Books

The Moon Is Down

2009-08-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Speaking of war, did you know Steinbeck wrote propaganda? Yeah, I didn't either. I stumbled across this in the library and thought "oh, a steinbeck I haven't read, cool." It's a novel he wrote during WWII about a city that gets occupied and then revolts. It's good. It's short too.

The Civil War

2009-08-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

I live in Richmond. I can't leave my house without seeing some evidence of the Civil War. It's a really interesting history we have. I decided to learn more about it. I started with this. Well I've read a few other things, one of which was really interesting and maybe made into a TV Movie? I can't remember what it was called. See what I mean about forgetting books I have read?

Anyway, this is a really interesting book because it's more of an anecdotal history of how things happened. It's all based on historical fact but it's compiled from letters people wrote to one another or battlefield accounts told to newspapers. I liked it. I am going to read a lot more about the war and then travel around and look at things. I can't wait.

Jack London

2009-08-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to read these for various reasons. I assume that I had read them at some point in my life. I think they're pretty standard elementary school reading, but I don't remember books I read a year ago, let alone 20+ years ago (yes, I am old. deal with it.).

There are so many good lines in these. They're great. Read them if you haven't. Re-read them if you have. Hope things get better.

Maughm

2009-08-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

When I went to law school, my criminal law professor insisted that we write an introduction before the first class. I wrote about how I love books and she suggested that I read Maughm.

It took me a really long time to get around to taking her up on that proposition. It helped that I saw the movie version of The Painted Veil, which is really good. Watch it.

So I read the book.

It's really good and really well written. It's the story of a doctor and his wife who go to a foreign country to help combat some terrible disease (plague, malaria?). She has been having an affair and this is punishment for both of them. They both find love and redemption in the end. The book and movie are equally good, though they have slightly different endings.

So, then I read The Razor's Edge.

Here is a picture of me reading it:

At any rate, I didn't like it. I thought it was incredibly boring. It's the story of a writer who meets various people throughout his life. It's not so much a story of the author as a chronicle of the lives of these "interesting" people. They're not interesting. Really. Now I don't know if I want to read more Maughm or not. I think The Razor's Edge is supposedly his "best" novel.

Ian McEwan

2009-08-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I'm an Ian McEwan fan or not. I saw Atonement, after everyone had been raving about how good it was, and quite frankly I thought it sucked. Then I saw a preview for this movie called "Enduring Love" starring Samantha Morton, Daniel Craig and Rhys Ifans, all of whom I adore. So I watched it, really liked it, and realized it was based on an Ian McEwan novel. Now I know that movies can very often ruin books (The Fountainhead anyone?), so I wanted to do a bit of a comparison.

I recently was in Korea and while there realized that my friend had a couple of McEwan books sitting around.

First I read this one, On Chesil Beach.

It's terrible. It has a few good lines but really is just a boring story of two people who never communicate with one another (presumably due to social mores of the day, but I don't buy it) and that's it. That's the entire story. Don't read it.

She also had Enduring Love, which was really exciting to me as I wanted to do a comparison between the book and the movie.

The movie was really good. The book was only slightly better. It had a bit more exposition, as books are able to do. Worth watching and reading though. It's a story about people who witness a terrible accident and how that affects their relationships with one another.

So based on that, I thought I would give Atonement a shot.

I'm about 3/4 of the way through it. This says something to me. If I really liked it, I'd be finished with it already. Somehow, riding my bike always wins in what I want to do with my time though. It's ok. I'll reserve judgment until I'm finished, but so far, meh.

I still don't know if I'm a McEwan fan or not.

Atlas Shrugged

2009-08-12T08:14:00.001-07:00

One of my all time favorite books. I have read it more times than I can remember and every time I do, I find something new/different to appreciate about it.

I was going through a rough time a few months ago (which is nothing compared to my current situation, but who knew) and I find that whenever I am feeling less than happy, re-reading an Ayn Rand novel cheers me up a lot.

I know a lot of people think she's crazy or sexist or whatever, but I love her. I think she's incredibly inspiring and writes some of the most beautiful things I have ever read. If you haven't read this, you should.

"Love is our response to our highest values, and can be nothing else."

"He thought that he would see her tonight, almost hating it, because tomorrow morning seemed so close and then he would have to leave her - he wondered whether he could remain in town tomorrow, or whether he should leave now, without seeing her, so that he could wait, so that he could always have it ahead of him: the moment of closing his hands over her shoulders and looking down at her face."

Graphic Novels

2009-08-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

I normally tend to keep away from Graphic Novels. Don't get me wrong, I think comics are awesome and a really great way of telling a story. It's just that I read REALLY fast and these things tend to be REALLY expensive. So it's a simple matter of getting the most for my dollar. In that sense graphic novels don't really apply. However, a friend of mine told me I should try reading Preacher. A mutual friend of ours happens to own the entire series? Done!

I really liked it. It's a great story about love, regret, revenge and how belief can ruin everyone. I read most of these while I was distracting myself getting tattooed. They are a soothing accompaniment. If you are hyper religious, you probably wouldn't agree with a lot of the ideas, but since I'm an atheist, I didn't have that problem. Also, I do like a good love story. I wish the real life ones were as simple.

In discussing Preacher with a friend/coworker, she mentioned that she liked it ok but much preferred Y: The Last Man.

Conveniently, she owns all but the last two. I tore through 1-8 in about two days. I actually am buying the last two so I can finish out the series, which I then intend to gift to her to complete her collection. I'm nice like that.

At any rate, it interestingly has a lot of references to Preacher. So that was cool. I don't know how many I would have caught had I not just finished the other series, but it was a good transition. Y is the story of the last man on earth after a plague kills all the other men but leaves the women. It's really interesting to see a world of women from a male perspective, as well as the possible roles women would take. Nature abhors a vacuum.

I can't wait to finish it.

She also gave me what was literally a graphic novel. Just one thick, illustrated book. It's called Blankets.

I really, really liked this and I want to read other things he has written. It's a story about a childhood and how that hurts/shapes a person. It's also a story about a first love and the effects of that. Read it.

You like books

2008-01-29T07:55:00.001-08:00

I like books.

I know I have a book blog but this requires less updating.

GoodReads.

Friend me up.

The Words of Every Song - Liz Moore

2007-11-20T08:26:00.000-08:00

As someone who loves music, almost as much as I love words (or perhaps because I do love the words as I do) I am immediately enamored of this novel. It's set in New York and it is the world of music industry people; executives, performers, tech people, relatives.

This book is a series of vignettes of tangentially related characters. Each chapter begins with a lyric quote that sets the mood. The entire novel has an almost lyrical quality. If you listened closely you might hear someone singing, or the thrum of a guitar.

One of my favorite things about this book is that even as the story of the person now is being told, you are given glimpses of the story of the person many, many years from now. You know where they end up almost before you know where they're going. It reminds me a lot of the part in Run Lola, Run where, as she runs past certain characters, you get a series of polaroids that show you how life goes after she passes. I love that part of the movie and I love that part of this book.

Falling Man - Don DeLillo

2007-11-20T08:21:00.001-08:00

One thing I can say for certain is that DeLillo's writing has vastly improved over time. He always had a way with words, but I feel like he came into a sense of meter and tempo and drama. I hate to say it but I still have not finished Americana. Sometimes I am a bad book reader. However, I flew through this book, which is the DeLillo experience I expect to have.

This book deals with the attacks on the World Trade Center. I know, at first you think "oh great, another one of those books, movies, television specials, what have you." However, it's not really like that. There's no political bent. There are no heroes. There are no villains. There are people and there is life and there is death. Most of all there are the words. They draw you in and keep you.

This is a story of people who had to deal with something. That is what all stories are. We are people. We have events happen. We cope. This book is a great story though because you care about the people. You want to know what they think and feel. I raced through to the end. Though I am now shady on details, I recall the words, and the feeling. Set aside your personal opinions on terrorism and read this. It will be good for you.

Bangkok Haunts - John Burdett

2007-11-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

I never could get through Americana. I really want to, and I will at some point. I got tired of being stuck in a book I wasn't reading, so I hoofed it to the library and had a stack of 7 books in about 10 minutes. This is the first one I've read since it's on a 2-week non-renewable loan. I had read this author's earlier books in this series, Bangkok 8 and Bangkok Tattoo. They are semi-mysteries. The main character is a detective. They are decent books. Interesting, quick reads. I would recommend them if you want something light but engrossing.

