Number of Books Read: 12
Total Number of Pages: 5582
Average Number of Pages per Book: 465
Favorite Book for January: Fall on Your Knees
Least Favorite Book for January: The Historian
Books of Note:
Tender At the Bone for voice
The Stand for sheer length
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
January's List - Catch Up
Now, over the last year many people have either lent me books or recommended them to me. This list is going to start taking bites out of the back log so I can start returning books to people :)
1. The Tent by Margaret Atwood
2. On Writing by Stephen King (NF)
3. Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
4. Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
5. God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
6. Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
7. Timeline by Michael Crichton
8. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
9. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
10. Fall on Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald
11. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram (NF)
12. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
13. Chapterhouse Dune by Frank Herbert
14. The Stand by Stephen King
15. Eats Shoots & Leaves: A Zero Tolerance Guide to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (NF)
16. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
17. Tender At the Bone: Growing up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
18. Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl
bonus:
19. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
20. About a Boy by Nick Hornby
1. The Tent by Margaret Atwood
2. On Writing by Stephen King (NF)
3. Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
4. Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
5. God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
6. Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
7. Timeline by Michael Crichton
8. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
9. On Beauty by Zadie Smith
10. Fall on Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald
11. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram (NF)
12. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
13. Chapterhouse Dune by Frank Herbert
14. The Stand by Stephen King
15. Eats Shoots & Leaves: A Zero Tolerance Guide to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (NF)
16. The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
17. Tender At the Bone: Growing up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
18. Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl
bonus:
19. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
20. About a Boy by Nick Hornby
12. Fall on Your Knees
by Anne Marie MacDonald (512 pgs)
Rating: 4
The Piper family from Cape Breton starts ignominiously with a cross racial elopement of a young man (16) and a young Lebanese girl (13). Neither of them are truly ready for the responsibilities of married life and the girl particularly is not ready for the realities of motherhood. With their three daughters the family survives the first and second world wars, economic depression, and intercultural/racial misunderstanding.
Fall On Your Knees is an extremely well written book. MacDonald manages to cover sometimes shocking material in a way that doesn't feel like a play for shock value. This family has secrets and MacDonald's writing frames them and sets them up for discovery. It covers the history and time of pre war Canada in way that blends almost unnoticeably into the narrative.
Recommended to people who like family dramas or who have an interest in genealogies.
Rating: 4
The Piper family from Cape Breton starts ignominiously with a cross racial elopement of a young man (16) and a young Lebanese girl (13). Neither of them are truly ready for the responsibilities of married life and the girl particularly is not ready for the realities of motherhood. With their three daughters the family survives the first and second world wars, economic depression, and intercultural/racial misunderstanding.
Fall On Your Knees is an extremely well written book. MacDonald manages to cover sometimes shocking material in a way that doesn't feel like a play for shock value. This family has secrets and MacDonald's writing frames them and sets them up for discovery. It covers the history and time of pre war Canada in way that blends almost unnoticeably into the narrative.
Recommended to people who like family dramas or who have an interest in genealogies.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
11. Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures At the Table (NF 3)
by Ruth Reichl (320 pgs)
Rating: 4
Comfort Me With Apples picks up where Tender At the Bone left off. Reichl is living in a Berkley commune with her husband when she gets her first gig as a paid restaurant reviewer. This is not, apparently, a suitable occupation for a commune living hippie. Ah well, life does go on and in Reichl's case it gets even more interesting. From this simple reviewing gig Reichl launches herself on a career where in she meets the stars and rising stars of the culinary world while travelling all over the world.
Reichl continues with her frank conversational style the story of her life including the break up of her first marriage and the reasons for the break up of her first marriage. Her honesty, at times, made me a little uncomfortable but I found in the end that I felt grateful for her ability to share that time of her life...even if it made me all soppy.
Recommended to foodies, cookbook fanatics, and people in tough relationships.
Rating: 4
Comfort Me With Apples picks up where Tender At the Bone left off. Reichl is living in a Berkley commune with her husband when she gets her first gig as a paid restaurant reviewer. This is not, apparently, a suitable occupation for a commune living hippie. Ah well, life does go on and in Reichl's case it gets even more interesting. From this simple reviewing gig Reichl launches herself on a career where in she meets the stars and rising stars of the culinary world while travelling all over the world.
Reichl continues with her frank conversational style the story of her life including the break up of her first marriage and the reasons for the break up of her first marriage. Her honesty, at times, made me a little uncomfortable but I found in the end that I felt grateful for her ability to share that time of her life...even if it made me all soppy.
Recommended to foodies, cookbook fanatics, and people in tough relationships.
