Review A Book

Finished Faulkner's "Sanctuary". This wasn't nearly as complicated as "Absalom, Absalom!", which I read a few months ago. Of course, it still is Faulkner so it took some work to figure out what was going on, but the style is a little easier to digest and the story is a little sensational. I've also gotten into the habit of requesting a few pieces of literary criticism from the library that I either read along with the book or just after finishing it and this has really served to increase my understand of subtle points, historical context, etc.

The Long Walk By Stephen King

Novel is about a walk, the walk of terror, the path which can lead you to death. Every year on the first May, boys meet for an event known throughout the whole country as "The Long Walk." The main story focuses on Ray Garraty, a teenager. He knows the rules, everyone does and that after three warnings, they will get the ticket, the death ticket and guess what? Throughout the whole walk, there can be only one winner so Garraty has to compete even among his friends, a difficult task, isn't it? See the results of competition by reading this novel...

I will consider this novel very exciting and suspenseful, a very good read and it is especially for those people who call Stephen King, good-for-nothing. In this novel, Stephen King comes up with a very good style which forced me to love the suspense in it.

It surely deserves 10/10. Three Cheers for The Long Walk! :banana:

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

This novel is a classic published in the late 1940s. It tells the tale of a group of people, most of them living in central Florida. The book is written as a narrative, changing from person to person. The Russians send lots of nuclear missiles onto the U.S. completely destroying most of the major cities and military bases. This book tells of a group struggling to survive in an uncontaminated zone, when all of Florida has been declared a contaminated zone. They must fight against hunger, disease, radiation, high-way men, and other problems. The electricity has gone. The phones don't work. The radion has almost stopped. No food is available for purchase, nor any medical supplies. No gas means no cars. And yet, somehow, they manage to survive.

I found the book very interesting, a good page turner, though it was possible to put it down. The book is well written. I liked the way it changed from person to person, so more perspectives are shown. The story has a good plot, and Frank thought up a good, and realistic ending. It raises good questions. What would happen if this was real?

I'd give this book 10/10 :D

The Deadliest Denial - By Colleen Thompson

I really liked the book. After i read the final chapter I was just shocked. So if you're looking for a good suspense thriller, check it out.

Here's the synopsis:

The worst day of Calire's life begins with a 5:00am knock on her door, the summons every cop's wife dreads. But instead of telling her Spence is gone, killed in the line of duty, hist sergeant has even worse news for Claire. Her husband is in jail. For murder. And there is irrefutable evidence that the person he really wants dead is her .

But betrayal turns to terror when Spence skips out on his bail and someone begins vandalizing her horse ranch. In the fury of a Texas thunderstorm, her husband reappears with a story that sounds all too credible and a seductive magnetism Claire has never been able to resist. Is her refusal to turn him in, her need to believe in his innocence, nothing but... The Deadliest Denial.

Rampage - William P. Wood

This courtroom drama was so so, I guess. Part of me wanted to just stop reading it but I wanted to put it down due to some parts just dragging on and on and on. It would of been a much better book if the author had knocked off 100 pages or so that just ran on with little accomplishment.

I think what attracted me to the book was reading the synopsis stating how DA Tony Fraser was going to be responsible for bringing down justice of these atrociously violent murders. What I didnt realise was that the murders would have been completed early on in the novel, leaving nothing but courtroom blabble. Maybe I should of realised it from the start... I didn't.

Lullaby - By Chuck Palahniuk

This is the first book I've read by Chuck Palahniuk. Imagine there was a lullaby pubished in a book of poems that whenever it was read to someone they would instantly die.

I was drawn to it from the first chapter and just had to read it straight through. Although, there were a few points in the novel that I was kind of hoping he would speed it up a tad but the ending really made up for it. It was so bizarre and twisted that I dont think that anyone could have predicted what was going to happen.

I'm going to read some of his other novels sometime very soon. I heard Haunted was pretty interesting to say the least. Has anyone read it?

Cell, by Stephen King

I was worried at first when I started to read it that the storyline was going to be too in sync with movies like Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days, but the small differences prove big in the end. It was definitely an enjoyable read, it raised many questions for me about how people define evolution and the "dominant species." It definitely was not what we consider a sane human today in this story.

The ending threw me, definitely. I would say it was evasive but I'm sure others are thinking "genius!" I probably would have done the same thing and prayed for more people to vote "genius" than "loserish," though.

Last night, I finished reading Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
As swiftly as a few authors have graced me, this book bumped Hardy into the list of some of my favorite authors, and some of his narrative style with the twists-of-plot remind me much of D.H. Lawrence, another favorite of mine.
The novel Jude The Obscure compelled to express nearly every emotion: I felt depressed in many parts, happy in others (and even laughing), and angry in certain chapters (anyone who has read this likely understands). Very few novels have had this immense effect on me, which impressed me only further. The storyline, plot, very in-depth characters with individualized psychology, surprise turns in the story - all excellent!
Unfortunately, I have had very little exposure to Thomas Hardy, but this certainly inspires me to read more of his fiction soon (as I have read a considerable amount of his poetry - also worth reading). Needless to say, I fell madly in love with this novel. :nod:
My rating: easily 10/10

East Of Eden By John Steinback

I read this book for Book Club. It was surely worth-reading. The story is mainly based on two families; Hamilton amd Trask. This novel portrays the human characteristics in a very good way and makes the reader to want to know more about the characters or questions and statement like this arise in reader's mind:
"Oh, wouldn't it would have been lovely if I would have met Smauel Hamilton?" or "If I would have met Cathy, I would have killed the *****"

Along with good character-formation, in this novel you will see good writing. The writing style is very good, especially the style of narrator is very, vey interesting.