Americana - Don DeLillo

2007-10-18T11:01:00.001-07:00

I love Don DeLillo. He's definitely in my top ten all time favorite authors. I bought this for my dad for christmas last year and it took him about 10 months to get through it. It's a slow read. Not nearly as slow as Ratner's Star, which I wasn't able to finish. I'm probably 3/4 of the way through it (after a few weeks). This was his first novel and the writing is there. It's solid. I think the story is just missing something. It's good but I'd still say go with White Noise or Libra instead.

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

2007-09-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

I had read this about 11 years ago for an English class in college. I re-read it for a Graduate English course that I ended up dropping. I really hated it the first time around although I'm not sure I could tell you why.

I don't know that I liked it any better this time. I guess it's supposed to be the true story of some guy's life but it seems very pointless. I mean maybe that's something I'm missing and it's some grand commentary on how even though the minutiae of your life is so crucial and gripping while you're living, it ultimately means nothing. I sort of doubt it though. Not that life is ultimately pointless, but that this books has some hyper-intelligent piece of advice.

At any rate, it's a quick read.

Sweetness and Power - Sidney Mintz

2007-09-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

I never did finish Salt so I thought I'd shift gears. Well this wasn't really of my own choosing. I was assigned this book for a class that I have since dropped. It's ok. It's strange in that it's a lot more detailed than Salt, but only because it looks at a more specific situation. Salt looks at how salt affected the entire world. Sweetness and Power focuses mostly on how sugar affected the English working class and their diet.

I didn't finish this book either, but it was interesting. I think it's a good counterpoint to Salt, although it doesn't have nearly as many "did you know" moments.

England Away - John King

2007-09-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading England Away. It's pretty good I guess. I don't know how true it is to what Football Hooliganism actually is. Although, from what I know it seems accurate. This is the third book in a series.

I've read Headhunters.

I have not read Football Factory, although I have seen the movie.

The thing I like about this book versus headhunters is that England Away seems to be focusing more on the struggle of aging. It's something I'm currently dealing with myself so I relate to it a bit more. Although not in the hooligan sense.

This is a book in which three different stories take place. They are from the perspective of three separate but related characters. I think it's well written and I am enjoying it. It was a bit hard to get into at first. I plan to read some of the non-fiction books on football clubs in england next, so I feel this is a good way to ease into it.

A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon

2007-08-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

Although Salt is really fascinating, I often find non-fiction a bit dry (hardy har). That, coupled with the fact that I have a ton of library books due back very soon inspired me to switch to fiction. I picked this from the stack. I checked it out because I had heard things about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time which I have not yet read. I generally figure that if one of an author's books is good, there's a good chance that the others will be as well.

This book is really gripping. It's about a family, and their lives, which sounds trite. However, I really don't want to put it down. I am terribly interested in what is going to happen next. It has the standard fare, homosexuality, unwed mothers, adultery, and phobias, but it's done in a really empathetic way. I like it a lot.

Salt: A World History - Mark Kurlansky

2007-08-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

I just started reading this book a few days ago. I'm already enthralled with it. There are so many interesting things about salt. I never knew how much this so taken-for-granted substance had shaped the history of the world. Hence the title I guess.

I find it very interesting to examine the ordinary things in the world. It's something that you see every day, that you eat every day and you never take the time to learn anything about them.

Who knew that such a simple substance shaped destinies. Read this. Seriously. Read it.

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less - Barry Schwartz

2007-08-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

This is a book by a social scientist. He uses research to show what he feels is the reason for society's increased distress. The fact that there is too much choice in the world. I agree with him to some extent. He has a lot of good points. He is not trying to argue that there should be no choice in the world, just that we live in an age of too much that we don't need.

My friend called this a communist tract. It's not. It's good but very dry.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards

2007-08-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what I thought this book would be. I think I picked it up because the cover looked interesting. It's the story of a man who has twin children. One with Down's Syndrome and one without.

This book is the story of how those children affected the lives of their parents and others. It's a really quick and easy read. The people in it are somewhat limited by what the accepted standards were at the time. However, it seems that they were mostly just thinking of themselves instead of each other. I think it is striving to show the importance of family, but instead I think it just emphasizes that it doesn't matter too much. It seems that regardless of what you do in your life, all will be forgiven and everything will turn out alright in the end.

