the last book i read was "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald & it was simply amazing ,i met a lot of people like those mentioned in the novel maybe that is why i liked it
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the last book i read was "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald & it was simply amazing ,i met a lot of people like those mentioned in the novel maybe that is why i liked it
The Ghost Writer by John Harwood
What started as a crackling great ghost story with an intriguing engrossing plot eventually degenerated into a hackneyed superflous reworking of the Turn of the Screw twist with pieces of The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived In The Castle, and Woman In Black for good measure. Halfway through the novel I had the ending pinned and figured.
It began with a most attention grabbing mystery centering on what dark secrets and history may one's parents hide from their children. At one time, the book drew it's attention to death of one of the protagonist's parents (mild spoiler sorry) and then it is suddenly dropped that altogether and never picked up again.
The Ghost Writer is a story of revenge of the coldest most manipulative nature. A revenge that is most methodical.
The book does have moments where Harwood seemingly appears to be channeling M R James from the grave. Those moments I enjoyed the most. And the ending does provide the novel a backbone overall despite how Poesque and LURID it is because it actually gave me, the reader, plenty to meditate upon when looking back at the destructive nature of revenge accompanied with lingering unease. Recommendation: read the other titles I posted in this review instead.
2/5
A friend compelled me to read THE BOURNE SUPREMACY.
Well. Nightclubs are raided. Machine guns are fired. A girlfriend is captured. Plots and counter-plots are revealed (and more plots, and more counter-plots, and more plots...). As I progressed through BOURNE I realized that I was supposed to be excited by all of the above. One problem: I wasn't. Why? Two reasons.
First, the characters are cookie-cutter action-hero types straight out of a Hollywood summer schlock-buster; they're every bit as over-the-top and radically gung-ho as the Wachowskies' Matrix characters—Tank: What do you need, besides a miracle? Neo: Guns, lots of guns. As a result, I didn't care whether the good-guys lived or died.
Second, there are too many plot twists. A shattering revelation is interesting... once in a while. But in BOURNE everyone, every organization, every plot-point is like jello, and can fundamentally transform at a moments notice. There is nothing the reader can latch onto—no heroic slew of good-guys to love, no dastardly villain to hate.
And, in addition, as Ann Dillard wrote, there is this: "The printed word cannot compete with the movies on their [movies’] ground, and should not. You can describe beautiful faces, car chases, or valleys full of Indians on horseback until you run out of words, and you will not approach the movies’ spectacle. Novels written with film contracts in mind have a faint but unmistakeable, and ruinous, odor. I cannot name what, in the text, alerts the reader to suspect the writer of mixed motives; I cannot specify which sentences, in several books, have caused by to read on with increasing dismay, and finally close the book because I smelled a rat. Such books seem uneasy being books; they seem eager to fling off their disguises and jump onto screens.”
If you like BOURNE, I mean no offense. But in my oh so very humble opinion it catches a 2 out of 10.
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Sorely disappointed in this book, dreadfully monotonous, following the author in a shifty matchbook narrative living a bum's life on the road with a dash of Hollywoodesque classic melodrama thrown in. The book is only half believable though it could be entirely true. There was nothing rich and picaresque. Loafers, dreamers, users, losers, and itinerants of the dullest kind. Furthermore, the book's voice is terribly dated and lost it's ability to shock modern readers with it's "provocative" subjects. And though his work has been cited as inspiring "the Beat Generation" and partly Sixties radicalism I wouldn't care to pick up another Kerouac book ever again.
1/5
I just finished David James Duncan's The Brothers K. I read it solely because it sounded like The Brothers Karamazov. Which was completely intentional, as I found out; the books have quite a few similarities. The Brothers K is one of those sprawling books that can't really be summarized, but it follows the life of a family from about 1950 to 1975, predominantly through the eyes of Kincaid Chance, the fourth of six children. The entire book has sort of a patchwork feeling--sometimes the story is continued through an essay one of the children wrote, sometimes the point of view changes, but all to great effect. Religion and baseball are central themes, and go together surprisingly well. I thought it was completely brilliant because it combined my two favorite things (baseball and Russian literature references).
I strongly recommend this book, but feel obligated to warn that there is some strong sexual material and of books I've read, the profanity is second only to The Catcher in the Rye, and sometimes the book is just very, very heavy. It's probably not a book you would give to your twelve- or thirteen-year-old. But this is one book that I think will still be around in 50 years. It is very good.
