Last Book You Read and Your Review of It

[Raistlin]

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. The sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora, this one was not quite as enjoyable as the first one. Maybe the simple writing style just got old, maybe the basic plot concept of "everything goes wrong, constantly" was tiring, maybe the two main characters were a bit stale. Regardless, I did not like it as much. It is still worth reading, though, if you read the first book and enjoy it. It will also be interesting to see where the third book (yet to be released) takes off from the end of this one.

[Miriel]

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Really engrossing. I finished it in 2 days, and it's like a 1000 page monster. So definitely a page turner. Historical fiction, first half is waaay better than the 2nd half. It almost felt like the book could easily have been half as long. It just kinda meandered and dragged along towards the end, and finished rather abruptly. Like the author was like, "oh , I should really start to wrap this up." The writing style is kinda simplistic, and the author repeats phrases which is such a huge pet peeve of mine. I think he used the phrase, "feared for his life" like 15 different times. Once he used it twice within one paragraph. But the characters felt alive, and it was a fun ride. A little trashy in parts, but not as trashy as something like The Other Boleyn Girl.

Would definitely recommend this book. It's kinda halfway between a fun summer beach read and proper literature.

[Kirobaito]

Freedom Summer: The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy by Bruce Watson

As far as history books go, it keeps the reader engaged. Watson is a journalist, so the focus is on individual stories rather than tremendous historical analysis, but when it comes to something like Freedom Summer, most of the historical analysis is pretty evident from the mere nature of the event. If you like non-fiction, I think it's worth reading.

White Like Me by Tim Wise

Oh, wow, wow, wow. If you want to learn more about white privilege, all you have to do is read this book. Holy freakin' crap.

[The Man]

Tim Wise is awesome. I've read a lot of his essays and he always has tons of solid documentation backing up his statements, and he's probably one of the best critics of white privilege out there. I should read some of his books. Freedom Summer looks interesting too.

I recently re-read A Wrinkle in Time. I had forgotten why I loved that book so much when I was a kid. No longer. If more Christians were like L'Engle I doubt the religion would be criticised so often.

[Parker]

Almost finished reading Post Office by Charles Bukowski. I've only been familiar with his poems before now (For Jane is one of my favourite poems ever) but I really like this. A nice easy read, funny but oh so sad.

[Rye]

How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent ~ Alvarez

I adored the writing, but as a novel, it frustrated me. The first half fit together like a novel and built up to an interesting novel, and then the second half, it just broke apart and turned into fragmented short stories. Interesting to think about, but that doesn't seem like a novel to me. Maybe a collection of short stories?

Little Bee ~ Chris Cleave

I just bought this novel about an hour or two ago and I'm already over a quarter through it. I've not read so voraciously in ages. It renews some hope in me that I can be a good English teacher/professor/reader, albeit a very picky one.

This has some of the best writing I've ever read. I can't even skim it like my eyes tend to do automatically because every word is delicious and bright and onto the next like string lights. It's a disturbing and sad novel.

In my experience, a novel can go from amazing to a disappointment around the half-mark, so I'm hoping this novel stays as exquisite as it is right now, because it will easily become one of my favorite novels.

It is heavily marketed as a "DO NOT SPOIL THIS" book, so I guess I won't say much about it at all, except it is about a young Nigerian refugee named Little Bee and a British woman and mother and how they become tied together through tragedy and ignorance.

[Miriel]

Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

So this 3rd book in the Hunger Game trilogy was released last Tuesday. It breaks my heart how disappointed I was in this last book. Very very similar to how I felt with the last Harry Potter book. Such a great series up until this spectacularly disappointing ending. All the characters that I grew to like became awful butchered versions of themselves, the story itself was disjointed and unappealing. Even the writing style seemed incredibly immature, rushed, and unpolished. Ugh.

I bought the whole series for myself and now I'm not sure if I can read the first two books having been so severely disappointed with the 3rd.

[Rye]

I finished Little Bee just a few minutes ago. I'm shocked how fast I devoured that book. It was probably one of the best novels I've ever read. It uplifted me and broke my heart. A must read for anyone whose heart rips whenever they see the ignorance of immigration laws on television.

[~*~Celes~*~]

I'm currently reading the Sookie Stackhouse series and I just whizzed through Dead in Dallas (book 2) last night and have moved on to Club Dead (book 3) today.

Book 2 was actually a lot different from the show in many ways, it was pretty shocking to me. Not at all in a bad way though. Though, I can see why some would think so.

