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Post by Pulpmariachi on Oct 26, 2006 23:01:42 GMT -5
Bless Me, Ultima -- it's like middle-brow Marquez. It's easier to read and understand and has its beautiful moments, but the ending is a little too obnoxious (as in: "look at me, what an ending I am") whereas all the situations before are played differently. B.
The Bluest Eye -- Toni Morrison is a good writer and she does bring attention to a lot of issues that we face, but I felt it didn't reach its potential until the end, when it was heartbreaking. B-.
and speaking of Garcia Marquez....
Love in Time of Cholera -- besides having one of the greatest titles of all time, it is such a wonderful novel with beautiful images and bittersweet situations and everything along those lines. It focuses mainly upon life, love, and death and that triangle throughout all of it. It's so bittersweet and ... amazing. A.
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Post by frankenjohn on Oct 27, 2006 5:48:46 GMT -5
"Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
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Post by LivingDeadGirl on Oct 27, 2006 14:53:04 GMT -5
The Bluest Eye -- Toni Morrison is a good writer and she does bring attention to a lot of issues that we face, but I felt it didn't reach its potential until the end, when it was heartbreaking. B-. I've read that one..I agree, very heart-breaking. Just started on Dance of the Gods, book two or Nora Roberts' vampire trilogy. |
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Post by Bartwald on Nov 1, 2006 15:19:58 GMT -5
David Lodge's "Author, Author" - not his best novel, perhaps, but still pretty impressive.
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Post by Pulpmariachi on Nov 6, 2006 18:25:41 GMT -5
Patriotism -- a really graphic look at the suppuku practice but interesting all the same. B.
The Stranger -- the Coens pretty much ripped this off with "The Man Who Knew Too Much". Interesting character study but kinda boring. B.
Like Water for Chocolate -- magic realism in the kitchen! While something like Love in the Time of Cholera was making fun of love stories while at the same time proudly being a love story, this on is just a simple love story. There are interesting parts and it's a quick read but better stuff is out there and I didn't like the ending. B.
Oh I tried reading "On the Road" and while good it just wasn't connecting with me.
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Post by Bartwald on Nov 8, 2006 8:27:21 GMT -5
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Post by Pulpmariachi on Nov 17, 2006 0:15:24 GMT -5
Mother Night -- weird tale from Vonnegut, but what else is there to be expected? B.
Crying of Lot 49 -- apparently this is EASY Thomas Pynchon. Oh well, it was pretty hysterical and great anyways, despite the difficult of Pynchon's writing, which I should know about because I only got halfway through V. and am looking at Gravity's Rainbow and thinking oh shit. But this was still interesting, with conspiracies, rock and roll bands, nightclubs, mail services, and ... well I don't want to spoil all of it. A-.
The Sincere Cafe -- these are stories by my adivsor, Leslee Becker, who is the coolest person on my campus, if not amongst those in the world. The stories are mainly pretty good, reminiscent of Raymond Chandler. Some are kinda "ehh", but mostly good. B.
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World -- another book written by a professor here at CSU. I've read it before, I mean, it's a pretty typical coming-of-age story, but it's very well written. B.
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Post by Bartwald on Nov 17, 2006 12:37:12 GMT -5
Michael Slade - Kamikaze. Halfway through, great so far.
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Post by Pulpmariachi on Nov 27, 2006 16:21:49 GMT -5
The Perks of Being a Wallflower -- a pretty good coming of age tale. The main character cries a little too much but it's full of interesting characters and situations. B.
My Life -- not the Bill Clinton one but this thing by Lyn Hydjianan or however you spell it. It's very conscious of what it is, makes no sense, the lines don't flow together and it mainly seems to be about Hjdianan saying "Look, I wrote a book with 41 chapters of 41 sentences each, aren't I clever?" Well, she's not and it stunk. D.
Cathedral -- stories by Raymond Carver. Carver is a good writer, but really, nothing much happens in his stories and in all honesty I skipped over a couple of them to get to the one I checked the book out for (the title story). While it was good, most of the others are kind of boring with just a day in the life of characters. Not really storytelling as much as reporting, but again, he is a really good writer and his good stories are actually splendid. C+.
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Post by frankenjohn on Nov 27, 2006 16:32:48 GMT -5
I'm reading some assorted O. Henry.
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Post by LivingDeadGirl on Dec 4, 2006 16:55:32 GMT -5
Just started on Valley of Silence, 3rd in Nora Roberts vampire trilogy.
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Post by frankenjohn on Dec 4, 2006 21:19:05 GMT -5
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
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Post by Phoenix on Dec 6, 2006 14:27:56 GMT -5
Just started on Valley of Silence, 3rd in Nora Roberts vampire trilogy. Are they fun? I've looked at them in the book store but hesitate. |
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Post by LivingDeadGirl on Dec 6, 2006 17:26:31 GMT -5
Yeah, they're pretty good. I've never read any Nora Roberts before b/c I guess she mostly writes romance & I don't read that genre much. But to me they had the right mixture of romance, vampires & action. If you want you can pm me your addy & I'll send you the first two, & if you like them I'll send the last one when I finish w/ it.  |
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Post by Pulpmariachi on Dec 7, 2006 23:21:20 GMT -5
The Beatles: The Biography -- Pitchfork Media said that The Beatles have so much happen to them and much has been repeated many times that it's almost become boring. Allmusic Guide.com agrees saying that to say anything would be cliche. They were the greatest rock 'n roll band in the world and Bob Spitz's biography does make all these things we've seen actually interesting. It's not particularly brilliantly written or anything -- it's a straightforward journalistic biography, but Spitz manages to make their story interesting. It's just, thanks to history, we know what's going to happen next. There's no tension of "Oh man, is Lennon going to do this and how will he weasel his way out of the situation?" because we already know what Lennon did and how he got out of it. This is the plague of the biography, and really, like anyone really famous, it's very hard to introduce new facts. In their rise, some more is given that I really didn't know before, but after awhile it was a very, "Ahh, I remember that." It's a good, interesting (fascinatingly enough) read and I mean, it IS The Beatles. Come on! I'm giving it a B+ for the reasons I just described though everyone here probably knows my feelings towards the band themselves.
Now I'm going to tackle "Gravity's Rainbow" by Thomas Pynchon.
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