10. Tender At the Bone: Growing Up At the Table (NF2)
by Ruth Reichl (304 pgs)
Rating: 5
Ruth Reichl, in case you don't know, is the restaurant reviewer for the New York Times. This, her first memoir, covers from her childhood through to the 1970s. It's an interesting read partly because her family is so eccentric and partly because of Reichl's conversational tone. I began to feel that she was sitting on the other side of my kitchen table with a mug of coffee and telling me about here bi-polar mother and her misspent teenage years. Her frankness in the telling stops well shy of being embarrassing and is instead a comforting level of confiding.
Tender At the Bone is a very good, very quick read. I suspect that it may appeal slightly more to women then to men, but I think that's more incidental than intentional. The recipes look interesting although there are only a couple I suspect I will try.
Recommended to everyone, but specifically those who love to cook, those who love to eat, and those with crazy families.
Rating: 5
Ruth Reichl, in case you don't know, is the restaurant reviewer for the New York Times. This, her first memoir, covers from her childhood through to the 1970s. It's an interesting read partly because her family is so eccentric and partly because of Reichl's conversational tone. I began to feel that she was sitting on the other side of my kitchen table with a mug of coffee and telling me about here bi-polar mother and her misspent teenage years. Her frankness in the telling stops well shy of being embarrassing and is instead a comforting level of confiding.
Tender At the Bone is a very good, very quick read. I suspect that it may appeal slightly more to women then to men, but I think that's more incidental than intentional. The recipes look interesting although there are only a couple I suspect I will try.
Recommended to everyone, but specifically those who love to cook, those who love to eat, and those with crazy families.
Monday, January 29, 2007
9. Heretics Of Dune
By Frank Herbert (480 pgs)
Rating: 4
The emperor is dead. Long live...the priesthood? Rakis is returning to desert and the great sand worms are slowly dying. The peoples of the scattering are returning and they bring with them strange warped versions of the familiar institutions. The Bene Gesserit play a dangerous game that might save them all.
Heretics of Dune is a bit of a break from the familiar patterns Herbert set up in the intervening three books between Dune and this one. Almost as convoluted as the first and dealing with much less powerful individuals, I think this book has almost single handedly convinced me to finish off reading the original series. I found the characters well drawn and highly believable and the plot was dense but compelling.
Recommended generally as a political science fiction. It's almost too bad you have to read 4 books to get to this one.
Rating: 4
The emperor is dead. Long live...the priesthood? Rakis is returning to desert and the great sand worms are slowly dying. The peoples of the scattering are returning and they bring with them strange warped versions of the familiar institutions. The Bene Gesserit play a dangerous game that might save them all.
Heretics of Dune is a bit of a break from the familiar patterns Herbert set up in the intervening three books between Dune and this one. Almost as convoluted as the first and dealing with much less powerful individuals, I think this book has almost single handedly convinced me to finish off reading the original series. I found the characters well drawn and highly believable and the plot was dense but compelling.
Recommended generally as a political science fiction. It's almost too bad you have to read 4 books to get to this one.
8. God Emperor of Dune
by Frank Herbert (432 pgs)
Rating: 3
Leto II has inherited his father's empire but he inherited it hundreds of years ago. The consequences of his decision at the end of Children of Dune has extended his life and warped his body. With the long view of the nearly immortal, Leto has truly tortured his subjects economically among other things and has earned himself the title of tyrant. But being an Atreides, there's always a reason and it's always for the greater good.
God Emperor of Dune picks up after a significant lapse in time covering an economic crash and recovery. The plot is pretty straight forward but interesting. The writing style is a little dry. I did find it an interesting treatment of a nearly immortal character which strikes me as being fairly difficult to write. It's about as good as the previous book and worth reading if one's been following the series.
Recommend to those who are following the series
Rating: 3
Leto II has inherited his father's empire but he inherited it hundreds of years ago. The consequences of his decision at the end of Children of Dune has extended his life and warped his body. With the long view of the nearly immortal, Leto has truly tortured his subjects economically among other things and has earned himself the title of tyrant. But being an Atreides, there's always a reason and it's always for the greater good.
God Emperor of Dune picks up after a significant lapse in time covering an economic crash and recovery. The plot is pretty straight forward but interesting. The writing style is a little dry. I did find it an interesting treatment of a nearly immortal character which strikes me as being fairly difficult to write. It's about as good as the previous book and worth reading if one's been following the series.
