defined and applied in theory and practice. An obscure, little-known story documenting the exile of a working, immigrant woman in 20th-century America.
"Girl In Movement" - a Moving Memoir, March 1, 2001
****Reviewer: A reader from New York, NY USA
This memoir of a young woman's courageous search for a theory and a practice of achieving world justice and personal liberation is a moving coming of age adventure story, as well as a delightful and profound contribution to radical and woman's history. The author is,in the late 1930s a teenage refugee from fascist Vienna, a lonely high school student living with her parents on provncial and conservative Staten Island. She discovers a radical socialist sect in her community that speaks to her utopian vision and her need for friendship. She eventualy beomes involved on the highest levels of "the movement, but finds that its fundamentalism violates her need for freedom of thought and life. Kollisch's touching and complex relations with her fellow workers in a Detroit truck factory where she is sent by "the Party" to recruit workers for the imminent socialist revolution,and her wry depictions of the debates, contradictions and cross purposes exhibited at party conventions as well as her observations on love, sex and gender, of which there are many, is narrated with a true ear for the humorous, the authentic and the meretricious. Amy Swerdlow, Sarah Lawrence College Emerita
anxiousCan anyone suggest a great biography of Coco Chanel?
I found Chanel: Her Style and Her Life by Janet Wallach and Axel Madsen's Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, however, I don't know which to order. So, if anyone read these books or can suggest another, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much...
Aubrey
I just finished reading Chingiz Aitmatov's novella "Jamila," which had been recommended to me by a friend. I'm afraid the neo-romanticism of this mediocre story, the kind of themes encouraged by the Soviet regime with their literature programme of socialist realism, is nothing terribly historical in importance. Aitmatov is still a somewhat relevant Russian writer, however, mostly because of his origins in Central Asia and his portrayal of communal life in Kyrgistan and Kazakhstan--he gives a sorely lacking literary voice to the region. Particularly noteworthy are his lyrical descriptions of the central Asian landscape and documentation of daily life on the Stalinist collective farms in the remote Soviet provinces of the period. Otherwise, be prepared for several embarrassing moments of cheap sentimentality and a cast of shallow, undeveloped characters.I think Aitmatov is most important for his depiction of daily life in the Soviet provinces of Central Asia during the Stalinist era. He gives the region a much needed literary voice, but he would seem to fall in line with the Soviet cultural programme of socialist realism, about which I have written before as a student on the subject of the DDR. I don't agree with the socialist concept of art serving the larger interests of the state, which essentially sanctioned a neoromantic movement stressing themes like love, patriotic heroism, and self-sacrifice for the greater whole over the individual. I'm afraid I also don't agree with the French critic Louis Aragon's assertion in the introduction that "Jamila" is the "greatest love story ever written," even if he does swear his life on it--he may have been drinking too much French wine when he wrote that!
I think Daniyar is the most interesting character, but perhaps due to the relatively short length of the novella, the cast of characters seems to suffer from a lack of depth. I'm also troubled by several moments of embarrassingly cheap sentiment, such as when Jamila wallows in self-pity about her feelings for Daniyar
and the exaggerated emotions about his singing during the journeys at night. There seems to be a bit of
social commentary on Kyrgyz customs--Jamila's husband on the front, Sadyk, is portrayed as one who treats
his wife like property, and he and the other "jigits," like Osman, have a misogynist contempt for women in
general. I thought the best parts were the lyrical descriptions of the Central Asian landscape, but I find faultiness in the plot. The decision of the young lovers to break away from the unit and undergo self-transformation in exile could be interpreted politically, but Aitmatov could have shed more light there--what will they do elsewhere? Will they become "good" or "bad" communist citizens? Aitmatov doesn't want to tell us.
relaxedBringing Down the House // Ben Mezrich
This book is from a year or so ago but I discovered it at Barnes & Noble earlier this week. I read it in less than a day not because it is rather short, but because of the excellent story-telling. The main story is about a group of people with ties to MIT that are part of a blackjack ring that goes to casinos and implements a sophisticated system of card-counting. The author weaves stories of past exploits at Vegas casinos with current perspective of the author while interviewing people that were in contact with the Reptiles. The main draw is the emotion the books summons in me. I read it in suspense of what will happen next.
