Sparrow has
1342 books
(50 selected)
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| # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages | avg rating | num ratings | date pub | date pub (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | recommender | comments | votes | read count | date started | date read |
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date purchased | owned | purchase location | condition | format | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1433288486
| 9781433288487
| 3.72
| 29,122
| 1987
| Jul 01, 2009
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None
| Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Mar 30, 2013
| May 07, 2013
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Mar 30, 2013
| Audiobook
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| 030726999X
| 9780307269997
| 4.14
| 264,927
| 2007
| May 25, 2010
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I find this entire series very unenjoyable, but I appreciated what I felt were academic analyses of consent and power in the first two books. Because...more
I find this entire series very unenjoyable, but I appreciated what I felt were academic analyses of consent and power in the first two books. Because this third installment failed to present any academic point, there was really nothing for me here. The attempt was clearly to say something about how, traditionally, women have actually fought in wars, not stayed on the sidelines fainting and tending to wounds like, I don't know, some people expect, but really the story was more about how cool women want to be BFFs with Blomkvist and have sex with him. I didn’t really get anything out of the interjections about the Amazons, which appeared at different intervals throughout this book. And I don’t happen to care about who wants to have sex with Blomkvist – I find Blomkvist abominable – so this was terrible. I know that all of the books have been about how the chicks dig Blomkvist, but they also offered something smart and academic that this one lacked. The other thing up in this ol’ book was that just about every five pages this conversation would happen: “Remember how awesome book 2 was?” “Yeah, that was so cool. We were so badass. Remember how you were all Aaaaaack, and I was like neeeeeeer, and then it was like whoooooaaaa, and bang bang?” “Yeah, then my favorite part was like hacking computers and taking down the system.” “Totally. And it was like, mystery guys and punching and guns and stuff.” “Do you think the prime minister knows how cool book 2 was?” “We should definitely tell him. And we should tell like chiefs of police and ambassadors and other important people.” And then everyone goes off to describe book 2 to important people, and they all have that conversation OVER AND OVER. Like, whoa, dudes. You are so cool. But mostly Blomkvist is cool because badass warrior chicks want to have sex with him and it doesn’t even bother him that they are stronger and smarter than him. Yeah, what a man. Big pat on the back from this corner that you’re not offended that women are cool. His fucking humility is really why he’s so fucking cool. What a douche. And Lisbeth Salander is hanging out in bed this entire book. And then, in the end, there’s a “trial,” where they re-tell book 2 for the eleventy millionth time, and there is ONE hearsay objection, which happens basically the ONLY time a statement isn’t hearsay throughout the entire “trial.” And after the objection, no one reacts, the judge doesn’t rule on it, and the questioning just continues like nothing happened. I object to that. Here’s the thing about the crappy trial: I know that Larsson has the capacity to do research and not be a total moron about technical matters, so there’s really no excuse for what goes down there. And it was so out of control that it was painful to read. Not that ALL OF THE REST OF THIS SERIES wasn’t, also, COMPLETELY PAINFUL to read, but at least most of it wasn’t stupid. This was stupid. My Cousin Vinny and Legally Blonde do a better job at adhering to trial practice rules, AND are more entertaining. Ugh, and then there’s this tacked on ending-ending where Lisbeth goes to Blomkvist’s house to make up and be BFFs again (or he goes to her house, I can’t even remember). And they make up, awwwwww. Whew, too, because that was what I was really worried about in this book about slavery, rape, and oppression. I was REALLY fucking worried that one of these women wouldn’t want to be Blomkvist’s friend. Because that’s what rape and slavery stories are mostly about: douchey guys getting the hugs they deserve. This sucked. I hate all of these idiot people. I’m so glad it’s over.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Mar 06, 2013
| Mar 14, 2013
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Mar 06, 2013
| Hardcover
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| 1559363703
| 9781559363709
| 4.48
| 612
| May 12, 2009
| Jul 20, 2010
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None
| Notes are private!
| none
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1
| not set
| not set
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Feb 21, 2013
| Paperback
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| 0345803485
| 9780345803481
| 3.60
| 515,942
| 2011
| Apr 03, 2012
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This was like reading a jackhammer. This was like if Hannah Montana tried to write an erotica novel. The popularity of this book makes me need to move t...more This was like reading a jackhammer. This was like if Hannah Montana tried to write an erotica novel. The popularity of this book makes me need to move to a different planet. I am making the assumption that it comes from people not actually liking to read, but liking to have their self-destructive cultural values reinforced. Girls don’t like to eat. If you do whatever he says, he’ll turn into a handsome prince. It’s not his fault he’s abusing you, it’s only because mommy was mean. To have good sex, a girl has to start out not wanting it. Women have to teach men how to be human. If that’s not what it is, then maybe this book is an outline of a fairy tale and the sex scenes are what people are really looking at. Poor girl is asleep; rich prince is an asshole; they kiss and it wakes her up and turns him nice. We’re so used to the story that we don't need to hear any actual story again, but a shorthand is enough to awaken all of the comforting memories of being taught that if we stay with our abuser, he will change. It’s like this Jack Handy Deep Thought: “I remember the first time I ever saw a shooting star I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ But nowadays when I see one I just say, ‘What is that?’ I leave off the ‘hell’ part. Maybe when I'm old I'll just say, ‘Whazzit?’” Fifty Shades of Grey is the “Whazzit?” in a long line of stories about girls learning to be brainless to please their abusers. So, maybe the Whazzit story has become so common that it is a neutral color and a reader who enjoyed this book would really be focusing on the sex scenes. But, then, is the sex really worth focusing on here? It uses the annoying euphemisms of typical romance novels and still manages to be even more prudish than usual about descriptions. I hate the “apex of my thighs” business, but that’s common enough. But, “he touched me There”??? That is just dumb. Another reader pointed out to me that if you search for the word "cock" in this book, it is never used to refer to a penis, but used about forty times to describe someone "cocking" their heads. It is used so much, and so oddly, that Ana even comments on all the head cocking that goes on. Not a super sexy use of a cock. Also, the sex scenes are very logistically difficult to follow, which does not make for hotness in my book. I had no idea what happened during the one with the plastic tie. She somehow hooked her wrists on a bed post? Was she suspended away from the bed post? So confused. But, the weirdest one to me was the first bathtub scene. So, they’re in the bathtub, and she gives him the A+ blowjob, wherein we learn that she has no gag reflex. But . . . how much water was in the bathtub? How did this actually happen? Did they just have a couple of inches of water in the tub? That doesn’t sound very relaxing. If they had a normal amount of water, did she have to do an underwater bj? Did he have to float while she gave him the bj? Did he sit on the side of the tub??? If I don’t even know what’s going on, how am I supposed to consider whether it’s hot or not? Even aside from being confused by the sex scenes, for me, most of this story was strikingly repelling. And I’m talking, like, I think even Pleasuring the Pirate was hotter. I imagine this can’t be true, but it’s possible that this book hits every turn off for me: (1) “Baby.” Don’t ever call me a baby, unless I am actually being a baby. Also, never say “laters” before you say “baby.” The words “laters” and “baby” should never be used individually, and certainly not in the same sentence. Also, never say that like a million times and then discuss how original it is to say it. That makes me puke. (2) Stick insects. Christian Grey appears to be some sort of stick insect with freakishly long tentacle fingers. I am not attracted to stick insects. (3) Contracts. Not hot. (4) Bossiness. I loathe bossiness. Why can’t people just do what they want to do, and also avoid being jerks? Why push everyone around? Unattractive. (4) Boring snobbery. I just can’t abide it. It makes my skin crawl. If you want to be a snob, be a snob about something interesting, not wine and classical music and cars. Be a snob about stage makeup or teacups, or something. I don't know what. Be a snob about your own thing. Why is it cool to be a snob about boring things and nerdy to be a snob about something different? Wine/opera/cars snobbery is so expected. Plus, wine snobbery is impossible to listen to. I like wine, don’t get me wrong, but when people turn their nose up and start to talk vintages in a fake British accent, it is obnoxiously ridiculous. This didn’t actually do that, I imagine because James might ultimately know very little about wine, but it gestured at it as though she wished she could talk bouquets and oaks and vintages. Those are the turn offs I can think of now, but I’m sure there are more. Oh, sitting in a bathtub of menstrual blood is, it turns out, a turn off for me. I knew about the tampon scene, and whipping a tampon out to have sex does not freak me out the way it seems to freak some people. One of my friends got totally freaked out by a part where something similar (though more clearly and eloquently, and also maybe a little more creepily, described) happens in The English Patient, and I remember finding it a little haunting and creepy, but sort of beautiful, there. BUT THEN, in Fifty Shades, SHE DOESN’T PUT A TAMPON BACK IN!! And they go and hang out in the bathtub for a little while. So, that’s disgusting and unnecessary. I am not in favor of hanging out in pools of things that come out of my body. Turn off. Oh, seeing life through the POV of an anorexic – turn off. Locality annoyance: say, “I-5.” “The Interstate 5”? Please. I’m not even going to talk about the subconscious and inner goddess because that is just facially crazy talk. And annoying. Also:  The only good thing about this experience was that it allowed me to vent my anger as above, with my Christian Grey Ryan Gosling tumblr. Setting aside all of the distracting writing and the way my personal lady parts shrivel up and hide at all the details of this story, it really is the fact the relationship here that is the worst thing. People have talked this to death, but much of the sex and violence Ana experiences are sex and violence she acquiesces to because she’s too scared to lose a boy, not sex and violence she asks for because she wants them. That is very, very annoying to read about. It’s like listening to a nauseatingly long restraining order hearing while knowing the whole time that it won’t be granted. If you want to sacrifice your life with the hope that a man will change, it’s your life. But, don’t whine to me about your stupid choices. Every single part of this book was terrible.  (less)
| Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jan 03, 2013
| Jan 09, 2013
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Jan 03, 2013
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0803734735
| 9780803734739
| 4.03
| 25,859
| May 01, 2012
| May 01, 2012
|
Oh, Kristin Cashore, I would trust you with my life. This series breaks my heart and patches it all back together again. This book was so different fr...more
