Category: Review
You need these reviews in your life.
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Islands in the stream
Review: I bailed on this. Got through about 30% and just had to move on. I wanted to like this. I wanted it to live up to A Farewell to Arms or the short stories. But no. Drinks, bars, descriptions of making drinks, descriptions of bars, descriptions of drinking drinks in bars. I would have… Read more
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The Colour of Magic
Review: I really wanted to like this. But I just couldn’t get into it. It’s schlocky 80s comic-fantasy. You know one thing: a troll is about to kill the protagonist but then gets asked why and then delivers a monologue about how life as a troll is hard and how he’s misunderstood, etc. That would… Read more
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Youth and the Bright Medusa
Review: Superb Cather at her very best. Opera stories. Just the way I like it! I was surprised by the veiled, and not so veiled, references to sexy times. Interesting that in one story she killed off the protagonist on the Titanic, and I don’t mean a schlocky tale of Titanic romance. Just a description… Read more
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The Mystery of the Ghost Train
Review: Sheesh. What a clunker. Self published fan fiction. I guess I need to do a better job of reading the description before ordering! I went through and counted 20 typographical or grammatical errors in the first 31 pages. And they kept on coming throughout the rest of the book. The investigators were rude, coarse,… Read more
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The World’s Most Dangerous Place
Review: A fascinating look deep inside the world’s most dangerous outlaw country: Somalia. The book was great, well written, tight and journalistic. It’s like this: Great book but so difficult to read. Heartbreaking. Somalia is the asshole of the universe and I can’t see it getting any better, ever. This book made me want to:… Read more
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Sapphira and the Slave Girl
Review: The final Willa Cather novel. This was written and published around 1939-1940, but set in 1856. Pre-Civil War America in the south. I’m not sure who was meant to be the hero of this one. Every character seemed to be very human, very flawed. I was expecting a sort of anti-slavery treatise, but I… Read more
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Kokoro
Review: Very insightful and rich in understanding. A unique (for me) glimpse into Meiji era Japan and Japanese culture. Like all Japanese novels this was moving, intellectually satisfying, and depressing as fuck. The prose was interesting, can’t describe it any better. But then again, this might be due to the English translation. Every time I… Read more
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The Math Book
Review: This was tough, but I learned a lot of interesting new things. Pascal, Fermat, LaGrange – all were names known to me but now I have learned about the men behind the names. Merseen primes, Pi, Euler’s number… this stuff is fascinating if almost completely beyond the ken of most mortals. This book made… Read more
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The Warden
Review: What a nice surprise! I thought this was going to be either too dry or too smarmily satirical. Like old people that try to be witty at the opera intermission. While not as shocking as the book or movie of Deliverance, the two share one thing. The “what would you do?” thing. Best line… Read more
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Wuthering Heights
Review: Wow was this ever dark. Like midnight on the moor with no moon dark, as represented throughout the novel. This was also excellent, extremely well composed and thoroughly engrossing. Despite its age, this one has stood up very well to modern readings. A classic worthy of the name. This book made me want to:… Read more