Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194327 times)

smirnoff

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 26251
    • smirnoff's Top 100
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #870 on: January 23, 2012, 09:22:39 PM »


I wasn't really in it for the wieght loss aspect so much as the nutritional science. I had no idea wheat (of all types, and not just because of gluten) could have such insidious, and sometimes immediate, effects. Shocking some of the cases and studies he cites.

I'm not an expert but his underlying message is convincing enough for me to take action. I don't think I'll say healthy whole grains ever again without putting quotations around it.

amazon.com for more, if you're interested.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2012, 09:24:16 PM by smirnoff »

sdedalus

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 16585
  • I have a prestigious blog, sir!
    • The End of Cinema
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #871 on: January 24, 2012, 04:26:08 PM »


Pretty good.  It's limited to just longer essays Kehr wrote for the Chicago Reader from 1977-1986, so as mostly a collection of reviews it doesn't have the range or scope of a real book.  Many of the reviews are great though, and he has a whole section devoted to revivals, which includes considerations of Lang, Walsh and an epic essay on five Hitchcock films.  Kehr's a brilliant critic, possibly the greatest capsule writer in the history of the form, and when he's writing about something he likes he's as good as anyone.  His negative judgements, however, I find largely inscrutable.  I don't know if he just lacks judgement or he simply isn't as good at explaining why something isn't good as he is at explaining why it is.  Fortunately, these are all positive reviews, so that issue rarely causes much of a problem.
The End of Cinema

Seattle Screen Scene

"He was some kind of a man. What does it matter what you say about people?"

Jared

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3492
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #872 on: January 30, 2012, 12:05:45 PM »
Anna Karenina

One of the 4 or 5 biggest books Ive read, and certainley not a disappointment. I certainley perfer War and Peace, wherein the stakes of the characters relationships are constantly contrasted against the stakes of the war, while in AK we just get really good character drama.
Levin and Anna are right up there with Pierre and Natasha as far as great characters go. A lot of heartbreaking stuff and a lot of sympathy for some characters that arent the greatest people in the world.
Randomly watched the movie Funny Face when I was 75% through this. Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn spoiled the book's ending for me  :-\




saltine

  • Administrator
  • Godfather
  • ******
  • Posts: 9800
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #873 on: January 30, 2012, 08:54:10 PM »
Anna Karenina

One of the 4 or 5 biggest books Ive read, and certainley not a disappointment. I certainley perfer War and Peace, wherein the stakes of the characters relationships are constantly contrasted against the stakes of the war, while in AK we just get really good character drama.
Levin and Anna are right up there with Pierre and Natasha as far as great characters go. A lot of heartbreaking stuff and a lot of sympathy for some characters that arent the greatest people in the world.
Randomly watched the movie Funny Face when I was 75% through this. Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn spoiled the book's ending for me  :-\

Remember those old Reader's Digest abridged versions of books. Of course you don't.

AK needs that treatment, leave out the wheat fields and other agrarian stuff and you've got a great novel, in my view.  I of course skipped those pages so I read a great novel anyway.
Texan Down Under

tinyholidays

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3715
  • It's a hard world for little things.
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #874 on: January 30, 2012, 09:36:22 PM »
I get wanting to skip over the pure political stuff, but the chapters where Levin works in the fields are some of the most moving that I have read.

oneaprilday

  • FAB
  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 13746
  • "What we see and what we seem are but a dream."
    • A Journal of Film
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #875 on: January 31, 2012, 10:20:45 AM »
the chapters where Levin works in the fields are some of the most moving that I have read.
Yes, love those chapters.

Jared

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3492
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #876 on: January 31, 2012, 10:44:23 AM »
The chapters where Levin is doing something that sounds kind of boring (farming, hunting, politics) are also the chapters where he does the most thinking. Those were some of my favorite parts.

Jared

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3492
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #877 on: January 31, 2012, 10:53:03 AM »
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris
Little change of pace for Sedaris. Instead of autobiographical essays we get a series of short stories about animals. Some are pretty funny stuff...I particularly liked one about a couple of animals standing in a customer service line talking about how much they hate the person at the desk. Not as good as his other books, but fun little reads for lunch breaks and stuff. Illustrations throughout the book are funny too.

Jared

  • Elite Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 3492
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #878 on: February 03, 2012, 03:55:44 PM »
Blood Meridian
This one took me quite awhile, because I found Cormac McCarthy's writing style hard to mow through. There's no quotation marks, and when a character speaks in Spanish, well, it's written in Spanish. I also found myself frequently peaking at the online dictionary because I didnt know what some of the antiquated (the book is set in the 1850s) language meant. Its difficult to read like a Faulkner novel perhaps.
All that said I wasnt put off by the style at all. If you are ok with putting in the effort, this is a hell of a read. 350 pages throughly stocked with brutal violence. Judge Holden is a terrific character, much in the style of Anton Chigruh in NCFOM.
This was my first venture in McCarthy's writing...may go through the Border Trilogy soon.

oldkid

  • Objectively Awesome
  • ******
  • Posts: 19044
  • Hi there! Feed me worlds!
Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #879 on: February 03, 2012, 07:29:19 PM »
Terry Pratchett-- Snuff

The Night Watch is my favorite group of books in the Discworld.  Of course, it deals with a thinly-veiled racism, and there are wonderful familiar characters and wonderful new characters.  And some of the scenes-- like his counsel to Jane Austin and her characters-- were classic.  Overall, however, it seemed to lose steam by the end.  3.5/5
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky