July 18th, 2008
Haha I totally started this journal as a sort of book blog and I have been totally shirking my duties here. I have read a couple of books and I haven't posted reviews on either of them *smacks self* So here are those long lost reviews!
Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West by T.R. Reid
Summary:Anyone who has heard his weekly commentary on NPR knows that T. R. Reid is trenchant, funny, and deeply knowledgeable reporter and now he brings this erudition and humor to the five years he spent in Japan--where he served as The Washington Post's Tokyo bureau chief. He provides unique insights into the country and its 2,500-year-old Confucian tradition, a powerful ethical system that has played an integral role in the continent's "postwar miracle."
Whether describing his neighbor calmly asserting that his son's loud bass playing brings disrepute on the neighborhood, or the Japanese custom of having students clean the schools, Reid inspires us to consider the many benefits of the Asian Way--as well as its drawbacks--and to use this to come to a greater understanding of both Japanese culture and America.
My Thoughts: ( Read more... )
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Summary: (I feel wrong posting this, it is imo impossible to summarize Murakami's books) With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
This magnificent new novel has a similarly extraordinary scope and the same capacity to amaze, entertain, and bewitch the reader. A tour de force of metaphysical reality, it is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle–yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.
Extravagant in its accomplishment, Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s truly great storytellers at the height of his powers.
My Thoughts ( Read more... )
I am about halfway through The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and that is going really good so far so a review should be up of that soon enough :D
Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West by T.R. Reid
Summary:Anyone who has heard his weekly commentary on NPR knows that T. R. Reid is trenchant, funny, and deeply knowledgeable reporter and now he brings this erudition and humor to the five years he spent in Japan--where he served as The Washington Post's Tokyo bureau chief. He provides unique insights into the country and its 2,500-year-old Confucian tradition, a powerful ethical system that has played an integral role in the continent's "postwar miracle."
Whether describing his neighbor calmly asserting that his son's loud bass playing brings disrepute on the neighborhood, or the Japanese custom of having students clean the schools, Reid inspires us to consider the many benefits of the Asian Way--as well as its drawbacks--and to use this to come to a greater understanding of both Japanese culture and America.
My Thoughts: ( Read more... )
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Summary: (I feel wrong posting this, it is imo impossible to summarize Murakami's books) With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
This magnificent new novel has a similarly extraordinary scope and the same capacity to amaze, entertain, and bewitch the reader. A tour de force of metaphysical reality, it is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle–yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.
Extravagant in its accomplishment, Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s truly great storytellers at the height of his powers.
My Thoughts ( Read more... )
I am about halfway through The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and that is going really good so far so a review should be up of that soon enough :D
- Mood:accomplished
- Music:The Cure
Book #78 -- Brian Keaney, The Promises of Dr. Sigmundus, Book One: The Hollow People, 224 pages.
I just got the sequel to this at ALA, but when I sat down to read it, I realised that it had been over a year since I read this one and I couldn't remember much of the complicated plot. So I've been rereading this in preparation for reading the sequel. It really is a very good and original book - just with a complex plotline.
Progress toward goals: 200/366 = 54.6%
Books: 52.0%
Pages: 21248/50000 = 42.5%
2008 Book List
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15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
gwynraven
I just got the sequel to this at ALA, but when I sat down to read it, I realised that it had been over a year since I read this one and I couldn't remember much of the complicated plot. So I've been rereading this in preparation for reading the sequel. It really is a very good and original book - just with a complex plotline.