It's a good beach read. Otherwise I wasn't too impressed.

The Visible World - Mark Slouka

2007-08-03T17:00:00.000-07:00

The Visible World is a good story. It reminded me a lot of some other book I read a long time ago whose title now escapes me. It also reminds me a bit of Everything is Illuminated in that it tells a story which belongs to someone else. I'm not sure if that makes sense. There's a main character, and the book tells his story, but then it also tells the story of his mother and father.

It's a fairly quick read. It's written in a way which is very engrossing. You want to find out what happens at the end, which is why the end is so disappointing. It almost seems like the author just ran out of steam, or had a deadline to meet and threw together something. What I think is one of the main questions of the book is unanswered. I supposed it could be said that the author wants you to make your own assumptions, but I think that's poor storytelling.

It's a decent read, but not too mind-altering or life-changing.

The Ice Storm - Rick Moody

2007-07-23T12:48:00.000-07:00

I usually try not to read two books by the same author one after another. Somehow I screwed up and did. Shockingly, I finished this book in just a few days so I can actually write about something without being in the middle of it. I was right about the lunch break. It's been a good thing.

Yes, this is that Ice Storm. You may have seen the movie. It is an ok movie. I wasn't terribly impressed but watched it because of all the good press. My friend Fahs hates the movie.

Often though, books are much better than the movies made from them. I don't know what movie I was seeing but a few years ago I went to a movie and when the previews were being played I just kept thinking "Oh, I need to read that book." That's just how I am I guess. So this was an opportunity to backtrack and see how the movie compared.

I have to say, I definitely liked the book a lot better. There was much more character development and a better sense of why everything came together the way it did. It still contained the same sense of alienation and loss, but there was more of it. You felt more deeply for the characters because of their background and history. However, the ending of the book was terrible. The ending of the movie was much better. I feel like the author just didn't know how to finish and tacked an ending on there.

The book overall was ok. I'm glad, having seen the movie, that I read it. So far Rick Moody's writing is not impressing me.

Garden State - Rick Moody

2007-07-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'm still having a hard time getting into novels lately. I just can't seem to focus as much as I would like. I think part of the problem is that since I don't really have a lunch break, I don't have a daily dedicated time that I am reading. I am hoping that the new job will help me to change that.

I'm about half-way finished with this book now. It hasn't really started to develop a plot. There have been many characters introduced who are very loosely connected to one another. I am reserving my judgment until it's finished because it could have some amazing ending that will completely blow me away.

I sort of doubt it though.

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami

2007-06-18T09:57:00.001-07:00

I picked up this book for two reasons. 1. Norwegian Wood is my hands-down favorite Beatles Song. I had liked the Beatles for a long time but hadn't listened to all of their music. I was in a Music Store in New York and I heard Norwegian Wood over the speakers. It really hit me and has stuck with me ever since. I wasn't sure that this book would have anything to do with the song, but it referenced it on the first page. 2. I really like Haruki Murakami. I read "Kafka on the Shore," as I am sure most people have and really enjoyed both the story and the style of writing.

I am a third of the way through this book. So far I really like it. It's very similar to "Kafka..." in the sense that although the story doesn't seem to be progressing, you feel that there is a larger mystery looming and that all will be explained in the end. I hope that's the case. I have a bad habit of being terrifically disappointed in endings. I believe this will turn out well. If you're looking to get into Murakami, I'd say this isn't a bad place to start. The length of KOTS can be a bit daunting to some at 656 pages. This story is much smaller, at only 296. I'll let you know how it is at the end, but I expect to enjoy it as much as I am now.

Haunted - Chuck Palahniuk

2007-06-15T21:47:00.001-07:00

I'm about 2/3 of the way through this book. It's presented as a series of short stories, and it is, sort of. It's more like the short stories are just chapters about the characters that happened prior to the current situation. It's ok. It's not great. I seem to have difficulty getting into books recently. I think it's too much time watching television and/or being on the nerd. Although, when I was living in NC and was on the nerd nearly as much and watching tons of movies, I didn't have the same amount of book trouble. So I do think it's the television. That's another good reason to not get cable at my new place. Overall I would say if you're looking for something you don't really have to invest in, with some gross parts, this is the book for you. Otherwise, read Invisible Monsters, or Survivor, or Choke. They're much better.