Will they get caught? What happens in the back room? How much will they win or lose?
I loved this book and would suggest it to anyone that enjoys fiction stories, or reading about Vegas and gambling.
This novel is a vast improvement from other Gaiman novels I have read. Gaiman does an excellent job of creating a world for the reader. I found myself, most of the time, lost in this world Gaiman has created. The characters, the atmospheres, and the little, but significant events binded together very well. Shadow, the main character of the novel, is intricately created &, playing the role of the reader, I was very interested in him as a character. The only flaw in this novel is the end. The novel expands slowly (but not allowing the reader to lose interest) for the first several hundred pages. The last appr. one-hundred pages is very rapid & vague. One particular event in the novel was very superficial when it could have been expounded upon beautifully. The bottom line is that maybe Gaiman got a little anxious towards the end. But, I would recommend it.
So, I started reading Neverwhere based on a friend's outstanding recommendation of it. The most I can say about this novel is that, although the story is something interesting & unique, the reader is left feeling nothing for the characters as Gaiman does a minimal job trying to connect these imaginary characters to the reader. I also thought another annoying attribute of Gaiman's novel, was his constant reminding, w/in the text, of events, etc. that have occured earlier in the novel. It makes the novel read like a child's storybook. I'll mention again that I did like the story in general...it surely is the idea coming directly from an original mind. Perhaps the novel was produced before Gaiman mastered his writing skills. The book is a good pick for a quick & easy read.
annoyedIf you liked his other books, you'll like this one, too. If you didn't, be prepared for the typical Crichton read.
A young code engineer discovers that his nanotechnician wife and team of sacientists may have unleashed a technology capable of destroying the world.
I quality of Crichton is the ability to gain insights of the scientific world while enjoying a high-paced thriller. Perhaps too heavy on the scientific proof, the narrative can feel forced and over-complicated, even pretentous. Fans of the author's earlier works, like Congo, Sphere, or Jurassic Park, have to wonder if Crichton's getting the novel and screenplay complete in one shot.
However, there are images that will last for months. A few frightening blurs between technology and the family are especially chilling, and worth the quick read.
I finished this book in a few hours. It was so funny...anyone can relate/appreciate it.
The Idiot Girls Action-Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro. She is a columnist for an Arizona newspaper and in this book, she collected many of her previous columns. Immediately, you will get transformed into Laurie's world of all night drinking adventures and dealings with her mom and family. Knowing that everything she writes is truely about her, adds another level of enjoyment -- actually knowing that someone got into this or that particular situation is great.
This book is a great read and will cheer anyone up...guaranteed.
I finished this book in a few hours. It was so funny...anyone can relate/appreciate it.
The Idiot Girls Action-Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro. She is a columnist for an Arizona newspaper and in this book, she collected many of her previous columns. Immediately, you will get transformed into Laurie's world of all night drinking adventures and dealings with her mom and family. Knowing that everything she writes is truely about her, adds another level of enjoyment -- actually knowing that someone got into this or that particular situation is great.
This book is a great read and will cheer anyone up...guaranteed.
I finished this book in a few hours. It was so funny...anyone can relate/appreciate it.
The Idiot Girls Action-Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro. She is a columnist for an Arizona newspaper and in this book, she collected many of her previous columns. Immediately, you will get transformed into Laurie's world of all night drinking adventures and dealings with her mom and family. Knowing that everything she writes is truely about her, adds another level of enjoyment -- actually knowing that someone got into this or that particular situation is great.
This book is a great read and will cheer anyone up...guaranteed.
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