Progress toward goals: 200/366 = 54.6%
Books: 52.0%
Pages: 21248/50000 = 42.5%
2008 Book List
cross-posted to
15000pages, 50bookchallenge, and gwynravenBook #24
Book Title: All Together Dead
Author: Charlaine Harris
Category: mystery; romance
# of pages: 323
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best].: B
Short description/summary of the book: (taken from amazon.com):Bestseller Harris mixes humorous Southern-fried fantasy with biting satirical commentary in her seventh novel to feature Sookie Stackhouse, the bubbly telepathic barmaid from Bon Temps, La. (after 2006's Definitely Dead). Sookie attends an all-important central U.S. vamp summit on the shores of Lake Michigan as a "human geiger counter" for Sophie-Anne Leclerq, vampire queen of a Louisiana weakened by Katrina and who will be tried during the event for murdering her king. Sookie knows the queen is innocent, but she's hardly prepared for other shocking murders, not to mention protests by the Fellowship of the Sun, a right-wing antivampire movement. Her sleuthing skills, along with those of her new telepath friend, Barry the Bellboy, are put to the extreme test. Harris juggles a large cast, including several romantic contenders for Sookie's heart, with effortless exuberance.
My Thoughts: There was so much that took place during this book! If I attempt to explain what happens I think I will spoil the book for others so let me just say that if you're reading this series, then this book twists the plot even further.
Books read this year: 24/50. I'm 48% done!!!
Next read(s): I just started reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
Book Title: All Together Dead
Author: Charlaine Harris
Category: mystery; romance
# of pages: 323
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best].: B
Short description/summary of the book: (taken from amazon.com):Bestseller Harris mixes humorous Southern-fried fantasy with biting satirical commentary in her seventh novel to feature Sookie Stackhouse, the bubbly telepathic barmaid from Bon Temps, La. (after 2006's Definitely Dead). Sookie attends an all-important central U.S. vamp summit on the shores of Lake Michigan as a "human geiger counter" for Sophie-Anne Leclerq, vampire queen of a Louisiana weakened by Katrina and who will be tried during the event for murdering her king. Sookie knows the queen is innocent, but she's hardly prepared for other shocking murders, not to mention protests by the Fellowship of the Sun, a right-wing antivampire movement. Her sleuthing skills, along with those of her new telepath friend, Barry the Bellboy, are put to the extreme test. Harris juggles a large cast, including several romantic contenders for Sookie's heart, with effortless exuberance.
My Thoughts: There was so much that took place during this book! If I attempt to explain what happens I think I will spoil the book for others so let me just say that if you're reading this series, then this book twists the plot even further.
Books read this year: 24/50. I'm 48% done!!!
Next read(s): I just started reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
Book #79 -- Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: the Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, 323 pages.
One of the classics of fairy tale studies, Bettelheim provides psychoanalytic readings of popular fairy tales, stressing the importance of such tales to the child's Freudian development. He goes a little to far as often as not, and seems obsessed with providing a Freudian interpretation for *everything*, but he does make some good points. Not an easy book to get through, however.
Progress toward goals: 200-366 = 54.6%
Books: 79/150 = 52.7%
Pages: 21571/50000 = 43.1%
2008 Book List
cross-posted to50bookchallenge, 15000pages, and gwynraven
One of the classics of fairy tale studies, Bettelheim provides psychoanalytic readings of popular fairy tales, stressing the importance of such tales to the child's Freudian development. He goes a little to far as often as not, and seems obsessed with providing a Freudian interpretation for *everything*, but he does make some good points. Not an easy book to get through, however.
Progress toward goals: 200-366 = 54.6%
Books: 79/150 = 52.7%
Pages: 21571/50000 = 43.1%
2008 Book List
cross-posted to
50bookchallenge, 15000pages, and gwynraven41. The Lost Constitution, by William Martin. 752 pages. (2007)
Grade: B+
This is a novel, with murders, about the second amendment, and about several searches for a "lost" constitution - a draft copy annotated by several Founding Fathers as to what they REALLY meant.
A fun ride, and a paean to New England.
Grade: B+
This is a novel, with murders, about the second amendment, and about several searches for a "lost" constitution - a draft copy annotated by several Founding Fathers as to what they REALLY meant.
A fun ride, and a paean to New England.