Oh, Kristin Cashore, I would trust you with my life. This series breaks my heart and patches it all back together again. This book was so different from the first two in pace, but somehow, and I say this almost reluctantly, that made the end more meaningful to me. I am all about editing in stories, and for the first half of this book, the redundancies seemed unnecessary and boring. But, I don’t actually think they are now. I think they had some purpose, though I don’t know that I could articulate it for you. I was wrong in what I thought this ending would be, and I’m glad I was wrong. It was so much more brutal than I expected, but more meaningful in that way. Are there more of these? Are you going to write more books for me, Kristin Cashore? I love your people, the evil and the good, the sins of our fathers and frailty of our mothers. I love them. This story picks up with little Bitterblue, now the queen of her empire. If Graceling borrows somewhat in spirit from Aliens, Katsa is our Ripley and Bitterblue is Newt. And now Newt comes into her own with the responsibility for a nation that was totally fucked by her father, by the lies he told and his control and manipulation. She doesn’t even know how fucked her nation is because after you’ve lived in lies for so long, how does anyone know what the truth is? And is the truth more dangerous that willful ignorance if what you’re ignoring is an abomination? Ugh. Beautiful, awful choices. And forgiveness! And stories! Oh man, beautiful. Just the idea of figuring out how to repair a nation from violence and lies is beautiful. But, anyway, and Katsa/Ripley has taught Bitterblue/Newt how to fight and protect herself, and where Graceling pointedly tells the story of a woman fighter, a survivor, Bitterblue makes no point of Bitterblue’s completely human, normal ability to defend herself. She just can kick an ass if she needs to, and other times she can’t. Her strength is not a super power, it’s just human power. This book, in contrast to the first two, felt more high-fantasy to me. It uses the conventions of alternate languages, involved descriptions of coded communication, and a lot of walking (which, to be fair, the walking is in the other two as well. Fantasy, man – bring your Nikes). It is not actually high fantasy, I’m sure, so don’t get all excited if that’s your thing. It is not my thing, but the incorporation of those conventions seemed fun to me, not annoying. It kept enough of a super-hero feel that I tracked. Now I’m going to talk about where this series really resonates with me. I always think, you know, women are raised that a man on a white horse will come, swoop us up, marry us, and that marriage will magically solve all of our problems. When that doesn’t actually happen, we think, Oh, it’s because if we have children, that will actually solve all of our problems. When having children doesn’t solve all of our problems, we think, Oh, if we run off to an exotic island and have a romantic Eat Pray Love affair, that will solve all of our problems. I think men are in basically the same position – if he finds the right girl and marries her, she will decorate his house, and always be there with a smile, a hug, and a plate of cookies, and that will solve the problems. Then, when that doesn’t work, it’s basically the same with the children and the affair. But, in the end, we are always left with ourselves. Marriage and children and lovers don’t take us away from ourselves and fix us the way the stories promised. I love the way the Twilight saga exaggerates those promises to the point of absolute absurdity, but I love even more the way this series exists entirely outside of those promises. This series doesn’t try to deus ex machina our guilts, doubts, and shame away, but it presents characters working through them, living with grief, and learning about their power. I think it is a second-wave feminism phrase to say a woman is empowered or disempowered, and I’ve been thinking about the use of that word lately because someone I’ve been around a lot routinely uses it. I kind of don’t like the word “empowerment,” I think. It seems somewhat inaccurate to me, even along the lines of the promise that our problems can be magically solved by some kind of social convention. “Marriage didn’t magically solve your problems? Well, then, empowerment will magically solve them.” I don’t think everyone means that when they use the word “empowerment,” just like I don’t think everyone who gets married or has kids thinks that will magically solve their problems, but I think both avenues can lead to that expectation. The idea of empowerment or disempowerment just sounds to me like somehow you can subscribe to something outside of yourself that will magically take away your problems. It indicates that the power wasn't there all along, but if you follow the treasure map right, you'll find the magic problem-solving solution. But, along those lines, I love the message in this book, like in The Hunger Games series, that we need to discover our own power - that it was there all along, and that life was never about finding a magic that lets us take the easy way out. In Mockingjay, everyone around Katniss reminds her of her power until she recognizes it. Here, similarly, this story is a journey of Bitterblue realizing her power. It is beautiful. It is the work that we all face that is bigger than marriage or children or politics or career. It’s the self that we are left with when the world is on our shoulders and we have no shoulder to lean on ourselves. This story is full of so much hope and so many dreams. I love it. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Nov 08, 2012
| Nov 11, 2012
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Oct 17, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0143144022
| 9780143144021
| 4.08
| 41,728
| Sep 01, 1994
| Aug 20, 2009
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This was TERRIBLE. Terrible!!! Why are you here book??? Why do you exist?? Why do you suck SO MUCH??? Ugh!! I was listening to this while walking to w...more
This was TERRIBLE. Terrible!!! Why are you here book??? Why do you exist?? Why do you suck SO MUCH??? Ugh!! I was listening to this while walking to work in the morning, and I’m pretty sure I was waking up whole neighborhoods with my loud, “UGGGGHHHHHHH”s because I could not refrain from reacting to what a bitch this book is. This book is such a little bitch. It is not SO bad to start out with, just your normal Anita Blake bitchiness, like, “girls shouldn’t wear pink; girls shouldn’t shop; girls shouldn’t be feminine; girls shouldn’t like boys.” And then the boys like her sooooo much because she is such an asshole. So, don’t worry, slatherings of male approval if you don’t wear pink. OH MY GOD. UGGGGGHHHHH. And THEN, after you trudge through Anita’s complete lack of personality and LAME sense of humor, why not throw on some racism, homophobia, and a huge helping of ableism? WHY THE FUCK NOT?? UGGGHHH. I want to punch this book in its smug little curly-haired kisser. It makes me figuratively puke. According to people who have read beyond this book, at some point, Anita starts having sex with random monsters, which . . . whatever. I don’t even care about that because she is so obnoxiously prudish in these first two books. And, the thing is, if you don’t want to have sex with a vampire, more power to ya girl. But THEN the simpering self-congratulation about it. It makes me crazy. You suck so much, Anita Blake. You are everything wrong about anything to do with gender. I figure there are numerous ways women can react to sexism when they realize it is there, so I’ve made a little chart to illustrate my thoughts on the matter:  As you can see, in my mind, all choices except doing whatever the fuck you want lead to a woman’s life being basically sacrificed to sexism. And this probably works the same with masculinity, too, obvs. I feel like I've forgotten another manifestation of women accepting sexism that looks almost like feminism, but I can't think what it is. And Anita Blake, all through this stupid book, is calling herself a feminist. You know she's a feminist because all the boys think she a spunky little hottie. Puke. This fake bullshit is such an easy justification for people saying they aren't feminists. But, how can you say anything is feminist that hates women and only seeks male approval? Puke. On the one hand, I am so grateful to the women who came before me and forced people to recognize their skills and abilities so that hopefully in the future this stupid conversation will never even happen. So grateful. On the other hand, I think it is disgusting that the lives of capable women are sacrifices to either some kind of awkward attempt to be men or to a fight for the mere survival of girls because they are girls. I would consider someone like Lisbeth Salander an example of a woman who is painful to read about because her life is totally sacrifice to the mere survival of women. I don't think that's bad on Lisbeth's part, just depressing. I would consider Anita Blake a grotesque caricature of a woman trying to prove she is a man. Ugh. So uncomfortable to watch and annoying to hear about. Dude, just let girls wear pink if they want to wear pink. Pink is just a color, so dislike it if you want; but, also, pink is our childhood. And girlhood is not bad, so to the extent pink symbolizes women at our most innocently feminine, it pains me to hear women criticize it with the weight of rejecting their own innocent femininity. Again, like or dislike pink. Whatever you want. But, there is nothing noble or professional about hating the decorations of girlhood. Aside from that, oh my god, the ableism in this book is absolutely disgusting. There is this whole section about a prostitute in a wheelchair, and Anita is like, “OH MY! KINKY! That is disgusting that anyone would want to have sex with a woman in a wheelchair!” No, you are disgusting, Anita Blake. This is totally just a personal pet peeve, but it also really, really annoyed me the way Hamilton imagined being hardened to crime. Anita is hardened to crime here, so that means that she tosses around body parts at a crime scene and dares police officers not to puke in a room where the carpet is soaked in blood. (Sidebar: it only really bothers her when she sees the dead bodies of children. Which, okay, I agree that it is, for whatever reason, exponentially more disturbing to hear about violence to children than adults. In a room soaked in blood, however, it strikes me as weird that she would not be bothered at all by a police officer jiggling a boob attached to a bloody rib cage, but a child’s hand would make her swoon.) I have been privy to some pretty hilarious I-work-in-the-criminal-justice-system jokes lately, and, here, Hamilton did not even come close to what those sound like. Because they are only funny if they are respectful, if they have some kind of hope that some good will come of all of the criminal justice bullshit. This was so disrespectful. Not even close to funny. This link is totally NSFW, but it is How You Do criminal justice system investigation comedy. Hamilton's jokes are stupid, and her protagonist is stupider, and her snotty attitude about everyone who isn’t a 5’3”, 107 lb., curly-haired sprite is stupidest. Gross. UGGGHHHH. I hate you, book. The audio reader was still good, though. I don't know how she managed reading this whole series. Voice of steel. Ugh, puke again on behalf of the poor reader.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Sep 24, 2012
| Oct 09, 2012
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Sep 24, 2012
| Audio CD
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| 0143144014
| 9780143144014
| 3.99
| 65,299
| 1993
| Aug 20, 2009
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This was another . . . book. Things happened in it. And, as a rule, I am in favor of things happening in a book, especially when keeping in mind the a...more
This was another . . . book. Things happened in it. And, as a rule, I am in favor of things happening in a book, especially when keeping in mind the alternative. This series seems like it is probably Sookie Stackhouse’s cool aunt, whom Sookie fiercely wishes she could be. Meaning, I like Sookie even less after reading this book. Not that I am in love with this book, but I didn’t hate it at all, and there were a lot of fun things about it. Anita’s hard-boiled-detective attitude was fun. It was nice that Kirsten Dunst showed up for some of it. I’m somewhat underwhelmed, but I didn’t dislike it. Consistent with my general egocentrism, I think my favorite books and movies are those that make me think of things about my own life. This one didn’t make me think of anything. It wasn’t because it was so particularly unique that it didn’t make me think of things, because it mostly seemed like a mash-up of Interview With a Vampire, Alias, and Sookie, and I don’t care that maybe all of those came after Anita. She has to live with the fact that I saw them first. Anyway, it might have been because it was so structured that it didn’t make me think of things – maybe formulaic? Whatever. This is one of those instances where I don’t feel like I have anything to explain about how I feel about it because I didn’t really feel anything. It was a book. It had vampires. Sometimes, they were sexysexy; other times, they were baaaad. It had murrrrderrr, but it basically reveals the murderer in the middle of the story. So, that happened. Oh, one thing. It was interesting how this was pretty girl-power, except when there was an overweight girl, and then it got super catty. What was up with that? Not that I really care. If Laurel Hamilton (Lauren?) wants to be an idiot, who am I to stop her? Overall, this story was not terrible or fabulous. Blah. This was a good audio. I really like the reader. Also, approximately ten seconds after I started the second book, this one got one million times worse in retrospect.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Sep 06, 2012
| Sep 07, 2012
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Sep 06, 2012
| Audio CD
| |||||||||||||||
| 0307269981
| 9780307269980
| 4.17
| 320,701
| 2006
| Jul 28, 2009
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Culture imposes on women constant indoctrination of the idea that our vaginas should make us small, weak, and incapable of caring for ourselves or oth...more
Culture imposes on women constant indoctrination of the idea that our vaginas should make us small, weak, and incapable of caring for ourselves or others. "A woman could obviously never be a fire fighter, for example." "We couldn't send a woman to do that military job because what if she got her period? She couldn't take a week off when she's there!" "There are just some days in the month when a woman diplomat wouldn't be able to do her job." "I wouldn't watch women's sports because women aren't as strong as men, but I guess the clothes are hot." "But, if we hire her, she'll probably want more time off because she has a kid, so she won't be able to do her job." "Sure one 'woman' did that, but she isn't like real women, and she's probably a lesbian." It is easy to internalize that thinking, even though it obviously makes very little sense. Plenty of men are short and women are tall. Plenty of women are athletic and men sedentary. Gender has very little to do with physical strength, abilities, or athleticism. And, of course, plenty of men experience indoctrination that they are weak or lazy, and plenty of women, thankfully, live in families that undermine these stereotypes, so I'm not talking in specifics here. What I'm talking about is media and culture and the gendered expectations they impose as a sort of zeitgeist based in gender. That spirit is still that femininity is weak and masculinity is strong, and even where we see it making no sense, it is easier said than done to untangle right from wrong. This second installment of the adventures of Lisbeth Salander looks very academically at appearances in basically the same manner as Girl With the Dragon Tattoo analyzed consent. It has Lisbeth with dark hair and light, tattoos and implants. It sizes her, the smallest of small girls, up against the most giant of giant men. It is also clever, in the same academic way that GWTDT was with consent, in easing the reader into comparisons and becoming more extreme, developing the idea to its furthest, as the book goes on. The boxer takes on the giant; Lisbeth takes on the douchey biker: Larssen eases us into the comparison of sizes and appearances. And the idea is this: appearance and size do not dictate our successes and failures; they should not dictate who we are. I think the idea of Lisbeth getting implants early on in the book is interesting. The feel of the way it plays out with her seems . . . off, but I still can appreciate a sort of contrast between my instinctive reaction to Lisbeth altering her body with tattoos to my reaction to her altering her body with implants. On the one hand, I do think my aversion to the idea of implants is valid because of all of the women I’ve known whose implants have become infected or calcified. It’s just a bad health decision in most cases, in my opinion, in a way that I don’t think tattoos are unhealthy as a rule. On the other hand, I can see how altering your own body, in any way, can be experimental and interesting and give a sense of ownership. So, to the extent I start to judge the choice to get implants as succumbing to an oppressive social idea of women’s bodies, and getting tattoos as valid and empowering, I don’t think I’m being entirely fair. I am cool with a woman doing what she wants with her body, and judging a woman based on plastic surgery ultimately seems as dumb to me as judging her based on her tattoos. Still, it seems unlikely to me that a woman who had a bad day would run herself a Jacuzzi bath and sink to the bottom of it, pinching her nipples really hard, even if she had just gotten a boob job she was super excited about. That seemed weird. It also seemed weirdly simplistic to me to describe how pleased Lisbeth was with her implants and how they made her feel attractive. I don’t dispute the idea that implants could make a woman feel attractive, but that seems like a shallow emotion to describe compared to other, underlying feelings that go along with it. Maybe it is not true for every woman, but when I drastically change my appearance to look more like a magazine and get a lot of positive feedback for it, there is always a feeling of betrayal I have that goes deeper than the flattery. I look more like a doll, and what people want from me is that I be a doll. But, I know that is not who I am or want to be. It also reminds me that people are suckers for media. So, while I don’t think those are universal feelings, I do think that Lisbeth and I have similar enough outlooks that it throws me off that she would be so single-mindedly pleased with her boobs. Also, I will tell you right now that blond hair is not a good disguise. You go from dark hair to blond and you immediately get a lot more attention. Not that I think people would have identified Lisbeth, because I think they would have just been looking at her hair and boobs, but it is not a good disguise. So, I appreciate the academic comparisons of appearance, but I felt very disengaged with this story and these characters overall. Blomkvist is such a douche. Every time he said something, with his simpering patience, I wanted to punch him. The letter he wrote to Salander. Oh my god. I hate that guy. What a manipulative, selfish martyr. What was with Larsson being totally cool with Salander’s statutory rape of the island kid? Oh wait, huh, did he say later in the book that the age for statutory rape in Sweden is super young? Nevertheless, why was Salander okay with that? Everything that happened at the beginning of this book was very disorienting. In GWTDT, you could have cut the first 100 pages, but in this, you could have cut the first 200. Not looking forward to the first 300 pages of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I don’t hate Salander at all, but I do feel somewhat indifferent about her. At the end of this one, when (view spoiler)[she dies and gets buried, I was like, “Huh, that is a bold move,” but I felt no emotion about it. And then it is made less bold by her rising again, but whatever (hide spoiler)]. Partly, regardless of what happens to her, I think Lisbeth’s life is already forfeit to this war she is fighting, so it is difficult to have hopes for her. She isn’t really a person, with her own dreams, because that isn’t possible for her - she is a sort of slave to fighting hatred of women. That is important, and I love that about her character, but at the same time, it’s not very human. It’s not emotionally complex. Or, maybe it is ambivalence I feel about Lisbeth, not indifference, because in this one, like in GWTDT, there was a moment where she quoted something I recently said. It came about three-fourths of the way through the book, like it did in GWTDT, and it was sort of like a slap in the face. Like watching a robot take on my personality. Weird. I feel connected to Lisbeth through those things that she says, but it still always feels like Larsson was following me around, saw me say something, and wrote it down. And seeing me from the outside didn’t really tell him what was behind the thing I said. That’s how I feel about Salander – like Larsson couldn’t crack through her character to tell me what was inside. Those are the things I want to know about a character: the guts and innards. I want an author to take them apart and show me the character’s beating heart. That is not Larsson’s skill, so I end up feeling disconnected. It is interesting that so much of this seems so purposeful, but an almost equal amount of it seems like a waste of space. After the first 200 pages, I was with the story, but until then I was doing some serious sighing and eye-rolling. I think it is a good policy to read these books in one sitting, and probably not while you’re reading The Iliad, which is what I did. The Iliad is like a bowl of rich chocolate mousse, where you can take one bite and be satisfied for days. This book is like what I imagine a Billy’s Pan Pizza to be: something sort of tasteless to rush through for the satisfaction of feeling full in the end. There is nothing to savor, but it has its place.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Aug 25, 2012
| Sep 03, 2012
|
Aug 25, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0575085126
| 9780575085121
| 4.11
| 58,625
| Sep 24, 2009
| Sep 24, 2009
|
Kristin Cashore has this way of taking a rough stereotype of a woman and still talking about her in a full, human, contradictory way that such a stere...more
Kristin Cashore has this way of taking a rough stereotype of a woman and still talking about her in a full, human, contradictory way that such a stereotype would feel if you lived in it. She simplifies the telling and complexifies heroine. In Graceling, she tells the story of a badass warrior woman, a survivor, an Ellen Ripley. In Fire, she tells the story of a beautiful trophy girlfriend, an aspiring homemaker, a super model who loves babies, a monster combination of Joan Harris and vampire Bella Swan. Our girl, Fire, is from a race of what the story cleverly calls “monsters,” and I like that both Fire and her society adopt that word as accurate. Her body is exactly what I would think of as a monster. I approve. Briefly, for if you don't already know, in this story, our people live in a land where monsters are these sort of magical predators who crave blood and flesh, but are so beautiful and colorful that they mesmerize normal humans and animals just by their looks. They have mind-control powers, and when they are in human form, the mind control powers are stronger because, you know, humans are brainy. Fire got her name because she is a ginger, but a monster ginger, so her hair looks like fire, and she has to wrap it up because when dudes see it, they basically try to rape her and when animals monsters see it, they try to eat her. Hair is such a problem. Now I am going to talk about my ruminations on the conflict between what our bodies are and what our essences, or souls, or whatever, are. Sometimes, I sit around and think about how disconnected I feel as a person from the way my body looks, regardless of the specifics of how I look at that particular moment – fat or thin; white, red, brown, black, or purple hair; strong or weak. Or maybe I feel disconnected from the way people react to my body; it is difficult to say for sure. It makes me think that before we are born, we are floating in the sky as some kind of disembodied essence, and we choose our bodies through a series of escalating dares. I wonder what made me choose this one. Say, before you were born, your essence had these cards laid out on the poker table of body choices: you could be a gorgeous black woman in the 1950s in the South; the youngest, scrawniest brother in a family full of white coal miners; a rich, white sorority girl; or the son of the first Korean-American President of the United States. You know, say, that you, your essence, is a light, delicate thing, something that hates conflict and loves hot cocoa and hearth fires. Do you go with the safe bet or give yourself a challenge? Does that obnoxious other soul in the corner antagonize you into choosing the black woman in the 1950s just because it doesn’t think you could take it? Or do you go with the possibly safer, but more depressing, sorority girl? Could your delicacy and conflict-aversion handle living inside a man’s body in a society that shames delicate men? Whatever you decide, you’re all, “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!” and you fly off into the horrors and joys of the body you chose. But, the rules are that once you’re there, you can’t remember how you got there in the first place. You have to fight that battle blind because otherwise the battle isn’t testing your instincts and you’re not as invested in the game. Or maybe there’s some bureaucrat in the sky with a giant spreadsheet. I don’t know. Fire made me think about who we are in essence and the way our bodies shape us because I think Cashore articulately describes the powerlessness of beauty and how, while we might aspire to that, it might not be something we really want. Fire's horrifying monster beauty and her horrifying X-Woman skill of mind control, and the shame she felt over those parts of herself were interesting. On the one hand, there is a little bit of a poor-little-rich-girl about the story that I think Graceling also had to some extent, but it doesn’t really dwell in it. There’s so much straight action and Fire is so heroic that it only nudges against the border of maudlin. I don’t think it really crosses over, or at least not often. But, I think that it illustrates how having a body, whether it is the body of a monster or not, is hard. Dealing with social reactions to a body is hard. But, it is worth it. I think girls often have a sort of out-of-body experience of someone assuming a lot about our personalities from our appearances. Probably men experience that, too, though I wonder how similar the experiences are. I have dimples, so people often don’t expect me to be as much of an asshole as I am and feel extra betrayed by my bitchiness. Fire is kind of like that, too, in that her personality is not what the stories told people to expect from that body. Regardless of what the false expectation is, because it is probably different for us all, there is still that sense of being out of place in a body. I think it is an identifiable female sentiment, and maybe identifiable because there is so much media propaganda about female bodies being wrong. But, at the same time, I have this instinctual sense that I am lucky to have a body at all, and that I should take care of it, and I get the feeling that most people have at least a sliver of that same instinct. Anyway, I found this beautiful. I liked these people and animals. I liked Fire and I also liked the use of fire as imagery and its association with mourning and cleansing. At times, I found the light use of somewhat courtly language awkward, but that’s not a big deal when action is going down. I’m bumping this up to a five-star rating because I think it is ballsy to write a sequel that is only loosely connected to the first, and I thought that was a well-executed ballsy move. Addressing the stereotype of a beautiful, affectionate woman was smart after having told the story of a survivor in the first book. I want to be Kristin Cashore’s friend. She is a bold woman.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Oct 12, 2012
| Oct 17, 2012
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Aug 19, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 5.00
| 6
| Aug 27, 2012
| Aug 27, 2012
|
Well, I hate to be negative, but I think there might be some factual errors in this book. I don’t think a book that is about “World War 2” should fail...more
Well, I hate to be negative, but I think there might be some factual errors in this book. I don’t think a book that is about “World War 2” should fail to talk about the Great Depression in America because that is what readers can really relate to. I also thought it was incorrect to say that they found a spirit bridge without having to answer the three questions of the spirit bridge keeper, the Holy Ghost. I’m not saying the author, whom I believe to be a communist and possibly from Iran, like Barack Obama, needs to apologize to me about this because I haven’t written a bestseller, so who am I to talk? I am just saying that he should probably self-deport himself instead of taking hard-earned taxpayer dollars that I built to publish this spiritual self-help book. Other than the un-American parts of this book, I liked the more accurate parts, so I will tell you about them and hopefully you will love my “review.” LOL. I like how there was a lot of good advice in here about how a woman can use her womanly powers to please men. I know that a lot of smart, sassy ladies wear their heels during sex, like the woman scientist in this story does, because, you know, it enhances the curvature of our calves and also because Jesus wants us to. The Eldridges describe the story of Ruth from this book called the “Bible” to tell us about that kind of thing. I’m just going to quote from the original work because it reminds me so much of the deeper spiritual message of Winged Leviathan. Ruth, as you’ll remember, is the daughter-in-law of a woman from Judah named Naomi. Both women have lost their husbands and are in a pretty bad way; they have no man looking out for them, their financial status is below the poverty line, and they are vulnerable in many other ways as well. Things begin to look up when Ruth catches the eye of a wealthy single man named Boaz. Boaz is a good man, this we know. He offers her some protection and some food. But, Boaz is not giving Ruth what she really needs – a ring. -- Captivating, by Stasi Eldridge, quoting Wild at Heart by John Eldridge I am quoting Stasi Eldridge’s book of quotes from John Eldridge because this book has a lot of the same values as that, LOL. And, it is proper for a woman to quote a man about spiritual self-help. Some “feminists” (LOL, I mean “man-haters”) might say that the story of Ruth is not about that at all, but that it is about two women survivors protecting each other in a world that hates them. But, feminists are probably going to hell, LOL. They also probably think people care about ovaries or something. And also I heard that they want to kill babies. So, you should love babies and buy American. The other thing I liked in this book was the funny jokes about duct tape. And I liked how the main character had problems with his dad, but they got to work them out through a spiritual journey. I also liked the funny jokes about the Leviathan’s butt and how the soldiers didn’t listen to the monks at the castle because they were probably atheists, LOL and prayers for them! I didn’t like how there weren’t enough characters who turned out to be alive after we thought they were dead, but maybe they will be alive in the next book in this series. And how the main guy didn’t get married because he really needs one woman to arouse him. Amen.(less) | Notes are private!
| V.D.
|
1
| Aug 28, 2012
| Sep 20, 2012
|
Aug 12, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 1563899426
| 9781563899423
| 4.08
| 31,335
| 2002
| Dec 01, 2002
|
I was told this would be funny . . . ??? Maybe to some people character soup is funny on its own without any kind of actual cleverness? It seems like a...more I was told this would be funny . . . ??? Maybe to some people character soup is funny on its own without any kind of actual cleverness? It seems like a pretty lazy form of humor, though, if that is actually humor. Is that humor??? THIS IS A MYSTERY, not a comedy. And a somewhat lame mystery without any comedic elements I could identify. I mean, I haven’t been that big of a fan of mystery story since I was like 10 and read most of the Agatha Christies. I think that was the same year I ate a tuna fish sandwich almost every day. I learned my overdose lesson for the most part that year, but I still gag a little when I smell tuna. And I lost the suspense you’re supposed to have at a mystery. It got replaced with boredom. But, also, this was a REALLY obvious mystery. I like mysteries like Gaudy Night or the Sarah Caudwells, where it’s more about the story than the mystery. Those are great. I have a slight sense that this was supposed to be about the characters, too, but that didn’t make it enjoyable to me. I don’t get this thing of taking fairy tales and going, “What if we made all of the characters super unpleasant?! People will love it!” Why? I mean, I guess there is a sort of a Dina Goldstein motivation of saying, this is how fairy tales work out in real life.  But, Dina Goldstein is a goddess of concise, poignant visual impact. This story just didn’t have the same immediate resonance, and I don’t necessarily think it was trying for that. It mostly just seemed like it was going for making characters unpleasant, not necessarily more realistic. It floundered, and then in the end it seemed to somehow have actually been mostly about how (view spoiler)[the big bad wolf has a crush on Snow White (hide spoiler)]. I don’t get it, and whatever it is, it was not funny. It was totally not horrible, though.(less) | Notes are private!
| Andy
|
1
| Aug 2012
| Aug 03, 2012
|
Aug 01, 2012
| Trade Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1442417005
| 9781442417007
| 3.57
| 21
| Jul 10, 2012
| Jul 10, 2012
|
I spent most of my childhood riding my bike in the suburbs around Seattle. There was a hill I could speed down, a blackberry maze I could pretend to g...more
I spent most of my childhood riding my bike in the suburbs around Seattle. There was a hill I could speed down, a blackberry maze I could pretend to get lost in, a witch’s house, and a speed bump that was perfect for popping wheelies. When I was eight, though, we had to move to a farm in Oregon, and, for many reasons, it was a watershed moment in my life. It wasn’t until years later, when we had to move again, that I could finally appreciate the beauty of the Oregon farm and the jagged, friendly little mountains I could see from my bedroom window. Eva of the Farm is a sweet story about moves, changes, and losing a childhood home, but to some extent losing the farm is a broader symbol of losing childhood. While it was very sweet, it still confronted a lot of not-sweet injustices and bitterness. Eva is a thirteen-year-old poetess who lives on an orchard her family owns in Eastern Washington. Her beloved grandma recently died, and her best friend moved to Seattle. Eva’s family learns they might lose their farm to foreclosure because of a bad apple crop, and Eva has to deal with all of the loss she faces. The story is told as a poem, and Eva’s poems punctuate what happens in her life. At first, I thought the poem format was slightly distracting from the story, but by the end I really liked it. It expressed a certain simplicity and deliberateness about the story that I thought was sweet and beautiful. I think a larger theme of the story is Eva’s transformation from seeing life as black and white, evil and good, to seeing her own influence in the world and power over it, as well as the complexity of people’s reactions to life and how that affects our own complex reactions. I would say the message of this story is that change is bad, but we can be stronger than change. I can get behind that. Though I have now moved many times, no matter how many times it happens, no matter how many times I lose a friend or face death of someone I love, it always seems bad and like it displaces my soul for a little while. The way Eva gathers the greater powers around her seems like good, comforting advice. __________________________ I received a copy of this from the publisher, but I gave nothing in return.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Oct 20, 2012
| Nov 04, 2012
|
Jul 11, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0689852231
| 9780689852237
| 4.12
| 28,919
| Sep 01, 2002
| May 2004
|
I do not love being in the desert, but I think I do love reading about other people being in the desert. Is that schadenfreude? I guess I kind of like...more
I do not love being in the desert, but I think I do love reading about other people being in the desert. Is that schadenfreude? I guess I kind of like reading anyone who really has the feel of a setting, and I think Nancy Farmer has that here. This was desolate and full of desert flowers, and just enough mystery and elusive environmental contamination to set the scene for a lovely dystopian world. This was a wonderful, scary, heartwarming, chilling, inspiring story. While I was reading this, I kept wondering if maybe I was experiencing some of the pleasure other people get from Wither. Like Wither, this one had that genetic-manipulation future, with redesigned geography, and some gadgets, but still a mostly familiar setting. But, this one wasn’t stupid; it was really smart and amazing. It questions science, religion, politics, the nature of friendship, the nature of power. This book follows the main character, Matt, a clone, through his childhood, as he experiences isolation, torture, rejection, lavish gifts and education, friendship, mentoring, and daring adventures. A lot of books feel like the author thinks her audience is an idiot, so she slooooows the character’s perception of the world down and throws in neon arrows with every reveal. This didn’t feel like that, and it was refreshing to read. Matt was smart, and he caught on to what went on around him quickly, or if he didn’t, it was because he was purposefully, and justifiably ignoring it for emotional preservation. Even if he wouldn’t acknowledge what was happening, Farmer still expected the reader to be in the know. And we were. Most of the time. Although I have to admit that a couple of times I was like, Wait WHAT??? Ohhhhhh!!!! But, that only made it more fun. I only have two complaints, having to do with the reductionist political messages I think are here in two places. First, there is a part where the eeeeeevil drug lord, El Patron, (view spoiler)[takes the brains of clone babies and Science inserts them into his brain to help him live longer (hide spoiler)]. That felt like a cheap dig at stem-cell research, to me. The book doesn’t dwell on it or make it a big point, but I feel like that is a complex issue, and it was a simplistic way to address it. My second complaint is somewhat similar. Many people have complained that the last section of the book feels like an odd tack-on to the rest of the story. I agree to some extent, and I think it could have just as easily been its own book and worked better (like, if House of the Scorpion ended at Tam Lin taking Matt out, and the next book started with him at the oasis). But, I don’t really have a problem with it because, even though it was slower, I still really enjoyed it and all of the characters and the friendships with the boys. The thing I didn’t care for was the reductionist eeeeeevil of the socialist Keepers. That seemed a little easy and silly. With both of those complaints, I feel like the topics are serious enough that they deserve a more complex characterization. Like, if you characterize your enemy as a moron, doesn’t that in some way reduce you to your enemy’s level and make you a moron, too, just for arguing with a moron? But, especially with new scientific and political problems, I think it benefits both sides of an argument to see the value, or at least the complexity, in an issue. Anyway, those things didn’t really bother me that much, they were just minor issues. Overall, the story and characters were just wonderful. Cecelia and her bedtime stories, Tam Lin’s spelling, Maria’s Saint Francis, Chacho’s sympathy, Ton-ton’s slow reasoning. I loved them all. This was a really brilliant story. Straight, edge-of-my-seat fun. ________________________ I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for nothing.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| Jan 11, 2013
