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Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194192 times)

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #350 on: December 30, 2009, 11:06:30 PM »
The Shock Doctrine - N. Klein, 2007
A really phenomenal book. Klein writes in a way that is easy to read but very informative, and you'll learn more from this than you ever thought was possible. I've been consistently shocked and disgusted, and actively moved to action. It's really opened my eyes in more ways than I would've thought possible.

The best moment may be in the conclusion, where one figure related to Latin America and the IMF literally took my breath away and almost reduced me to tears. If you've read the book, comparing the borrowing of Latin America in 2005, 80% of the IMF's books, to 2007, when they make up 1% of the IMF's books. An amazing figure.

It's a book that has made me want to walk up to strangers on the street and say "you should read this!" It's taught me so much. A brilliant, brilliant book. Read it now.

smirnoff

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #351 on: January 04, 2010, 06:58:08 PM »
The Golden Compass (mild spoilers)

This was somewhat pleasant to read but for me it never took off. Firstly, Lyra's story didn't interest me much. The problem was that I never felt she was a particularly important character in the world the book creates (despite being told otherwise). It's hinted that she has a bigger part to play than she knows, but that alone wasn't enough for me. Her task has her running all over the world, but it's not clear (to us or her) what she'll accomplish by its successful completion. Overall I found the book too vague for it's own good. I was starving for details. A lot of reading, not a whole lot of payoff. At least not yet. The problem is, now that I'm done part one I don't feel motivated to read the next two. They'll have to wait a while...

My second problem with the novel is the lack of depth in describing the cultures of the people Lyra meets and the blandness of the environments she visits. No people or places really came alive for me during my reading.

Decent, but for me there was no real highlights. That's kind of how I remember the movie. 2.5/4

Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #352 on: January 08, 2010, 04:43:15 PM »
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan.

The second book in the series follows the Odyssey semi-closely. Unfortunately, a lot of the issues I had with the first book remain here. If I could wipe "The good news/The bad news" thing off the face of the earth, I would do so. That being said, I really like the last chapter. It offers an interesting twist in the whole story, which was needed. I'm still gonna read on.

B-.
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Clovis8

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #353 on: January 13, 2010, 02:44:11 PM »


I enjoyed this book a fair amount but not as much as Sex, Drugs, and CocoPuffs. It contains a few brilliant essays and several rather slight and easily forgettable ones. The great include essays on Errol Morris, Kurt Cobain and laugh tracks. Perhaps the most interesting essay is about the philosophical value of Theodore Kaczynski's (Unibomber) manifesto.

There are also some great ideas about Herzog.

Grade: B+

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #354 on: January 16, 2010, 07:34:48 PM »
I've tried this twice before, the second time getting a sizeable chunk of the way through it. This time, it's to the end.


The Transit of Venus - Shirley Hazzard, 1980
Towards the end of this novel there is a sentence that I found thoroughly odd and out of place. I couldn't understand why Hazzard, who had proved herself so adept to this point, would include it. Then, maybe five paragraphs from the finish, everything fell into place.

This is an absolutely remarkable novel. It is the closest I have ever read to a "perfect novel", if such a thing exists. It has an incredible power, and an incredible scope, beautiful prose and remarkable characters. There are moments of revelation that left me gasping, close to tears, and just thoroughly drawn in. I cannot recommend this enough. An incredible book.

oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #355 on: January 18, 2010, 04:23:54 PM »
I've tried this twice before, the second time getting a sizeable chunk of the way through it. This time, it's to the end.
The Transit of Venus - Shirley Hazzard, 1980
Towards the end of this novel there is a sentence that I found thoroughly odd and out of place. I couldn't understand why Hazzard, who had proved herself so adept to this point, would include it. Then, maybe five paragraphs from the finish, everything fell into place.

This is an absolutely remarkable novel. It is the closest I have ever read to a "perfect novel", if such a thing exists. It has an incredible power, and an incredible scope, beautiful prose and remarkable characters. There are moments of revelation that left me gasping, close to tears, and just thoroughly drawn in. I cannot recommend this enough. An incredible book.
I picked this up from the library the other day on your recommendation. Hopefully, I can get to it soon!

Colleen

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #356 on: January 18, 2010, 04:42:13 PM »
So, bringing the culture level way down, I've actually finished my first book for the year (though I'm in the middle of 5 or 6 others right now).  It was an audiobook version of The Day of the Troll, a Doctor Who novel.  Yes I'm addicted enough to read the books (or listen to them in this case, when I'm jonesing for a fix).  I love that David Tennant has read several of the books featuring his Doctor.  This was one of them.  The story was just okay but enough suspense to keep me listening.  Interesting future setting (most of the land in England rendered useless for growing anything, experimental project trying to restart food production in Britain, most of the world living in a narrow tropical/temperate band of area, food allegedly running out within 70 years.)

Mostly I liked hearing David Tennant say all the Doctor's typical lines in the proper Doctor voice.

FifthCityMuse

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #357 on: January 18, 2010, 09:33:35 PM »
Because of Chris, and also my best friend Jem:


Great book.
Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005
I feel a little sorry for Mr. Ishiguro, having to follow Ms. Hazzard. Because this just left me utterly cold. Well, I mean, I was moved at the requisite moments, but only minorly, and that was about it. I never really was that struck by the plot, I didn't like the characters, the slight playing with chronology just annoyed me, and, while I was always going to be comparing to the liquid gold prose of The Transit of Venus, I just found the prose here dull and standard.

I mean, it's not really that bad as a book. But I just found it so middle of the road. None of the comments I'd heard about it lead me to expect anything as standard and boring as this. Even the big issues at the heart of it I just felt were handled in such a typical, no surprises way. I probably could've given the entire outline before I sat down. I was hoping there would be a redeeming reveal about Hailsham, but even that was pat and entirely what I expected.

The Transit of Venus - Shirley Hazzard, 1980
I picked this up from the library the other day on your recommendation. Hopefully, I can get to it soon!
I hope you enjoy it. I really did find it so wonderful.

Abomination

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #358 on: January 19, 2010, 12:40:27 PM »
Blindness by José Saramago (1995)

I was really up and down with my feelings towards this novel while I read it. The premise is interesting and well realized: several people are being inexplicably struck blind and thus are quarantined together by the government out of fear of a contagious disease.  This creates an interesting look at what humanity is reduced to when an essential part of it's existence is taken from it and sets up a classic recreation-of-society story usually seen in the context of a shipwreck or a post-apocalyptic world. 

However, the book slowly began to lose me the further I got into it.  The horrible conditions of the quarantined area which allowed me to sympathize with the characters gradually took the focus away from them and the story moved from a character study to a steady series of perverse tortures upon them.  The writing style, which often has multiple characters speaking within a single paragraph with no quotations and little differentiation between who is speaking, really captures the confusion and frantic nature of the newly blind.  As the story continued though, I felt as though this became more intrusive and clashed with tonally different sections, unlike the equally distinct writing in a book such as Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  

While I would probably say overall that I enjoyed the book, I felt as if it continually tried to disuade me from doing so. The moment when the characters leave their prison became drawn out and uninteresting, and in my opinion should have been where the story ended. My edition of the book had an exerpt from the follow-up Seeing, which held absolutely no interest for me. 

2.5/5

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #359 on: January 24, 2010, 05:15:37 PM »
Yo, I was reading Frankenstein again, as I wrote elsewhere, and I noticed, as I did the first time, but even more so this time, that there is a portion in the novel, from when the monster encounters Victor on the mountain, through his story, and concluding with his flight, that is some of the best writing I have ever had the opportunity to read.

 

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