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Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194356 times)

Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #480 on: June 20, 2010, 11:08:46 PM »
The Sandman Vol 5. A Game of You - Neil Gaiman.

Here a young woman is sucked into a corner of the Dream land and must fight the evil Cuckoo to survive. It's gory as all get out, especially early on, and that sets the stakes for what could have been just a fantasy story with little impact or relevance. Luckily Gaiman continues to be a stupidly awesome writer. Not the best of the series but certainly a good read.

A-.
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oldkid

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #481 on: June 20, 2010, 11:54:15 PM »
Season of Mists is, I think, my favorite Sandman thus far.  A Game of You is certainly my least favorite.
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oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #482 on: June 24, 2010, 01:11:40 PM »
The Twits by Roald Dahl, read/performed by Simon Callow

Absolutely  marvelous.

Listened to this on our way up to Canada on Monday morning, and I think Uri and I enjoyed even more than our children, if that's possible.
Callow reads it brilliantly, and the book itself is classic Dahl, hilarious and very mischievous.

"You twit!" has taken on a whole new resonance.

michael x

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #483 on: June 30, 2010, 12:55:46 AM »
The Big Short - Michael Lewis at the top of his game. He is so good at finding the interesting characters in a story while explaining complicated financial concepts in a simple and logical manner.

Destiny Disrupted - Very readable general history of the Islamic world. Rather than write a completely Westernized history, the author lets religion, culture, wars, and politics remain intertwined, like they did in actuality. It's not academically rigorous - this book is for the casual reader who wonders how Muslims see the History of the World. For example, many of the early events surrounding The Prophet and subsequent Imams are obviously legends and myths, so it's disappointing to see them treated so factually and uncritically in an otherwise informative book.

oldkid

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #484 on: June 30, 2010, 01:09:00 AM »


Destiny Disrupted - Very readable general history of the Islamic world. Rather than write a completely Westernized history, the author lets religion, culture, wars, and politics remain intertwined, like they did in actuality. It's not academically rigorous - this book is for the casual reader who wonders how Muslims see the History of the World. For example, many of the early events surrounding The Prophet and subsequent Imams are obviously legends and myths, so it's disappointing to see them treated so factually and uncritically in an otherwise informative book.

I'm going to look for this.  I think it's important for some histories to be written from the point of view of another culture, so that we can understand them.  If we keep an arm's distance from their viewpoint, to remain objective, we will never really understand them.  Knowledge comes with acceptance.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

michael x

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #485 on: June 30, 2010, 05:25:18 PM »


Destiny Disrupted - Very readable general history of the Islamic world. Rather than write a completely Westernized history, the author lets religion, culture, wars, and politics remain intertwined, like they did in actuality. It's not academically rigorous - this book is for the casual reader who wonders how Muslims see the History of the World. For example, many of the early events surrounding The Prophet and subsequent Imams are obviously legends and myths, so it's disappointing to see them treated so factually and uncritically in an otherwise informative book.

I'm going to look for this.  I think it's important for some histories to be written from the point of view of another culture, so that we can understand them.  If we keep an arm's distance from their viewpoint, to remain objective, we will never really understand them.  Knowledge comes with acceptance.

Definitely do! I think you'll like it.

Emiliana

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #486 on: July 02, 2010, 05:35:52 PM »
Nocturnes - Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
by Kazuo Ishiguro

I like/love all three of Ishiguro's novels that I have read so far, and this collection of short stories is as beautifully written and evocative as you would expect. Plus, all of them are about music, and people "at some moment of reckoning", as the blurb on the back of the book informs me, so I thought there was no way that this could go wrong. And I absolutely loved the first story - three-dimensional characters you knew and cared about after only a page or two, and a beautiful and melancholic plot that suited the city of Venice where it was set. After that, the other stories were about different people in different parts of the world, but they all shared a quality of loss, of break-up, of melancholia, of unfulfilled dreams and ambitions, both musically and romantically, and of extremely uncertain futures, so that by the end of the book, I had read something quite beautiful, but I was utterly depressed. I probably should have spread the stories out over a longer period of time, but of course I didn't know that beforehand.

I'm reading Mark Kermode's It's only a Movie now - that should help raise my spirits :)

oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #487 on: July 02, 2010, 05:50:22 PM »
Nocturnes - Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
by Kazuo Ishiguro
That sounds lovely. I'm beginning my list of book ideas for my book group's new year (we'll decide on books in August), and I've been thinking of suggesting an Ishiguro, maybe The Remains of the Day, but I've never read any of his stuff.

What do you recommend?

Emiliana

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #488 on: July 02, 2010, 06:21:48 PM »
Nocturnes - Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
by Kazuo Ishiguro
That sounds lovely. I'm beginning my list of book ideas for my book group's new year (we'll decide on books in August), and I've been thinking of suggesting an Ishiguro, maybe The Remains of the Day, but I've never read any of his stuff.

What do you recommend?

Remains of the Day, definitely. It probably works better if you haven't seen the film (have you?), but even if you have, please please read the book! Such beautiful prose... Actually, it is far and away my favourite of his novels. There is so much detail, texture and atmosphere in the 1930s English country house setting, the characters and plot are extremely well-drawn, and they reveal their layers very slowly, almost imperceptibly, but there is sooooo much there. All this works so brilliantly because of the narrative voice that Ishiguro chooses: the first person narration of someone with clearly limited experiences and views, and also limited access/insight into what is happening. So you get endless questions about ideology, tradition vs. modernisation, class, politics, love...  So, um, yeah, I'd recommend that one!

oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #489 on: July 02, 2010, 07:23:31 PM »
Nocturnes - Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
by Kazuo Ishiguro
That sounds lovely. I'm beginning my list of book ideas for my book group's new year (we'll decide on books in August), and I've been thinking of suggesting an Ishiguro, maybe The Remains of the Day, but I've never read any of his stuff.

What do you recommend?

Remains of the Day, definitely. It probably works better if you haven't seen the film (have you?), but even if you have, please please read the book! Such beautiful prose... Actually, it is far and away my favourite of his novels. There is so much detail, texture and atmosphere in the 1930s English country house setting, the characters and plot are extremely well-drawn, and they reveal their layers very slowly, almost imperceptibly, but there is sooooo much there. All this works so brilliantly because of the narrative voice that Ishiguro chooses: the first person narration of someone with clearly limited experiences and views, and also limited access/insight into what is happening. So you get endless questions about ideology, tradition vs. modernisation, class, politics, love...  So, um, yeah, I'd recommend that one!
I've seen the film, yes, but honestly, I don't remember it much - it's been years - just remember liking it. Anyway, the book sounds perfect!! I'll definitely be putting it forward as an idea to the rest of the group.

 

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