Without any doubt, this wonderful book deserves 10/10. :banana:

To find more discussion about this book, visit this thread.

Earlier today, I finished reading Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. I read this primarily because I read Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe a few years ago, and, needless to say, fell in love with the story. Of course, finding the older English rather difficult to fully understand, Marlowe coming from the age of Shakespeare, the helpful footnotes, introductions, and explanatory notes helped immensely. :nod:
The plot proceeded the same as Goethe's Faust with a few exceptions, partially because I think Goethe existed more in the well-renowned Romantic era. Overall, though I have difficult comparing the two objectively, I think I liked Goethe's version more, mainly because . . . well, Goethe composed it, but I must give Marlowe many kudos for such originality, multiple allusions, poetic style, and containing so much in such a short play.

My rating: 9/10. ;)

Yesterday, I finished reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
Finally, I have found a book by James Joyce in which I did not have to do a lot of research in order to understand! :D Sometimes, I found this book particularly difficult to follow, as the plot wandered sometimes, but many parts of the novel seemed like very in-depth, incredible philosophical discourses, especially on aesthetics. The last part of the last chapter (as a ***SPOILER***) consisted of journal entries, which I thought very interesting; finally, the reader can see deeply into the mind of the main character, Stephen Daedelus.
Considering the name of the main character, the many, many allusions to Metamorphoses by Ovid did not surprise me, particularly to the tale of Icarus and Daedelus. Other popular allusions referenced St. Thomas Aquinas, whose aesthetics greatly interested me (perhaps another book to add to my mini-library soon).
In summary, I thought the novel incredible - the masterpiece of James Joyce (though I have yet to read only Ulysses by him), and a great representative to flight-of-consiousness literature.

My rating: 10/10.

Yesterday, I finished reading The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli - a very short, quick read, but saturated with thought. No doubt, nearly everyone knows of the Machiavellian ethics - the way of coercing and owning one's power over pampering and such spoils. As said in another thread, I mainly wanted to read it because it seemed a book frequently referenced, but not read as often.
Though I cannot quite agree with some of Machiavelli's philosophy, I have no doubt of his very superior intelligence; and I think the era in which he lived inspired his thought more than anything (he definitely had a strong affinity for politics and history). Despite his rather obvious immodesty, I felt the author had a lot to say, and definitely something worth reading; then again, I frequently feel I can learn more from someone of whom I disagree, rather than agree. Nonetheless, regardless of seeming labeled to have inspired the 'devilish ethics' in his time, I consider him one of the many great, older Italian authors.

My rating: 8.5/10.

The last book I read was "Romeo and Juliet"... gosh... it's so dramatic o.O But it's kind of nice... tragic ending though... abit like... you die I die sort of thing... haiz... most of you should know this play by William Shakespeare XD

During my summer stay in France I completed Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne.
As a child I always wanted to become a marine biologist (that was before I knew that this involved dissecting animals, too :D) and I had read this novel somewhen in middle-school, but now I wanted to re-read it and see what impact it would have now that I'm a bit more familiar with literature than I was then.
The book is about a professor and his servant taking part in a voyage on a ship that is to find out the truth about a mysterious monster that emerges at different places all over the world. However, they are thrown overboard by a shock and get picked up by the "monster", turning out to be a huge metallic ship, the "Nautilus", built and governed by the famous Captain Nemo. The Nautilus holds a great many wonders and the newcomers get to the depths of the ocean by accompagning Nemo on his voyages to the Indian coast, the Mediterranean, and even the South Pole.
I definetely don't regret having taken up the book for a second time. It is amazing how Jules Verne must have had some kind of foresight when describing the way the Nautilus operates by means of electricity, their diving suits, Nemo's measuring instruments, etc. that come very close to our technical devices today. The account of the marine life the heros encounter is also quite intriguing, although I found that especially these passage tend to be a bit lengthy at times, zoological names of fish being specified over three pages and such (maybe Jules Verne wanted to make clear that he definetely has done a lot of research :D).
The travels of the Nautilus and the crew, however, are quite exotic and interesting to read. The professor allows the reader to explore the Nautilus and the abyss of the ocean through his eyes and gives an insight into the unique personage of Nemo, who really remains unforgettable as a character after having read the book.
My rating would be 7/10.

Earlier today, I completed reading Tess Of The D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.
I read this slightly longer novel many years ago, probably at an age of which I did not understand it fully; having read Jude The Obscure (by the same author) very recently, I recalled wanting to read Tess again to make further my comprehension.
The language itself flows like poetry, and, despite Hardy's verbosity that could make Dickens' literature look vaguely described, the words alone define the art of the novel. In terms of a plot, the novel seemed to proceed in circles quite frequently, and exclude some parts of time that I thought important; otherwise, the storyline unfurled with suspense, ethical dilemmas, and much of the deep, introspective thought of the author, shining through the main title character.
Though overall I must say that I enjoyed Jude The Obscure more, Tess Of The D'Urbervilles certainly provides a definition of art in turn-of-the-century literature.

My rating: 9/10.