Recommend to those who are following the series
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
7. Children of Dune
By Frank Herbert (416 pgs)
Rating: 3
Paul Muab-dib's twins are now children wise far beyond their years. Like their aunt Alia they were awakened to multiple lives of Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers before birth. Leto and Ghanima must face their grandmother Jessica and also struggle to maintain their identities to avoid being labeled Abomination. And all this while sidestepping the machinations of those around them, both well meaning and not.
Children of Dune follows the twins through the crisis of direction left by the death of their father and also through their crisis of identity. Each of them must fight the battle to remain human and themselves. It's a good book but not a great book. It's not as good as Dune but it is better than Dune Messiah. The continuation of the story begins to look like a Roman imperial saga but I still enjoyed it.
Recommended for Dune fans.
Rating: 3
Paul Muab-dib's twins are now children wise far beyond their years. Like their aunt Alia they were awakened to multiple lives of Bene Gesserit Reverend Mothers before birth. Leto and Ghanima must face their grandmother Jessica and also struggle to maintain their identities to avoid being labeled Abomination. And all this while sidestepping the machinations of those around them, both well meaning and not.
Children of Dune follows the twins through the crisis of direction left by the death of their father and also through their crisis of identity. Each of them must fight the battle to remain human and themselves. It's a good book but not a great book. It's not as good as Dune but it is better than Dune Messiah. The continuation of the story begins to look like a Roman imperial saga but I still enjoyed it.
Recommended for Dune fans.
6. On Writing (NF 1)
By Stephen King
Rating: 4 (320 pgs)
On Writing is about two thirds memoir and one third instuctional text. The memoir is actually fascinating and I didn't go in thinking it would be. I've never been a huge King fan. I like his books just fine but I never put him on the 'god of horror' pedistal that so many seem to. That being said, I wasn't thinking of him as particularly human either. It was refreshing, to say the least, to discover he was really just a man like I'd always suspected and encouraging to know that he's struggled too. The instuctional third was interesting but nothing particularly new. As most of King's books, On Writing is well written.
Recommended to those who want to write and those who love King.
Rating: 4 (320 pgs)
On Writing is about two thirds memoir and one third instuctional text. The memoir is actually fascinating and I didn't go in thinking it would be. I've never been a huge King fan. I like his books just fine but I never put him on the 'god of horror' pedistal that so many seem to. That being said, I wasn't thinking of him as particularly human either. It was refreshing, to say the least, to discover he was really just a man like I'd always suspected and encouraging to know that he's struggled too. The instuctional third was interesting but nothing particularly new. As most of King's books, On Writing is well written.
Recommended to those who want to write and those who love King.
5. The Historian
By Elizabeth Kostova
Rating: 2 (656 pgs)
Our narrator is a teenage girl being raised by her father, an American diplomat. Through her recollections and the journals of her father, a story filled with mystery and dark overtones emerges. The novel takes us from America to Britain on to Turkey and into the Eastern Bloc. The story is sinister.
The Historian, I'm sorry to say, is a good story crippled by bad structure. Kostova's voice is well developed and engaging but the format she chose for the story hinders momentum and, in some places, breeds confusion. I have a hard time recommending this to people although, as I said, it is a good story. I will definitely pick up her next book, I feel Kostova is an author worth giving a second chance and may very well develop into a very good writer.
Not recommended.
Rating: 2 (656 pgs)
Our narrator is a teenage girl being raised by her father, an American diplomat. Through her recollections and the journals of her father, a story filled with mystery and dark overtones emerges. The novel takes us from America to Britain on to Turkey and into the Eastern Bloc. The story is sinister.
The Historian, I'm sorry to say, is a good story crippled by bad structure. Kostova's voice is well developed and engaging but the format she chose for the story hinders momentum and, in some places, breeds confusion. I have a hard time recommending this to people although, as I said, it is a good story. I will definitely pick up her next book, I feel Kostova is an author worth giving a second chance and may very well develop into a very good writer.
Not recommended.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
4. Dune Messiah
by Frank Herbert (331 pgs)
Rating 3
Paul Muad'Dib is emperor and working to avert disaster for the human species. His mistress and love, Chani, is unable to conceive. Alia becomes more and more strange. There is a conspiracy a foot. And all of it, virtually every moment of it is foreseen by the emperor Paul. What if there were blind spots though? What if they found a way to get around the prognostication problem?
Dune Messiah is a continuation of Dune. Like Dune, it improves with rereading mainly because Herbert's writing style is so dense. The culture around Paul develops into a high tech cross between ancient Egyptian and Imperial Britain which is an interesting flavor. The story picks up very quickly after the end of Dune. There are a number of somewhat cynical religious themes and and great deal of character development.