| Jan 19, 2013
|
Jul 11, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0985092548
| 9780985092542
| 3.26
| 66
| Jul 12, 2011
| Jul 03, 2012
|
Okay, dudes. I’m not gonna lie. This was pretty good. I know I’m not the audience of this book because I’m not a 7-9 year old boy, but . . . it was pr...more
Okay, dudes. I’m not gonna lie. This was pretty good. I know I’m not the audience of this book because I’m not a 7-9 year old boy, but . . . it was pretty funny. It dragged a little in the beginning to middle because I wasn’t quite sure whether there would be total zombie apocalypse or just middle-school apocalypse, but then it picked up some momentum. The place where it went from three to four stars was when there was a surprise (view spoiler)[double rainbow joke (hide spoiler)]. That was just a good one. Also (view spoiler)[the very end where he’s saying he didn’t throw the game, and Janine is like, “Sure, whatever, but I still would have kicked your ass.” (hide spoiler)] That part was pretty funny. I imagine this is something like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Though, really, if you’re wimpy because of zombie virus, but secretly you’re a pro gamer, how much more compelling is that? Well, more compelling than what I picture Diary of a Wimpy Kid to be like, anyway, with no actual knowledge of the book. I’m sure it’s lovely, though. Anyway, the zombie story is done pretty cleverly here. There is a dramatic father abandonment in the beginning, and then mom – because of her job as a human test subject – contracts zombie virus. There are some great stories that talk about mothers who are present in body, but absent in soul – Atonement, Goodbye, Lenin, Hamlet – and for me this was an effective representation of the disconnect of a parent who has too much emotional trauma to really be there for a kid who is going through crazy body changes and cruelty at school. It was simple, but well done. And all of that carried through for the representation of our kid as a zombie adolescent. There were some decent fart jokes and a good zit moment and horrors of gym class. And the whole book is basically about video games, so that seems right. I thought it was really clever. If you’re the target audience of this book, I would think you’re going to end up feeling both like you have a leg up from this kid (because really zombie virus and adolescence? Sucky) and like there is something to look up to in his motivation to waste the other gamers. I approve. _______________________________ Oh, and I got this on NetGalley because sometimes I need something else to do so I don't fall asleep while I'm listening to lectures about civil procedure and wills and trusts. Get over it.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| Jul 06, 2012
| Jul 06, 2012
|
Jul 06, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1401229654
| 9781401229658
| 3.61
| 894
| Mar 22, 2011
| Mar 22, 2011
|
Whaaaaa? I don’t even know how to react to this because I am so caught up with the locale description. This is set in Eugene, you guys. This book is s...more
Whaaaaa? I don’t even know how to react to this because I am so caught up with the locale description. This is set in Eugene, you guys. This book is set where I live! Only not. These people . . . and the places . . . so weird. Most of this takes place in a diner. A DINER! How weird is that? Have you even BEEN to Eugene? A diner called Dixie’s? Where the owner was part of the mafia? That crazy Eugene mafia. WTH? And it is open all night? I am lost to what you are trying to do here. AND WHAT GRAVEYARD IS THAT??? It looks like Pioneer Cemetery, but I don’t think they bury people there anymore. I mean, this is what the book was to me. Extreme cultural dissonance. And one guy works at the tower retirement home where they have, or at least used to have, the old-people-crossing sign, but in this book, it’s called Whilamut Retirement, or some shit like that. Seriously??? That's not a place, right?? RIGHT?? Don’t do that. And don’t tell me people pronounce that word right when you spell it that way. Maybe I am being totally un-PC, so sorry Eugenians if I’m missing something (and definitely correct me), but people can learn to pronounce the word without a new transliteration. And I feel ya on the retirement home being the tallest building in the city, but it is NOT a shiny new glass building. Is it?? Do I not know this city at all?! No. I don't think it is. Keep dreaming. And these people are walking around wearing clothes from Deb, and there are no college kids, OR even any rasta stoners, OR even bikers with giant plugs, or ANYTHING. Which, I’ll give you that is not the sum of the culture of Eugene, but seriously, these people are going to a DINER to drink coffee. What? What is happening? So, there is also a story that happens in this book, I think, but I’m not totally sure because these people are going to a DINER to drink COFFEE in EUGENE! I am just as appalled as you are. I don’t know. These people must actually live in Springfield or Creswell is all I can imagine. And that would explain the importance of paintball. Not that I have a problem with paintballing, but it’s not exactly the essence of Eugene culture. So confusing. Generally, I think I like the idea about supernatural beings having a soul mixup. That was pretty good, but I am mostly concerned about where there is a diner in Eugene that is open all night, and what kind of coffee they serve. My friend Kay gave me this book for graduation, which was awesome of her. Kay, did you know this was set in Eugene(ish)????!!!! Crazy. And what is the deal with "Whilamut"?(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jul 31, 2012
| Jul 31, 2012
|
Jul 01, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1407129856
| 9781407129853
| 4.08
| 27,457
| Oct 18, 2011
| Oct 22, 2011
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This was the most gorgeous audio book I’ve listened to yet. I am wavering a little in saying that because it is up against Flo Gibson’s reading of Wut...more
This was the most gorgeous audio book I’ve listened to yet. I am wavering a little in saying that because it is up against Flo Gibson’s reading of Wuthering Heights, Mia Farrow’s reading of What Falls Away, and Stephen Fry’s reading of The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy. But, this audio was outstanding. Let’s not compare them all to each other because they are all outrageously excellent, and I don’t want them to fight. But, oh, this book. So beautiful. So, so beautiful. Listen to the audio of this book. I had pretty low expectations for this if we’re honest. Shiver was abysmally boring, and I listened to that on audio as well. Not even good readers could make up for how lame that was. But, you could tell Stiefvater could write a sentence from that one, so I decided to give her another chance, and, boy, am I glad I did. My only complaint is that, errrg, at the end of the audio is this recording of Stiefvater telling you her life’s story as it relates to the book, and apparently she wrote the awkward folk music that plays at the beginning and end of the story. . . . Stick to the sentences, Stiefvater! I tried to decide if those things ruined the audio at all, and even though they left a bad taste in my mouth, I decided they did not. Because this audio was absolutely beautiful. This is one of those stories that has the Firefly curse, where you can’t describe what it’s about. Cowboys + space? No, thank you. But Firefly is the best show ever, amiright? This has similar issues. It is a retelling of traditional fairy tales about evil fairy horses from the sea. But, Stiefvater makes it her own in this painfully beautiful way. [inarticulate noises of excitement!!!] This is the story of this wonderful orphan girl and her beautiful horse. It is the story of this wonderful orphan boy and his beautiful, evil fairy waterhorse. And both of them have to run this horrible race, the Scorpio Race, in order to earn their freedom from various entanglements. It all takes place on the island of Thisbe, which, how pretty is that? Oh, but it is about so much more. It is about grief, and what a battle life is. It is about loyalty and bloodlust. Every part of this book is beautiful (except the aforementioned awkward moments that really have nothing to do with the book.) In the awkward author’s recording at the end, she mentioned that how there is so little making out in this book compared to the Shiver series (thank god!), and she said that because of the island she was writing, she realized this would be more of an Elizabeth Bennett/Mr. Darcy love story than a Shiver love story. And YES! That is what it is. These beautiful kids have that strength of Elizabeth Bennett and Darcy. They develop that slow, lovely understanding. The central conflict here is whether Puck Connelly (our girl) can ride in the races traditionally reserved for men on waterhorses. And there is so much that is unstated there but painfully and articulately drawn, like it was drawn out of someone’s vein, in the association of Puck and her horse, Dove, as feminine, and the contrasting association of Sean Kendrick (our boy), and his waterhorse, Corr, as masculine. Puck and Dove live peacefully away from the sea and are somehow domestic, but not in a trapped way, in a warm way like tea and apple cake. Shawn and Corr are wild, like the ocean and magic. There is just something old-school feminine and masculine about those images, but not stuck and ugly. And Puck suffers all of the ridicule and violence of a girl running in a traditionally man’s race. And it is just beautiful. I hate even to say that, but there is something cathartic in this book about the violence of life and the way men and women experience that, and I love it. Also, there is this rad, American character, and his last name is Holly, and holly berries are a magical tool to calm the waterhorses! Eeeep! (disclosure: Holley is my last name.) I am appalled at how fewer people have read this than Shiver, even though I was one of them until now. I loved almost every second of this book, the sentences were so achingly beautiful, and I want you to listen to it if you are cool. (less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Oct 12, 2012
| Oct 20, 2012
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Jun 24, 2012
| Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1442423730
| 9781442423732
| 3.88
| 2,229
| Sep 13, 2011
| Sep 13, 2011
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Gurl, I hate to be the one to tell ya, but your boyfriend is totally gay. Gay as the day is long. I know you’re new to this whole “humanity” thing, so...more
