Thanks to Cathy for the loaner!
Really funny in the worst of circumstances. Both the main characters, Lev and Kolya, are completely engaging. Witty dialogue. Recommended.
I didn’t realize he had also written the book (and the screenplay) “The 25th Hour” which I liked as a movie (maybe I’ll go back and read the original now).
subtitled: A professor and a punk rocker discuss science, religion, naturalism & christianity.
I found this book super annoying. While in many ways, I would agree more with Graffin’s arguments, I thought he was being kind of a dick the whole time. You shouldn’t agree to be in a CONVERSATION with someone if you aren’t actually interested in conversing.
While Jones, the religous one, was coming at things from a “this is interesting to think about / it’s interesting to hear other viewpoints and try reconciling them with my own and pondering” viewpoint, Graffin seemed to coming from a “what I think is right and you are wrong and I will just tell you YOU ARE WRONG over and over again” viewpoint.
Graffin seemed to only want to talk about THE EXACT FACTS and how anything else was RIDICULOUS; Jones was interested in exploring WHY do people believe, whether it’s right or wrong. (It ain’t all about the facts.) Most of the time, Graffin’s response was basically “NO.” Then why even respond? Why bother discussing it? It really didn’t seem like he even heard the other point of view.
I mean, I understand. There’s a reason I don’t discuss politics with Republicans. I don’t fucking care what they think. But I wouldn’t bother writing back to their letters and saying “NOPE YOU’RE WRONG” everytime either.
Reminiscent of Betsy Crane’s “All This Heavenly Glory” in that while these are short stories, they are all interrelated / they are all telling some bit of Leah’s overall story.
An overall story about teenage-dom and cruelty and popularity and curiosity and loneliness and families.
Good. Bittersweet. Sometimes intense.
Read in October. Since I’ve been doing reviews in any old order…I’m almost caught up!! Yipee!!
Also known as Book 3 of the Millennium trilogy. I am SUCH a huge fan of this trilogy. I picked up The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on a whim. Blew through it like a crazy person. LOVE. Then I was so excited in Dublin last February to find The Girl Who Played with Fire already out there. Loved that one just as much. As SOON as book 3 was released in the UK, I ordered it from amazon.uk because HELLO I could NOT wait.
And it was completely worth it.
These are dark, nasty, sadistic books. They are also exquisitely plotted with seriously intelligent, persistent, strong and attractive (in more than one way) characters. They are entertaining and deep and completely fascinating and honestly it is so hard to get anything else done when you are reading them because you just do NOT want to put them down.
So bummed that there will be no more books by this dude (he died shortly after turning in all three manuscripts to his publisher) because they are some of the best books I’ve read in years.
Stieg Larsson and Tana French: revolutionizing the SMART mystery category. These are so far above genre books. Truly literature. Truly fantastic.
Yay thanks to Stephanie for sending me this for my birthday, because she knew of my love for Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness trilogy.
This was SOOOO different than those books. And SOOOO GOOD. Such deeply written characters. Tangible emotions. Poignant. Sometimes funny. Very affecting.
As you move from section to section in this book, you get absolutely turned around. Fantastic.
Our challenge book for October. I can’t remember what led us to pick this book; I know we (or I) read about it somewhere.
We both LOVED it. It doesn’t hurt that we’re both South Pole/Antarctic junkies and have already read lots of books on the topic/subject/area (including great books by Sara Wheeler! “Terra Incognita” and “Cherry”).
Sym is so smart and fantastically imaginative. It’s one of those books that, rather than having an unreliable narrator, it’s a narrator who doesn’t know everything but as she figures it out, the revelations start coming out fast and crazy and the whole world changes before your eyes. Her obsession with Captain Titus Oates is both humorous and touching.
There’s some really sad stuff and some really amazing stuff and you are just ROOTING for certain things to happen…
Fantastic.
A(nother) series by the guy who writes Uglies, Pretties, whatevers. I had read his stand-alone Peeps (but not the Uglies, Pretties, whatevers).
1: The Secret Hour
2: Touching Darkness
3: Blue Noon
These books are great. Our world…but with an extra hour that happens at midnight that only a select few are “awake” in. A band of losers whose common ground is the midnight hour, when it turns out they have a few special skills of their own.
I really loved these. I loved the members of the group (particularly Dess). I LOVED all the wordplay (fantastic!). I loved how the slithers seemed related to something deeply dark and ancient. I loved the transformation of the group and how their relationships changed.
I am really going to regret that I read most of these from the library. Definitely buying up the set when I have income again!!
I read (and loved) The Kitchen Diaries. I’ve cooked from his books “Appetite” and “Nigel Slater’s Real Food”. (His “unctuous” potatoes are delicious.)
But I guess I wasn’t really prepared for the tone of this memoir. The bits about food are great. But some of the anecdotes made me really sad. And some were kinda creepy. He just put it all out there.
The ball aways hits me in the face or brings a shower of sand with it. My father sighs one of those almost imperceptible sighs that only fragile boys who regularly disappoint their father can hear.
It was brutally honest. I didn’t love it. But you might.
Let me just put it out there that I LOVE DICK FRANCIS. I do. I LOVE most of his books. I got completely addicted to them the summer I lived in the UK with my cousins and I’ve never stopped reading (and re-reading) them since. I know they’re all horse centered and I know some of the main characters are really similar and sometimes you really get the sensation of this just being one long ongoing story and I know they can be cheesy….
But I love his writing and I particularly LOVELOVELOVE “Bolt” and “Break In” and they are two of my very, very favorite all-time books….
But this book? “Even Money”? SUCKED. Worst Dick Francis I’ve ever read. I was sorely disappointed.
Read “Bolt” or “Break In” and know the love. Avoid this book like the plague.
CPL (Chicago Public Library) was recommending this on their web site one day when I was online reserving books, and then Steven King recommended it in one of his EW columns.
I did not think it was good. Seemed super predictable. And I didn’t find any of the characters interesting enough to care about. 🙁