[Miriel]

Dune by Frank Herbert

Such a richly imagined book! The depth, and the full realization of the characters, the setting, the mythology was so impressive. I was riveted the whole way through. It was only toward the ending that I felt a little... I don't know the right word for it. It's just that the ending felt kind of anti-climatic and hollow. Everything that led up to the ending was great. And then it fell a little short. But still, what a great accomplishment in science fiction. I really enjoyed it.

[Ouch!]

Ouch!'s response to summer reading:

The Wheel of Time Books I-X by Robert Jordan
I'm not going to individual respond to each of the books in the series since there's very little distinction between each entry. The series is plagued by just about every fantasy trope (shepherd turning out to be prophesied hero, the Dark One bound thousands of years ago breaking free, etc.) and yet somehow I can't bring myself to stop reading. After reading Martin's work, I've become even more critical of fantasy novels and heavy reliance on the clichés that define the genre, but for some reason, I manage to keep plodding on through The Wheel of Time which somehow manages to package the familiar trodden ground in a way that keeps me reading. I'm quickly becoming sick of Jordan's obsession of the dichotomy of the sexes, though. Currently about 200 pages into the eleventh book in the series.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
The premise of Gladwell's argument is a fairly interesting one. I've never read his other books (which I have heard are better), but I found myself growing more and more unimpressed by Gladwell's rhetoric as the pages turned. The argument would have been far more compelling as a twenty page essay; as an entire book, it fell on its face, lost in its own plethora of examples which turned out to be more interesting as anecdotes than as support for the argument.

Dune by Frank Herbert
I'm going to have to agree with Miriel on all counts for Frank Herbert's science fiction masterpiece. The world created for the series is absolutely brilliant, and the tension rising towards what ultimately felt like a rushed and sudden conclusion was only a bit of a disappointment.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
I felt that this was certainly a worthy sequel of the first novel, but fell short insofar as very little is revealed to the reader until the very end of the novel and it's near impossible to piece together how Paul plans everything to fall together. Having read more in the series, I now understand this to be characteristic of the series as a whole. Definitely a satisfying sequel and worth a read to those who liked the first.

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
Unfortunately, by this point, the story begins to fall apart. While the premise of abominations and the risk the pre-born face is most certainly an interesting point, it feels contrived since it had never before been mentioned in the series. This is also where the series begins to take a turn for the weird, and I hear the series only becomes weirder in the second trilogy. I feel that the plot grows weaker and weaker as the story moves further into its own pseudoscientific world and further away from the plotting and the tension between characters which made the first book so brilliant.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
This is a series I've been meaning to read for a while, and I'm glad I finally got around to it. The story was brilliant until the end of the third book which was perhaps one of the biggest letdowns in fiction I've experienced in some time. For a series which spent such a great deal of time attacking and challenging religion and exposing moral gray areas, the ultimate explanation for the big mystery of the series was somewhat lackluster. The omnipotent narrator constantly refers to a very difficult decision which the main character must make, but in the end, no such difficult decision ever truly materializes, which ultimately left me with a sour taste in my mouth despite how well everything else had been presented.

The Dark Tower - The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Honestly, I don't really think I understood much of any of the explanation that was given at the end of the first entry in Stephen King's epic, but I don't really think I was supposed to anyway. Despite being utterly baffled and confused, I went ahead and ordered books II-VII anyway and will be tackling those soon.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Cards
I feel like if I'd read this book seven years ago, I would probably think this was one of the deepest and most provocative books I'd ever read. As it stands, I felt Cards approached the subject matter in a manner which didn't do it justice. I feel like it would have been better if the book hadn't been written as though it was directed at juveniles. Ultimately a disappointment.

Good Omens by Terry Prachet and Neil Gaiman
By no means a life-changing read, but certainly a very amusing one. Being largely British humor, there were a number of footnotes explaining some jokes to American audiences, and I tended to find the explanations themselves the funniest part of the entire book. Then again, I'm the kind of guy who gets a giggle out of footnotes.

I also read a linguistics textbook about basic information for field linguistics, but I don't think reviewing that would be appropriate.

I'd also like to speak up in defense of Martin's A Feast for Crows. I think a certain measure of forgiveness is required in appreciating AFFC in comparison to the others in the series; the book was originally intended to take place five years after the ending of the previous entry. When this plan failed, Martin dove headfirst into a gargantuan effort which ultimately proved too ambitious for a single book. As a result, he decided to split the characters into two groups. Unfortunately, the most engaging characters (Daenerys, Bran, Jon, and Tyrion, to name those who most interest me) appear briefly if at all as a result.