Gurl, I hate to be the one to tell ya, but your boyfriend is totally gay. Gay as the day is long. I know you’re new to this whole “humanity” thing, so I’ll give you a couple of pointers. Your guy might say “she walks like the night,” but when a dude calls you a lady of the night, it’s not usually a compliment. Also when a dude is (view spoiler)[really into unicorns (hide spoiler)], pretty clear signal of gay. So, when your bf is calling you a prostitute and IS a (view spoiler)[unicorn (hide spoiler)] . . . man, you know your relationship better than me, but it might be time for a serious DTR. Don’t wait for the facebook post. Until he comes out, I could really see you guys digging some of these helpful tips from Cosmo, now that you decided to cross that interspecies line. They’re just so you. I gotta tell you, though (since we’re having this brutally honest talk) that when you go on and on about OMG, are people who are different than me reeeeally peeeeple??? It makes me want to die. I truly, truly, truly do not understand why someone hasn’t killed this topic of debate. They are peeeple! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEEEEPLE!! I’m so over that. It has been scientifically, sociologically, and statistically proven that Also, and now I am addressing you, Ms. Durst: if you are trying to somehow be satirical about vampire romance, you totally failed. Read A Shore Thing and see how it’s done classy. Also, bad form to have a character make fun of Buffy. Bad form! Let’s talk about Twilight for a second, though. Where were you going with all of that? Were you satirizing it or fan fic-ing it? I am so lost. It felt like you were trying really hard and failing to make fun of it, which made me very uncomfortable. How is it making fun of Twilight to write a vampire girl who falls in love with someone sparkly and sharp and kind of controlling and converts to his culture for him? I’ll tell you how: it’s not. So, instead, this is just fan fic that takes a dig at its mommy fic quite frequently. AWKWARD! So awkward. Everything. I mean, Twilight deserves criticism, sure, but at least there are cars flying places and people plotting and attacking, and oh my god finding out what sort of mythical creature everyone is. I totally hate it in books when it takes people forever to realize what mythical creature everyone is. So boring. But, my point is that at least Twilight is not just people sitting around fucking thinking about how sweet humans are. MAYBE . . . or are they? That’s another thing. Humans are NOT that sweet. You set up this weird dichotomy where the characters could be either Charles Manson or Rainbow Brite, and that sucks. I wish this story wasn’t about stupid, stupid unicorns, but was about screwicorns instead. I think I hate unicorns. _____________________ The publisher provided me this book in exchange for nothing. And I am grateful for that, even though this book was terribly boring.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jun 24, 2012
| Jun 30, 2012
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Jun 24, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0739340131
| 9780739340134
| 4.08
| 111,850
| Sep 12, 2006
| Sep 12, 2006
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I do not find the military or military command or structure very interesting, and this book is mostly about that, so it suffered for me from my inhere...more
I do not find the military or military command or structure very interesting, and this book is mostly about that, so it suffered for me from my inherent disinterest in the topic. I should have realized it was mostly about the military from the reviews I read and even from the title of the book, but I did not think that one through all the way. I listened to this on audio and it is possible that my standards were lowered by some really, really terrible audios I've listened to in the past couple of years, but I thought this was a pretty quality production. The pace was good, and even though there were accents, they didn't feel like someone making fun of an accent. Zombies are a weird topic to write a book about because their impact is descriptive or visual. Their dialogue leaves something to be desired is what I’m saying. In a movie, you can be like, “Holy shit! The zombies are lumbering or sprinting toward the hero!” But the zombies are still interstitial to the story. The zombies are never going to sit the hero down and say, “Hey, we’re just like you and your consumerist culture. Your government scientists should have been more careful in experimenting with bioweapons, but if you learn to really believe in yourself and value your soul and the people around you, you could still save humanity.” Nope. A vampire might say that (but substitute consumerist with pleasure-driven) in a vampire story, and some old dude is going to say that in a zombie story, but a zombie is not going to say it. So, then, I think you lose a little in a book because of its linear nature. A movie can have tons of things going on at once – a zombie in the background chasing the love interests as they confess their undying affection, a group of survivors huddled in a house discussing next plans as the zombies bang on the windows. Things like that. In a book, the zombie action sort of fades while the survivors discuss what to do next. Then zombies come back, then dialogue, then zombies. It’s easy to lose the visceral nature of the zombies. But, at the same time, I think this book does a pretty good job of looking at different governmental structures and what their responses would be to a zombie attack. I’m not exactly sure how helpful that is, and its entertainment value was an energetic meh to me, but not bad. I think my favorite stories were the pilot and the Palestinian refugee. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Apr 24, 2012
| May 09, 2012
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Apr 24, 2012
| Audio CD
| |||||||||||||||
| 0307582884
| 9780307582881
| 3.99
| 90,313
| Oct 06, 2009
| Oct 06, 2009
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Q: if you could edit this book, what would you take out? A: the words. . . . Have you ever had an eight-year-old kid try to describe to you winning a le...more Q: if you could edit this book, what would you take out? A: the words. . . . Have you ever had an eight-year-old kid try to describe to you winning a level of a video game? Have you ever had a middle-aged man try to describe to you completing the games section of the New York Times? Did those experiences involve multiple conversations like this: “What is the maze?” “Stop asking so many questions!” I have to say that this book was more boring than having someone tell you in painful detail about winning a video game or finishing a crossword puzzle. It is more boring if only for the constant, "What are you talking about?" "No! I won't tell you!" This book is astonishingly boring. I know that I am predisposed not to like it because there are no female characters (no, I do not count the leggy, blue-eyed girlfriend as a female character), but, really, I ask you: are there any male characters either? If you say, yes, then I challenge you to prove it. Are Mario and Luigi and Princess Toadstool characters in Mario Kart? What about the ducks in Duck Hunt? Are they characters? We have to draw the line somewhere. And I submit to you that there are no characters in this book. Or, at least, there are fewer characters in this book than there are in Duck Hunt. Also, a couple of things that bothered me throughout: 1. What famous scientist was Minho named after? Okay, I just googled that and apparently Dashner “purposely” named a few characters after scientists who will supposedly exist in the future. Like the only Asian kid in the book. Because there are no Asian scientists today that he could name someone after. *facedesk* And like Zart. Zart and the Asian kid were not named after scientists. *double facedesk* 2. Why can’t the grievers climb over the wall? They obviously can climb. But not over the wall? Did I miss this? At first I thought the kids were in some kind of dome, but then it seemed like it was just a really tall wall. . . . That it was impossible to climb? WHYYY????? 3. What purpose does the telepathy serve? None is the answer. It serves no purpose. 4. Why is this book so, so, so long and boring? So, maybe a third of the way through the book, I developed this false hope that this book would be some kind of pretty metaphor for children going through the grieving process and supporting each other in loss. I thought, “Oh, grievers! Maybe the challenges of the maze and the bonding of the boys in the glade will have some larger message.” No. This book is not about that. It is about doing the NYT games section and then maybe vague talk of zombies later. Total bullshit. I have to think this book came out while LOST was still on and before its terrible conclusion, which forced millions of Americans to face the fact that when it looks like a story will have no purpose, it probably has no purpose. I have to think Dashner thought he could bank on the millions of us willing to suspend our skepticism and keep watching a show whose writers clearly had no plan. I am hoping that in the wake of that disaster, we will have grown up a little and be less willing to stand for bullshit like this. I googled it, and, yes, I was right. Cashing in on gullible LOST audience. Unacceptable. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Mar 15, 2012
| Mar 23, 2012
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Mar 15, 2012
| Audio CD
| |||||||||||||||
| B006VOKHDO
| unknown
| 4.24
| 17
| Jan 02, 2012
| Jan 02, 2012
|
This book is like if the best book in the world had a lust affair with the worst book in the world, and that affair resulted in the birth of two child...more
This book is like if the best book in the world had a lust affair with the worst book in the world, and that affair resulted in the birth of two children, a brother and a sister. Then, those children had an incestuous affair with each other, which resulted in the birth of two children, a brother and a sister. Then, those incestuous children had an incestuous affair, which resulted in the birth of twins, a brother and a sister. Then those incestuous, incestuous twins had twincest with each other, which resulted in the birth of a child whom they named Quasimodo for no particular reason. Then, Quasimodo, the incestuous, incestuous, twincestuous child, committed bestiality with a giant, alien crab; and then the seed from that mating read a blog about oil shortage, watched Jurassic Park, and decided to write a book. In other words, this book is spectacular. The funny thing about this book is that almost everything in the entire story seemed like an error, but nothing seemed like a mistake. So, goes toward proving what a waste of time this entire book is. I like that. One of the best parts: Axis[, chief warrior of the raptors,] stood on the hill overlooking the village. So many lives, all his responsibility . . . . [A] pyre was burning nearby, the bodies of raptors and Skjerdals piled high, a thick black column of smoke rising up. Looking at the column, Axis imagined he could see the faces of all those lost lives in that smoke: the face of Asnyllo, a good childhood friend. The face of Blasdij, a girl he once dated. He thought he saw some horses, too, and a clown, but it was the faces of all those dead raptors that really bothered him. And maybe that clown a little bit. That quote would be akin to a spoiler if there was a plot in this book, but there is not a plot, so don’t worry. It’s all pretty much random stuff like that. And a lot of wild sex. The rape was interesting in this book because it was mostly not rape in that it was sex with a blow-up doll who did not want sex, but begged for sex, and then strangely morphed into a “warrior queen” who begged for sex. So, that raises the question of whether prostitution can ever be voluntary and answers it with a no. There is also that . . . other rape scene . . . with the giant mole rat. So, there’s a lot of rapey, non-rapey sex with creepy blow-up doll people. Also, there is a homosexual biologist, whose scorpion tail pusses and spurts ineffectually and who is a homosexual. (view spoiler)[AND THEN AT THE END V.D. BURNS WRITES A BOOK CALLED BLOOD LUST ABOUT ME FALLING IN LOVE WITH A WEREWOLF VAMPIRE!!!!! So, surprise ending. Probably the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me. Thnx, Mr. Burns. (hide spoiler)] Basically, this book is either the best or the worst ever, or some kind of incestuous spawn of the two, and scientists will study it for eons to come. I enjoyed reading it fully as much as I enjoyed reading Twilight, though I’d have to say I got more out of Twilight because this book probably is to dude culture what Twilight is to the ladies. I am not a dude. Also, there is no real, continuous story in Gods of the Jungle Planet, so there’s that. I probably laughed harder at this one than I laughed at Twilight, but that’s difficult to estimate. I laughed pretty hard while I was reading Twilight, but it does not have a part with a clown. V.D. Burns, kids. Get tested; use protection. __________________________ A kindle version of this book was forced upon me by a lizard-like being with a scorpion tale protruding from his head. He was asking for meatloaf.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jan 09, 2012
| Feb 14, 2012
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Jan 03, 2012
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1406311529
| 9781406311525
| 4.34
| 15,292
| Sep 27, 2011
| Sep 27, 2011
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None
| Notes are private!
