January 2011
34 posts
Book Review: Music for Chameleons
distantheartbeats:
Book #108 of 2010
This book is kind of odd. It has what I can only call short stories at the beginning, a nonfiction novella in the middle, and “conversational portraits” at the end. It’s also written by the fabulous Truman Capote, so I was really looking forward to reading it.
Handcarved Coffins, the novella, I saved to read till last, and I’m glad I did. It’s a really...
70books:
#5: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris
I enjoyed this book quite a bit; each story made me laugh and the illustrations are awesome. Sedaris continues on with his infamously disturbing and absurd story telling. Recommend it!
Madame Bovary
lifeofabookworm:
Madame Bovary was on our reading list for Modes of Fantasy. I went into it not really interested specifically because my professor told me it was slow and no one would like it, but we have to like it. I hate it when teachers do that. So I already went in with a bad attitude about it.
Madame Bovary has a very simple plot, but it is so long because Flaubert needs to build...
Book Review: Less Than Zero
monikokonut:
I watched American Psycho a couple of years ago and decided recently to look up the book. Looked it up and then looked up the other books the author, Bret Easton Ellis, had written. I found out that Less Than Zero was his first book, written in college at the age of 19! As a 19-year-old writer in college, I was obviously intrigued. I checked out the book last night, picked it up...
wordsorcerer:
Candide, Voltaire
I find Candide (the name of the story’s main character) pathetic yet amusing. I do not totally disagree with his philosophy, but most of the time, I find it absurd. I did not like Voltaire’s writing style (that may be pardoned though, because, during his time, as far as I know, the style for writing novels was not yet fully developed). Other parts and...
Book Review: Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
harmonyamidchaos:
This year I thought I’d review the books I read as I go!
So, what to say about Wicked.
This is possibly my favourite book of all time.
I don’t usually like fantasy books but I couldn’t put it down.
I have always loved the concept of reimaginging iconic stories and characters and Maguire does this so brilliantly you could swear The Wizard of Oz was written after this.
The...
Review: The Snakehead
jeninmotion:
The Snakehead Author: Patrick Radden Keefe Publication: July 21, 2009 Doubleday I wish that Jon Krakauer had written this book. I also wish that it were an HBO series. I also have to admit that I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did and I fully think it’s because Keefe’s writing style is not quite to my taste. The story, which is true, is at least as compelling...
Book Review: The Pen & the Stethoscope
slightlymoving:
Edited by Leah Kaminsky, Scribe Publications 2010. I recently received this book as a graduation present from some old friends, and just on reading the cover jacket I was pleasantly surprised to see such an exciting collection of authors, ranging from the multi-award winning Atul Gawande (surgeon and writer for the New Yorker), through household name neurologist Oliver Sacks...
Looking For Alaska by John Green (Book Review!)
tpjchumanists-literature:
Synopsis:
BEFORE - Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last works has only made him crave the “Great Perhaps” (François Rabelais, poet) even more. He heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable and anything-but-boring world of Culver...
BOOK: "The Forest of Hands and Teeth" by Carrie...
bea-bianca:
SYNOPSIS: Mary has never given up on the idea of a world existing beyond the monotonous din of her small village. Since the fall of mankind generations ago, The Sisterhood has always dictated the survivors’ way of life: cautious, measured, and systematic.
Mary’s day-to-day utopian existence is tainted only by the shuffling of The Unconsecrated beyond the fence. The people’s only...
“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
– Samuel Johnson (via deltaq)
Shakespeare's Landlord by Charlaine Harris
adocumentedyearofbooks:
Name: Shakespeare’s Landlord
Author: Charlaine Harris
Rating (out of 5): ***
Pages: 214
Date Finished: January 4th, 2011
Description: Disguising herself with short hair and baggy clothes, Lily Bard has started over in the sleepy town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, where— working a cleaning lady— she can sweep away the secrets of her dark and violent past…
When Lily...
Book Review: Getting The Boot (Traveling Rome in...
butterscotchcookies:
Yay, to my second book of the year - Getting The Boot by Peggy Guthart Strauss (and in January too). Big big achievement for me here, but definitely not the first time I’ve read a book considerately fast. Heh.
Ok, quick summary: It’s about a party animal named Kelly who was given a chance (after much begging and sending tons of letters to the head of the program) to...
Book Review: "Crash Into Me" by Albert Borris
mralbeezie:
I’ll say this straight up, I rarely do reviews, so don’t hate if my review sucks.
Okae lemme start off by saying how I found out about this book. I went to amazon.com to look at another book, “WTF” by Peter Lerangis. I scrolled down the page to where it says “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:” and “Crash Into Me” was one of the choices. I decided to check it out since...
“One of my guilty pleasures is liking anything that oozes with cuteness and...”
– from one of Cinderella in Rubber Shoes’ reviews. (via goodbookers)
Wings - Aprilynne Pike {Finished January 18th,...
secretly-selfish:
I really liked this book. :)
I started it on Sunday and finished it Monday night, Tuesday morning (at 4:00 in the morning to be exact.)
Without giving too much away, I’m just gonna post the one liner description from wiki: It is the first of four books about a fifteen-year-old girl who discovers she is a faerie sent among humans to guard the gateway to Avalon.
I love the...
July’s People by Nadine Gordimer
brittanyvovan:
Genre: Literary 20th Century
Rating: Pass
Yes, I’ve already considered the fact that I just gave a novelist that won the Nobel Prize in Literature a pass score and I’m prepared to live with the consequences. Maybe this is testament to the fact that I’m not actually qualified to review books. Or (and this is what I like to tell myself) this really was just a bad novel written by a...