Recommended if you liked Dune, if you didn't, you certainly won't see this one as an improvement.
Rating 3
Paul Muad'Dib is emperor and working to avert disaster for the human species. His mistress and love, Chani, is unable to conceive. Alia becomes more and more strange. There is a conspiracy a foot. And all of it, virtually every moment of it is foreseen by the emperor Paul. What if there were blind spots though? What if they found a way to get around the prognostication problem?
Dune Messiah is a continuation of Dune. Like Dune, it improves with rereading mainly because Herbert's writing style is so dense. The culture around Paul develops into a high tech cross between ancient Egyptian and Imperial Britain which is an interesting flavor. The story picks up very quickly after the end of Dune. There are a number of somewhat cynical religious themes and and great deal of character development.
Recommended if you liked Dune, if you didn't, you certainly won't see this one as an improvement.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
3. The Tent
by Margaret Atwood (158 pgs)
Rating 5
The Tent is a collection of short fiction and essays gathered from a variety of sources. Never having read Atwood before, I can't say how representative these are of her style but I loved them! There's a broad mix of genre and subject matter.
I recommend this book to everyone. :)
Rating 5
The Tent is a collection of short fiction and essays gathered from a variety of sources. Never having read Atwood before, I can't say how representative these are of her style but I loved them! There's a broad mix of genre and subject matter.
I recommend this book to everyone. :)
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
2. Timeline
by Micheal Crichton (512 pgs)
Rating 3
Quantum physics allows an unscrupulous billionaire to develop technology that allows time travel. Time travel specifically to feudal France. There are problems though and a archaeological team gets sent into the past to retrieve their mentor. It's not as simple as it seems though. Feudal France was not an easy place to survive in.
Timeline is a pretty typical Crichton book. The plot line was interesting, the characters were plastic, and the science sketchy...at best. That being said, I don't regret reading it. The history was very enthralling and seemed to be fairly well researched. If the characters were a little two dimensional, they were also quite plausible. The end is a little jarring but ties things together fairly well.
Recommended only if you have time on your hands. Not recommended as science fiction.
Rating 3
Quantum physics allows an unscrupulous billionaire to develop technology that allows time travel. Time travel specifically to feudal France. There are problems though and a archaeological team gets sent into the past to retrieve their mentor. It's not as simple as it seems though. Feudal France was not an easy place to survive in.
Timeline is a pretty typical Crichton book. The plot line was interesting, the characters were plastic, and the science sketchy...at best. That being said, I don't regret reading it. The history was very enthralling and seemed to be fairly well researched. If the characters were a little two dimensional, they were also quite plausible. The end is a little jarring but ties things together fairly well.
Recommended only if you have time on your hands. Not recommended as science fiction.
Monday, January 01, 2007
1. The Stand
by Stephen King (1141 pgs)
Rating: 4
The U.S. government screws up, illicit plague research leaks (literally), over 99% of the world population is dead within a month. Those left are troubled by vivid dreams of evil and good embodied by a scary dark man in old cowboy boots and an ancient black woman living in Nebraska. God and the devil are having a power struggle over the remains of humanity and the survivors have to pick sides.
The Stand is an incredibly long book. It's also pretty good. King uses several characters on both sides of the struggle to move the action forward. Because of the length, most of the characters have a wealth of depth and feel distinct. However, also because of the length there's a definite fatigue factor to consider when reading it. While the narrative drags only briefly in a couple of places, I found myself getting rather tired of reading it after about 600 pages. The supernatural aspects didn't always overlay the apocalypse themes. I was a little uncomfortable with the religious themes at times but didn't find them too overbearing. All and all, it was a good read.
Recommended to horror fans and anyone contemplating a long trip.
Rating: 4
The U.S. government screws up, illicit plague research leaks (literally), over 99% of the world population is dead within a month. Those left are troubled by vivid dreams of evil and good embodied by a scary dark man in old cowboy boots and an ancient black woman living in Nebraska. God and the devil are having a power struggle over the remains of humanity and the survivors have to pick sides.
The Stand is an incredibly long book. It's also pretty good. King uses several characters on both sides of the struggle to move the action forward. Because of the length, most of the characters have a wealth of depth and feel distinct. However, also because of the length there's a definite fatigue factor to consider when reading it. While the narrative drags only briefly in a couple of places, I found myself getting rather tired of reading it after about 600 pages. The supernatural aspects didn't always overlay the apocalypse themes. I was a little uncomfortable with the religious themes at times but didn't find them too overbearing. All and all, it was a good read.
Recommended to horror fans and anyone contemplating a long trip.
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