| flannery,
|
1
| Jan 19, 2013
| Jan 21, 2013
|
Jan 02, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1582404135
| 9781582404134
| 4.27
| 13,188
| Apr 2004
| Nov 24, 2004
|
BANG! POW! SHAZAM! Who wants a gun? We do! You’re babies and convicted felons! We don’t care! There are zombies! We need to kill humans! Wait, but you...more BANG! POW! SHAZAM! Who wants a gun? We do! You’re babies and convicted felons! We don’t care! There are zombies! We need to kill humans! Wait, but you said the guns were for the zom . . . Oh, whatever, okay, here are your guns. BUT WHATEVER YOU DO DON’T TAKE THEM OUT OF YOUR HOLSTERS! (scene) (people make chagrinned faces.) (zombies say, “Gar.”) Not that you would know what to say anyway, but I’m going to make a long speech about feelings right now, so don’t interrupt me because we’re all old men here, except some of the pregnant ladies, and we know that means no interruptions. Okay, where was I? . . . (chagrinned faces) (zombies say “Yaurighura”) Oh yeah, I was going to talk about love. Sometimes people are in love, and I’m happy. We say congratulations and nice to meet you when we are happy. But other times I’m sad, and when I’m sad I TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT IN ALL CAPS. And I spit on things or people. When people die, I am sad because I love people, but if people try to kill people or rape people and then we kill them, I am not sad because they deserved it unless they didn’t mean to kill or rape people in which case we should say we’re sorry and ask them if they want to talk about it. But they don’t. But, if I am sad about people dying I TELL OTHER PEOPLE TO FUCK OFF WHEN THEY TRY TO BE NICE TO ME. BUT, WHAT ARE WE, CRAZY? And women. Women are sassy. Sassy, sassy women. But this is not about women’s rights, dammit! We could all die! I am also happy about babies, and I am sad about babies. Because does that baby know how to shoot a gun yet? And, also, is it a bastard? Sex out of wedlock is bad, and that is how babies get made! And babies make us happy and sad and have incredible marksmanship, but are unpredictable with guns. (scene) (chagrinned faces) BLING! SHAWING! BLANG! Oh my god! What are the babies doing with guns? I will never forgive you for this! AND THEY ARE NOT EVEN YOUR BABIES! NOOOOOO. Do you mean you had an extramarital affair??? (thought bubble about how it was with his best friend, but she will never tell because she just couldn’t do that to him.) OH NO! The babies and convicted felons shot all of the canned goods! I never thought they would take their guns out of their holsters! I hope they didn’t shoot the pickles and canned pears because I am a pregnant woman and must eat pickles while I have morning sickness and do the laundry! (zombies come out of nowhere saying “Gak” and “Xylophone.”) WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?! Bleeeaaaarrruuuugghhhiiiiiyyyyeeeechhh. ZIP! PING! SCHLAKK! (scene) (people walk over a hill into the sunset with their guns by their sides and their arms around their women, who are also people.) (chagrinned faces with a single tear on each of their cheeks) THE END _____________________________ How bad does this story need a sassy gay friend? Real bad.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Jul 06, 2012
| Jul 06, 2012
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Jan 02, 2012
| Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0316134023
| 9780316134026
| 4.09
| 52,938
| Sep 27, 2011
| Sep 27, 2011
|
A wise woman, while brushing her hair demurely in front of a mirror, once mocked another wise woman saying, “Remember that time I wrote a book with a...more
A wise woman, while brushing her hair demurely in front of a mirror, once mocked another wise woman saying, “Remember that time I wrote a book with a conceptual spoiler?” Well, Laini Taylor, I now picture you in that room with the other wise authors chatting each other up about your conceptual spoilers. Because, holy shit. How do you even talk about this book? I’ve been marinating in it for a couple of days, while getting caught in apocalyptic electrical storms, losing luggage, stumbling around airports and homes and streets trying to get ready for school to start. In the midst of this busyness, I’ve been letting the story sink into my brain, but really I keep coming back to the fact that all of this story, the whole crux of the character development and plot of the entire thing, is in the last, maybe, three pages of the book. That may sound bad to you, but I’m telling you, it’s completely genius. That’s just my opinion, but it’s true. The first page of the book says, “Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.” And that lovely beginning, a thesis really, which tells you the entire story in two short sentences, echoed through my head the entire time I was reading. Well done. Just masterful. That is the way you should give away your story. And I’m not saying that the 400-whatever pages that precede the pivotal last three aren’t enjoyable – they are absolute fun and action packed for the most part. They were strangely ordinary, though. When you read the book, you’ll laugh that I said that because they are very un-ordinary looking in most ways. But, there is a lot of furniture and clothing and staring-into-smoldering-eyes and yearning for completeness, and other things u see in ur romance novels. After Lips Touch, which is three sharp kicks to the gut, the meandering descriptions and sudden brainless passion were weird. I still think there could have been less “their hearts were so one that they didn’t need to communicate with words” business. Like, you know, “she knew by his sideways glance that he had eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich earlier, gotten heartburn, decided to drink a glass of water, and then felt better, after which he watched TV for a little while and then took a walk.” I mean, at some point, the silent communication of soul mates is just not entertaining to read. Even after the last three pages, I think you could have cut some of that, but I could actually be dead wrong. Maybe you need all that to get to the end. Anyway, it was so worth it to me when I was done. Also, the clothing and furniture were good. Like, usually, everyone’s walking around in damask and chemises, or, like, jean skirts and velour jogging suits, or whatever, and it’s itchy and boring. And all their furniture is so uneventful. Here, I kind of wanted to know what Karou’s furniture was like and what she was wearing that day. Plus, blue hair is almost always a good idea. I had blue hair for a while, and it was very pretty. I’m sure Karou’s is, too. It might be petty, but I think it’s worth a wish. The other . . . criticism? . . . I have is that I’m not totally positive who this narrator is. Taylor wrote the book in a very distant, omniscient third person, but that raises some questions for me because the narrator is obviously from Earth and American. The dialogue is American slang, even though, when the characters are even on Earth, they are in Prague, speaking Czech. Also, the devils in the book are part human, part animal. But . . . the only logical conclusions from the way the characters discuss the devils is that Earth is the reference point for their species. For example, a half-human, half-wolf dude is called that. A hummingbird with moth wings is called that. But, if you only grew up with a hummingbird with moth wings, and you had no reference-point in Earth, would you know that it’s wings belonged to something else? Wouldn’t you get to earth and say our hummingbirds are weird? So, at certain points, when characters were staring into each other’s eyes, I got to thinking about how the narrator is this teenage American girl behind the curtain. I just wanted her to out herself and be like, “I’m off shopping at a thrift store on weekends,” so that I could orient myself to the source of the story. That is over-analyzing, I know, but there were narrative pauses to think about stuff like that. I loved how this book undermines. I love the fantasy and romance mythos that it breaths and destroys. I love that it looks straight in the face of what angels and devils could be, what they are, and what love is, in a cultural sense. I agree, but also disagree, with Taylor about one of the fundamentals of her world, but that is kind of a spoiler – I disagree that (view spoiler)[the source of magic is pain (hide spoiler)]. But, in the way that magic is commerce in this story, and the way that is just factually true of industrial capitalism, I have to agree with Taylor. It is not a lecture in the way she presents that reality, but it is fundamental to the story in a respectable way. And I am left, days later, turning that fundamental over and pondering both sides of it. So, you are obviously going to read this anyway, but I am here to tell you that I think you will not regret it. It’s got style and action, and then a kick to the gut in the end. Some of you will get hives from the middle of this book, and some will get hives from the end, and I think that is because the story is luring and elusive, but, really, only because it is actually being rather brutal the whole time. _________________________ I read an ARC copy of this, and it was lovely although the cover leaves something to be desired. P.S. Ethnocentrism is no good, kids. Don't try it at home.(less) | Notes are private!
| thomas
|
1
| Aug 14, 2011
| Aug 19, 2011
|
Aug 14, 2011
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 1442402709
| 9781442402706
| 4.30
| 540
| Aug 23, 2011
| Aug 23, 2011
|
This is such a great book, but weird at the same time. On the one hand, It’s kind of depressing to read, over and over, how much more successful than...more
This is such a great book, but weird at the same time. On the one hand, It’s kind of depressing to read, over and over, how much more successful than me the undead are at romantic relationships. On the other hand, this guy really does try harder than me, so I shouldn’t complain, and this is a sweet book. But, back on the first hand, it’s a sweet picture book for kids about a zombie, sooooo . . . Do we really want to be teaching our children about how endearing zombies are? I ask you. No, I do not ask you: I tell you! This is no way to prepare children for the zombie apocalypse! Children need to know that zombies are terrifying, flesh-eating monsters. That is really the most important thing they need to know about zombies. There are a few other things that might be helpful, though, so, kids: #2: If you grow up to be an activist, do not release lab animals if they look crazed. #3: If you grow up to become a scientist, do not develop a zombie virus. (Trust me! It’s not worth it!) #4: Shoot for the head or neck. #5: Even if it’s your friend, don’t hesitate to shoot. Those are the most important things I can think of. This book takes a different track, which I can . . . respect. It took the zombies-are-huggable track. It seems like a suspect moral message to me. But, it is such a cute book, and the illustrations are so great! I am torn. Just because it is fiction, though, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have an obligation to warn kids about the dangers of the zombie apocalypse. ______________________ A book fairy gave me a free copy of this lovely book. Thank you! (less) | Notes are private!
| A
|
1
| Sep 29, 2011
| Sep 29, 2011
|
May 25, 2011
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0545055857
| 9780545055857
| 3.80
| 4,534
| Oct 01, 2009
| Oct 01, 2009
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When you want to take a story that someone else has told and make it your own, do it like this. If you want to write a story, recognize your own magic...more
When you want to take a story that someone else has told and make it your own, do it like this. If you want to write a story, recognize your own magic, your own style, and add it to the story you want to steal. If you want to write a story, do what Laini Taylor did, and absorb the story, wait until it has seeped into the interstitial places of your writing, and give it back to your reader. Make it beautiful and true. And the only way you can do that is by figuring out what to you is beauty and truth. So many writers try to figure out what made something beautiful to someone else. They try to say, what made the Trojan war beautiful to Homer? What made Harry Potter beautiful to J.K. Rowling? And they try to imitate that. They don’t say, "What makes this story beautiful to me?" Well, Laini Taylor told us what makes these stories beautiful to her. So, I’m a little expansive tonight. I’m a little drunk. I’m not usually one of those drunks who goes around telling everyone she loves them. In fact, I’ve been told I can recite a pretty good story while drunk, even if I don’t remember it a few months later. I usually don’t remember who I told stories to anyway, drunk or not drunk, no offense. Anyway, I just want to give this book a hug and tell it I love it. I love you, book. Like, in the full, Wayne’s World sense of the word. I love you, book. Damn, every time I write “book,” I spell it “bood.” Sorry. I love this book in a drunk, college-high-school kind of way. I love this book like, “Wait a second, what have we all be doing, standing around fighting over whether vampires are sparkly or not?” So, it turns out there are people out there writing real love stories and fairy tales. There are people reading great writing like Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, getting inspired by them, and then writing these wonderful tributes to them. I think, when anyone writes anything great, their ultimate hope has to be in some kind of legacy. They have to hope that their great writing will inspire something beautiful in the future, some kind of strength and inspiration. I think it is a tribute to the traditions that Rossetti, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism created that Taylor could create something as beautiful as this book. And then, hopefully her writings will inspire someone else, and the stories of goblins, hell, and eternal life will continue. It is like how Shakespeare reminded us that 13-year-olds falling in love doesn’t always end for the best. And, look, that story has continued in tradition because of him. Hopefully we will all, likewise, remember not to eat goblin fruit because of Taylor, not to doubt our own curses or our own mortality. I had intended to talk about how some authors are natural with language, and how some authors know how to integrate a magical, traditional feeling with really modern writing. I don’t really feel like talking about that now that I am writing this. Maybe I will have more to say about that in the morning. Anyway, it’s not like Taylor tried to add a bunch of ‘ye’s to her writing, or like she tried to end everything with “e” like, unfortunately, some authors do, to give a sense of ye olde timmes. Taylor shows everything beautifully, and in doing so she shows how “modern times” are not removed from tradition and magick(e). I like how this book is not about kisses, is not about love. When I first picked it up I thought it would be an emo version of Gossip Girl, but it is not that. It is about evil kisses, lips shutting in silence, and kisses that are sense memory. I like how this book is about loyalty and strength. I like how it is about curses. This book is beautiful, and in true, drunken or non-drunken spirit, I love it. (less) | Notes are private!