I feel that the first half of the book comes off as fairly slow as a result of having a cast of mostly unlikeable characters. The story largely takes place during a period of stasis in the wake of the War of the Five Kings. While the narrative lacks any scenes comparable to something like the Red Wedding, I feel that the conflicts begin to build towards some very engaging cliffhangers by the end of the narrative. The endings to many of the plot arcs strike me as some of the best and most ominous of the series, and I was impressed by how engaged I felt by the stories involving some of my least favorite characters in the series.

I also appreciate Martin's knack for making my sympathize with some of the characters previously only presented as villains simply by giving them perspective chapters while reinforcing my burning hatred for others by the same means.

[The Man]

The "very difficult decision" Lyra has to make in His Dark Materials is (SPOILER)separating from Will. I would expect that separating from someone after falling in love with them, never to see them again (as far as she knows, anyway), would be an excruciatingly painful decision to have to go through with; however, it is presented as being clearly necessary for the fabric of reality to maintain itself.

Oh, and the author of Ender's Game is Orson Scott Card. No s at the end of his name. I read Ender's Game almost a decade ago now so I'm probably not in a position to judge it much, but I didn't mind that it was written as though it was directed at younger people; the characters, after, all, were themselves mostly young. I also quite liked the sequel, Speaker for the Dead, which definitely isn't directed at young people.

Other than that, good reviews.

[Pheesh]

Under the Dome by Stephen King

Finished it a few days ago and for such a large book I really was able to chew through it. I hold no secrets about my absolute fan boy love for Stephen King, and not only did this book not disappoint me, it blew me away. I've read both the Stand and It before, both of them were amazing and It has probably been in my top 2 for favourite books ever for some time now. The Stand was different in that, though it was so good, it felt so hard to read, especially the beginning. Under the Dome had none of those problems, there were dozens of stories playing out at the same time and each of them flowed and intertwined with amazing clarity and without ever skipping a beat.

The plot was awesome to watch unfold, but once again it's his characterization that really carries the story. In my opinion no one is able to make a person feel like characters in a story are people that the reader has grown up with more than Stephen King. The book has moments that were so tense where I literally had to stop because I was afraid for what I knew was about to happen. If you held a gun to my head and made me say a weak point it would be that the 'mandatory Stephen King sex scene' was a bit out of place in this book. Maybe not so much out of place, but it certainly didn't hold as much weight as some of his other efforts, and looking back I'd say that the main romance in the story didn't do much for me. But I think that's okay because it was really a minor plot line in a book that is absolutely packed to the brim with plot lines.

It could be that I'm a bit older now so I'm able to digest his epics a bit better, but it's not that books like The Stand were incredibly hard to read, it's just I think he may now have honed his craft to the point that his larger books just flow that little bit better. I give it the highest of recommendations.

[~*~Celes~*~]

Dead To The World. I really hope season 4 of TB follows the book because it will make one hell of a season.

[Miriel]

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Enjoyed it. The person who recommended it to me said it was a life changing book. I know it's a favorite for a lot of people but I didn't think it was omg amazing. I had a feeling going into it that I wouldn't love it like other people love it. I've just never been a big fan of these types of coming of age, people just living their lives type books and I tend to shy away from them. I wouldn't have picked this book out if the reviews weren't so great.

Let the Great World Spin - The words are beautiful but I couldn't get into this AT ALL. Poetic writing is really all that it had going for it. It just didn't grab me. And like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I'm just not into reading about a collection of people just living. Living through their daily problems, going to work, etc etc. I know a lot of people find beauty in the normal things, but I already do that in real life. I want my books to be brimming over with the extraordinary.

Medium Raw - Loved it. Not as much as I loved Kitchen Confidential, but Anthony Bourdain has matured and so has his writing. He can still be scathing and hysterical, but a lot of the times he'll temper his opinions by saying something like, Sandra Lee is the devil incarnate... but who knows, maybe she's a really nice lady? I like the scathing stuff the best.

Innocent Traitor - Historical fiction! Fun quick read.

Re-read:

Golden Compass/Northern Lights - Love this book so much. One of my absolute favorites.
The Subtle Knife - HATE HATE HATE. I remember reading part of this years ago and stopping because of my intense dislike for it. I went ahead and finished it and I found it more loathsome the further along I got. What happened? Why did the story shift so dramatically? Where was the continuation from the first book? Why did Lyra get shoved aside to be a groveling insipid servant while a boring ass male character with daddy issues becomes the main character? The one part of the book I liked was the bits with Lee Scoresby since the interaction between daemon and human was always my favorite parts, and nothing in this sequel (especially nothing with Lyra and Pan) showed as eloquently the bond as in the last few scenes with Lee and Hester.