Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194320 times)

Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #40 on: December 22, 2008, 11:14:12 PM »
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.

A bunch of fun. I really enjoyed the alternating chapters (one from the POV of the villain, the next from the POV of a cybernetic superhero) and the story was fun and twisty (although I did see some of it coming) I laughed a lot, but the end got kind of monologue-y. Although that may have been on purpose. Anyways, it's a fun read for fans of superhero stories.

B+.
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jbissell

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #41 on: December 22, 2008, 11:46:31 PM »
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman.

A bunch of fun. I really enjoyed the alternating chapters (one from the POV of the villain, the next from the POV of a cybernetic superhero) and the story was fun and twisty (although I did see some of it coming) I laughed a lot, but the end got kind of monologue-y. Although that may have been on purpose. Anyways, it's a fun read for fans of superhero stories.

B+.

Glad you liked it, I thought it was a lot of fun, something I don't always have when it comes to that sort of story.

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #42 on: December 23, 2008, 02:50:55 AM »
Pet Sematary
It's weird to say, but this book was not nice. Not very nice at all. It has a very nasty feel that permeates throughout, and it makes for a reading experience that is far from comfortable. It's not scary, per say, but just really unpleasant to read. There's no real twists and turns, and after the first half it becomes pretty predictable.

That said, I was really interested by the way that the spectre of death really looms over this novel, more so than any other King I've ever read. Death is almost a character in this, in the way it shapes the characters and their actions. It's kind of amazing.

Still, far from King's best.

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #43 on: December 28, 2008, 10:45:32 AM »
Eddie and the Cruisers
by P.F. Kluge

I can't think about Eddie and the Cruisers without hearing the opening keyboard tinkle of The Darkside.  I just can't.  It's not a favorite movie of mine, but it is a fun movie.  Seeing it for the first time was magical, sort of.  I saw it on film in a 90 seat theater and didn't know much about it, other than the week before the theater ran the original trailer to advertise it's revival screening, and that it was always a movie I was interested in seeing.  I also knew the song The Darkside from having grown up in New Jersey, home of a trillion and one classic rock stations, but I didn't know of it's connection to the film.

A few weeks ago, working my Christmas gig at the video store, my best friend (and co-owner of the store) got into an argument with a customer purchasing a battered VHS copy of the film.  This guy swore up and down that Eddie Wilson was not only real, but he remembers exactly what he was doing when he heard the news the Eddie had 'died'.  The argument got heated when my friend, more opinionated than I am, wouldn't back down and let the misinformed remain so.  The patron wouldn't back down either, and I'm sure we lost a repeat customer.  Believe it or not, less than an hour later, the scene repeated itself, except with a different customer.  Again, buying a copy of the film, sun bleached VHS cover and all, as well as a copy of the rare Eddie and the Cruisers II:  Eddie Lives! VHS (for which we get $15!  Fifteen bucks for a VHS, now that's amazing!) this guy lit in on how he missed Eddie so much, and how his music meant so much to this guy, and how he remembered what he was doing (roofing his house) when he heard the Eddie was dead.  I didn't argue with the guy, but my friend did, and I mentioned that the film was based on a book.  The guy related that if the film was based on a book (which it is, and is mentioned in the opening credits) that the book was an account of the real Eddie Wilson.  With that he left with is overprice, hard to find VHS tape.

These two encounters are what encouraged me to dig out my DVD of Eddie and the Cruisers which then propelled my interest into the novel.  How could someone create something so visceral and amazing that people have altered their own personal history to make room for a fantasy?

Christmas came, and with it a fresh copy of the lingering reprinting of P.F. Kluge's cult novel.  It's a wonderful read.  It's a mystery, like the film, steeped in Rock-lore and that's just it, he so perfectly wrote about the death and pop-culture resurgence of a cult music icon that it has stuck in the minds of people as reality.  And what I think helps is the Kluge wrote the book in the late 70's just as most of the greatest rock legends were winking out.  But he was the first to take the idol worship to the next level.  He saw that people were going to look back and yearn for those tender years before they even did.  Sure, he had Elvis and Jopplin to guide his hand, but he marketed pop-culture nostalgia in 1980 the way Cobain's fans (Van Sant being one of them) do today.

The book is by no means perfect, but like a great pop-song it hits all the right notes, or most of them.  I still would say the the Hollywood ending is superior to the book's, because it does what reality and Elvis fan's can't.  I'd also say that the result of the mystery is a let down, and the violence surrounding it is unnecessary.  These are the few things the movie got right, that and casting Micheal Pare.  But the rest, the rest is perfectly captured by a young writer who's foresight is pretty astounding.

Grade A
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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #44 on: December 28, 2008, 01:26:21 PM »


I both hate and love Chuck at the same time.  This is why I listen to music i'm sure he hates while reading his books.  I feel better this way. Some of the moments are fantastic, others are really annoying (mostly involving his pining).  A fun read even if he he has awful taste in music.

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #45 on: December 28, 2008, 02:36:52 PM »
Just finished reading One Day, All Children by Wendy Kopp (the founder of Teach for America). It's a great read if you're a college student and looking for something to do after graduation. It's really pretty remarkable how a small group of people right out of college were able to create such a successful organization. Whether joining Teach for America is something that appeals to you or not, it really makes you think about just how much you can accomplish at such a young age.
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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #46 on: January 15, 2009, 06:30:55 AM »
Read Saturday next.

I did.

Saturday - Ian McEwan
I love McEwan. I can't believe it took me this long to realize that. He writes with such ease that it's impossible not to love him. This isn't quite as good as Atonement, but it's certainly better than Amsterdam. It's pretty simple, and I don't know that there's a whole lot of surprises, but I don't know that there needs to be.

It's also a pretty amazing snapshot of the world after 9/11 and just prior to the invasion of Iraq, and it's fascinating to look back on in retrospect.

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #47 on: January 15, 2009, 09:02:20 AM »
Read Saturday next.

I did.

Saturday - Ian McEwan
I love McEwan. I can't believe it took me this long to realize that. He writes with such ease that it's impossible not to love him. This isn't quite as good as Atonement, but it's certainly better than Amsterdam. It's pretty simple, and I don't know that there's a whole lot of surprises, but I don't know that there needs to be.

It's also a pretty amazing snapshot of the world after 9/11 and just prior to the invasion of Iraq, and it's fascinating to look back on in retrospect.


You got it. I went to college in 2000-2003 in the area of London that he describes and he gets every detail right. It's a superb evocation of a specific time, place and mindset.
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Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #48 on: January 27, 2009, 08:46:09 PM »
Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World

I love this book. Like it's in my top 5 of all time right now loved it. It's beautifully written and funny and intelligent and clever and everything you could possibly want. It's got unicorns and big walls and librarians! It plays with pretty much any genre you can think of and then some and mashes them all together and makes something special out of the remains. Whoever I get next Book Dictator period will get this for sure. I love it.

The last hundred or so pages filled me with a feeling I have never gotten from a book before. It was a strange mournfully happy peace. The book reaches a climax about 3/4ths of the way in (when the Professor reveals what is happening to our hero) and the rest is a coast to an inevitable end. I was both sad and glad for our hero, both parts of him. I only recall feeling something similar to this at the end of the Lord of the Rings films when they get on the boat. You know that everybody else is going to live on and be happy and you know that Frodo and them are happy, too, but there is a strange sense of loss or something there that keeps everything mellow. I don't know if I described this well, but it is something that really struck me.

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Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #49 on: January 27, 2009, 08:54:04 PM »
I would also like to add that this book and The Phantom Tollbooth/Alice In Wonderland combo are why I love books. That is all.
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