- Mood:
calm - Music:British Open
Book Title: Street Magic
Author: Tamora Pierce
My rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best].: A +
Short description/summary of the book: It's been four years since Briar Moss began his training as a plant mage, but he still hasn't put his past behind him.
Wandering through a Chammuri market, Briar comes across a street girl using powerful magic to polish stones for a merchant. The ragged girl reminds Briar of the life he led before he left for Winding Circle. He resolves to find her a teacher.
But Briar understands the city's gangs as well as he understands Evvy, the young mage. When gang warfare breaks out in Chammur, Briar has sympathy for those caught in the crossfire -- and he even helps to heal them. Then he discovers the fiercest gang is seeking a stone mage to lead them to hidden gems. This gang is trying to recruit Evvy.
Briar once believed gangs offered protection, but now he and his magic may offer the only protection Evvy can count on. As Briar is swept up in a bloody conflict, he must decide whether he's ready to become a teacher as well as a student -- and whether he's ready to make the the final step away from his former life as a "street rat."
My Thoughts: One of my re-reads for the year an an excellent book!
39 / 50 words. 78% done!
39 / 50 words. 78% done!
Book #22:
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Summary: Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers. - Barnes & Noble
My Thoughts: ( Minor spoilers ) Over all it was a quick read that I didn't want to put down, so I'd give it a rating of 6/10
22 / 50 words. 44% done!
7876 / 15000 words. 53% done!
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Summary: Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers. - Barnes & Noble
My Thoughts: ( Minor spoilers ) Over all it was a quick read that I didn't want to put down, so I'd give it a rating of 6/10
That's a crack Omar Sharif as Dr. Zhivago makes when some Loyal Soviet Official asks him to diagnose a comrade. That happened frequently in those days. In the off-the-scale paranoid final years of Stalin, non-acknowledgment of things not consistent with the workers' paradise is standard operating procedure. Thus Child 44. A serial child-killer might be riding the rails from the steps of Odessa to the steppes of Central Asia. An investigator gets into trouble with his superiors by treating that possibility as a working hypothesis. Because the object of Book Review No. 27 is a mystery, that's as much as I dare reveal. I did read it very quickly, and it's not going directly to the Half Price Books pile.
(Cross-posted to Cold Spring Shops).
(Cross-posted to Cold Spring Shops).
- Mood:productive
- Music:NUMB3RS
#14 Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. This was a re-read for a book club. I did notice some things this time around that I didn't notice the time before; stuff about Bella and Edward's relationship that bothers me a bit, but not as much as some librarians I know. I still need to read Eclipse.
#15 Godchild Vol. 1
Whacked out, violent, beautiful manga about a young man who is "cursed" it seems and who solves crimes. I can't wait to read the second one, too bad it is *still* out at the library.
#16 Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins
A demon decides he's going to take a vacation and snitches a body seconds before a mopey, lazy, teenage boy dies. He wants to see what it is like to be alive and revels in the everyday things that we take for granted. The first half of the book was great, then it started to go downhill. The main character starts to seem petty and almost contradict himself. I was very dissatisfied with the ending.
Currently reading Around the World in 80 Days and The Missing Girl. I need to get going because I am now on a committee for the Thumbs Up Award which is given out by the Michigan Library Association to one teen book each year.
#15 Godchild Vol. 1
Whacked out, violent, beautiful manga about a young man who is "cursed" it seems and who solves crimes. I can't wait to read the second one, too bad it is *still* out at the library.
#16 Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins
A demon decides he's going to take a vacation and snitches a body seconds before a mopey, lazy, teenage boy dies. He wants to see what it is like to be alive and revels in the everyday things that we take for granted. The first half of the book was great, then it started to go downhill. The main character starts to seem petty and almost contradict himself. I was very dissatisfied with the ending.
Currently reading Around the World in 80 Days and The Missing Girl. I need to get going because I am now on a committee for the Thumbs Up Award which is given out by the Michigan Library Association to one teen book each year.
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