For anyone, who read and loved Marquez' Love In the Time of Cholera, Memories of My Melancholy Whores will feel like a brief afternoon's nostalgia of the earlier book; brief, because Melancholy Whores extends to only 116 pages, and is printed in large font.
We spend a few moments with our protagonist going through the blues of anticipating his impending 90th birthday. At 89, he is still a bachelor, and has apparently never known real love, which is not to say that he has not been a dedicated and frequent patron of the red light districts. In his professional life, he has carried on the job as editor on a newspaper for half a century longer, than anyone of the paper's staff or readership feels was strictly necessary.
With the creeping sensation in his bones that his 90th birthday will be his last, he decides that he will spend the night of his 90th birthday in the embrace of a virgin, and manages for the matron of a local whorehouse to make the arrangements. Needless to say, the encounter between lecherous old man and virgin whore does not transpire in exactly the manner predicated by either the anniversarist's (or, the reader's) imagination. The encounter does, however, set the story in motion, and precipitates a number of changes and events in the old man's life.
The book snugles nicely next to the author's other works both in theme and style, and feels most of all like a small present to loyal Marquez readers everywhere. If sitting down on a first date with Marquez, I would recommend one of his earlier novels, but then again, this could do the trick for anyone with only a couple of hours to spare, or, a reluctance to get completely naked with the author.
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe
This was an amazing book. It followed famed author Ken Kesey as he led the Merry Pranksters, who were basically the earliest hippies, the bridge between the Beat Generation and the Flower Generation. Their absurd lifestyle, living life on a whim, getting on the bus, living their movie, traveling across the country, hiding out in Mexico from the authorities because Kesey'd been convicted of marijuana possession, flouting the black shiny shoed masses with their every breath, those average people who did not understand what it meant to be a beautiful person...this book shines. One of my favorites. Defines a generation. Out of ten starts I'd give it a nine point.
Thanks for posting this, its on my list to read books and I was a little unsure about buying it.:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Midnight Runner
The Perks of Being a Wallflower-Stephen Chbosky
This is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. For those of you who think this book is more for teens or whatever, I must say give it a try. It is a moving story of a young highschool boy and his experiences. Chbosky writes in the form of letters to someone who is not know to anyone except for the narrator who uses a fake name in order to avoid recognition. The narrator writes in an openly honest way that lets readers understand the emotions and inner thoughts of the main character. Truly mindblowing.
5/5
I loved the book when I read it but it was really sad!Quote:
Originally Posted by Mortis Anarchy
Yeah, it got me really depressed. I was a sophmore...? When I first read it...I started thinking if I was missing out on highschool experiences...my mom actually told me I should stop reading for awhile, she said that I am too, urgh um I guess into books...I dunno. Its still a really good and mindblowing book. My favorite still.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pensive
"Peeling the Onion" about Gunter Grass.Nothing is what it seems, especially to the author, who in this chronicle of his first 32 years, from his childhood in Danzig to the publication of “The Tin Drum” in 1959, often describes himself in the third person and treats himself as a fictional character in a story subject to memory’s endless editing. from NYTimes review. I remember the Tin Drum as an exquisite piece but had no idea the author was so complex. Many will dismiss him since he was briefly part of the German war effort but then he was exposed to those contemporary pressures; present readers ought not judge him for that. quasimodo1
New book recommended by the nytimes book review section...LONE SURVIVOR, by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson. (Little, Brown, $24.99.) The only survivor of a Navy Seal operation in northern Afghanistan describes the battle, his comrades and his courageous escape.
[QUOTE=Sancho;63770]I read Samuel Beckett’s, Waiting for Godot last night.
It was a two act play where nothing happens,…twice.
I suppose you have to be in the right mood. I was. I dug it.
I liked it very much...in the Christian community it is interpreted as what goes on while waiting for God. Sometimes in life not much happens.
[QUOTE=Rachy;68794]I just finished Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, about 3 seconds ago! I'm really sad that I've finished it! I get like that when I finish a good book! Yes I am that sad! I thought this book was great!
I've seen the film versions but yet to read the actual book. I'm glad to hear the book itself is worth reading as many books they make films of aren't.