| Thomas
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1
| Jul 24, 2011
| Jul 27, 2011
|
May 23, 2011
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385339151
| 9780385339155
| 4.19
| 56,423
| Oct 01, 2006
| Oct 31, 2006
|
The thing I never get over, no matter how much I dye my hair, is how it changes my personality every time. When my hair was its natural brown, I was i...more
The thing I never get over, no matter how much I dye my hair, is how it changes my personality every time. When my hair was its natural brown, I was innocent and pious. When my hair was purple, I forgot all about my upbringing and became angsty and wild. When I shaved my head, I became a lesbian. When I went back to brown hair, I became bookish and respectable. Then, when I was blond, I mostly thought about clothes and sex with men. Somebody should do some kind of test on the physiological reason for this. Okay, I’m obviously a little annoyed about the hair thing anyway, so yes, this book managed to hit a lot of pet peeves of mine. No no, you’ll say, she was still the same girl when she dyed her hair, but it was SUCH A BIG DEAL! And it symbolized her change into badass fairy slayer. Annoying. I mean, there aren’t that many substantive things that I care about it this book, admittedly, so this review is really going to focus on the petty stuff that stood out to me. The hair in this book is so annoying. It’s different to me when a story is Buffy, and it’s a girl who is legitimately interested in clothes and hilarious and badass, and not freaking annoying. This girl, though . . . ugh. A blemish on the name of “girl.” Sheesh, what bothered me so much about his girl? Okay, here’s a thing. The book is from the first-person POV, and I just found it unbelievable. She both seemed to have perspective about how ridiculous she was and want to talk about her life from within that ridiculous perspective ad infinitum. Like, she was always breaking in and saying, “Later, I would learn how truly ridiculous I was . . .” or “I have no idea why I did that.” Okay, you need to be more present in the first-person. You can’t be so removed from first-person that there’s all this narrator dissonance from you being so freaking wise now that you can’t understand who you were then. It’s annoying. I’m the one who wants to know the things that you’re hinting at and not telling me. It doesn’t make me feel suspense for you to dodge your own topics, it makes me not trust you. Just don’t talk about it at all if you don’t want to and tell your freaking story. I felt like Moning couldn’t decide whether young, silly Mac was telling the story or old, battle-worn Mac was telling the story. Maybe Bridesmaids has ruined me on idiot girls. How shall I move forward in my post-Bridesmaids life?! And then Barrons. I kept thinking that Barrons would be a transitory annoying character and she would meet some really charming guy, who I actually wanted to read about, later. I was waiting for the Officer Rhoades in this story, if I’m going to keep comparing this to Bridesmaids in my head. Barrons was so Jon Hamm. But a law professor. I think I will always have a reaction to people who answer a question with a question after too many of those experiences in law school. Just say, “I don’t know,” or “I’m not going to tell you that.” BUT if you’re writing a book, don’t set up whole pages of conversations just to tell me nothing! Was there supposed to be sexual tension in that? Because I just felt like I was in Family Law. So, back to the hair thing. When I bleached my hair blond, I got two very specific reactions from people. One, I completely understood; the other was shockingly freakish. The first was that it took a lot longer to make friends with girls I really respected if they hadn’t known me with brown hair. The second was that guys were very aggressive. Much more aggressive than when I have brown hair. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my blond hair, and I’ll probably go back to blond at some point, but the whole experience made me annoyed with humans. The other experience that is making me extra bitter about this book is last season of The Bachelor. Yes, I’ve been watching The Bachelor again, so sue me. Anyway, there was this girl, Emily, who was basically Mac 1.0:  And then there was this other girl, Chantal, who was just a normal girl (except, you know, she was on The Bachelor):  And, of course, he goes for the blond girl. She had a tragic past and talked with a soft, southern accent, and, really, she seemed great and totally won the girl contest, if there’s a girl contest. But, you know none of those things are who a person is on a daily basis. So, now they’re broken up because she has a temper and swears like a sailor in real life, and her hair isn’t really blond and she has caps on her teeth (I think). Anyway, I think Mac’s kind of the same. There’s nothing to her, and there’s always something interesting to a human, blond or not. Or, maybe not, but there should be something interesting if I'm going to read about somebody. I know she loved her sister, but that’s not really a thing that makes somebody a person. I feel like this book was written by a brunette girl who thinks all blond girls are dumb. That’s not that different to me than a guy who thinks the blond girl is the dream girl. I get why we are prejudiced against girls who keep their hair perfect and blond - we think, like Mac, they've got a man-eating agenda. That seems as wrong to me as the dream-girl fantasy. Now, on this season of The Bachelorette all the guys are talking about how they wish the bachelorette was Emily. I guess it’s because men are idiots. Maybe just humans are idiots, I don’t know. This book is not for me, but it does surprise me that so many girls who have so much shit to talk about Twilight don’t have a problem with this book. Is it because she’s a slayer and she’s out for blood, while Bella’s the mediator? It kind of freaks me out if that’s why. Mac’s whole single-minded campaign of revenge wasn’t really compelling to me. I mean, she says she’s not interested in helping anybody else, but she just wants to kill this one dude? That just seems dumb to me. Not that I don’t think a person would have moments of feeling like that, but, then, maybe, a person would think, “Well, that’s not going to really get me anywhere,” and come up with a better plan. I’m not going to continue with this series. When I read Wicked Lovely, I thought I didn’t care for the fairy thing because it was too much after having just finished all the Twilights. It was like when you’re a kid and you’ve just eaten too many jelly beans at a sleepover and now you want to puke. They were all fun until that last handful. I kind of felt the same way about this book, though, so maybe I’m just not into the fairy thing. There aren’t enough boundaries with the fairy world. Like, you’re going to give me vampires and fairies?! No, choose a mythology and stick with it. I don’t like it when there’s too much of a mish-mash of different species. It seems sloppy. I wouldn’t say it’s, like, bad to like this series, obviously. I like Twilight myself and don't think it's bad to like it. I just don’t get this one. The pages didn’t fly for me, and I didn’t like any of the characters. Nobody was funny, unless I was supposed to be laughing at all of them, which is just mean. Time for a real break from fantasy, until I change book-moods again. I'll go read some Ian McEwan, or something, so I can feel better about humans.(less) | Notes are private!
| flannery
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1
| May 29, 2011
| Jun 2011
|
May 18, 2011
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| B0012KPPIY
| 4.13
| 13,105
| 1913
| 1956
|
 (Painting of Swann, by David Richardson) In some ways, maybe, both love and destruction come to us, seek us out, and we are powerless to pursue or avoi...more (Painting of Swann, by David Richardson) In some ways, maybe, both love and destruction come to us, seek us out, and we are powerless to pursue or avoid them. I tend to think that is not the case, but I am often wrong, and I am too willing to make grand pronouncements about life to be unwilling to be called wrong. Or, as my friend says of herself, I am never wrong because if I hear an idea that is better than mine, I change my mind to that idea, and then I am right again. Anyway, in Swann’s Way, Proust writes a museum of love and, the other side of love’s coin, abandonment, of comfort and loneliness. Every human relationship in this story is linked to some form of art, and I think the narrator gestures at this when he says, If only Bergotte had described the place in one of his books, I should, no doubt, have longed to see and to know it, like so many things else of which a simulacrum had first found its way into my imagination. That kept things warm, made them live, gave them personality, and I sought then to find their counterpart in reality, but in this public garden there was nothing that attached itself to my dreams. (p. 565) There is an inevitability to all of these art/human interactions, as though what is pre-written cannot be resisted. I am going to talk in spoilers in this review, I think, but my own personal read of this story held most of it to be largely predictable, and purposely so. The beginning of the story is the end, and the end of the story is the very, very end, and all of the telling is wrapped up together. I don’t think I’m going to hide the spoilers, then, because the narrator tells you early on what becomes of M. Swann, and then he develops it carefully and delicately so that you know just how it should be told and how he has seen it unfold. It doesn’t seem to me that what I have to say will ruin any of it, but I like to come to books fresh, so I respect that, and if you feel the same, now is the time to exit. Proust’s characters see life translated through books and paintings and music. In that way there is a sort of self-reflexivity in the story, but also something that feels resonant today. If we have seen it done before, if someone has recognized it before, we can do it ourselves. For example, the narrator’s Oedipal relationship with his parents comes to a peak (sorry) just before his mother’s censored bedtime read-a-loud of Francois le Champi. The narrator then develops a passion for the invented author Bergotte, and when the narrator learns that M. Swann is personal friends with Bergotte, he thereafter sees the Swann family through a Bergotte-colored monocle. He falls in adolescent love with them, the way he is in adolescent love with Bergotte. Swann, likewise, uses art as a touchstone for life. Like men, or really both men and women, now, often justify a woman’s beauty, not by their own preferences, but instead through some expectation that Heidi Klum and Jessica Alba are the framework of beauty, Swann acknowledges a women’s beauty by association to painting. Swann’s kitchen-maid can be beautiful because she is Giotto’s Charity:  He finally reconciles himself to Odette’s beauty when he realizes she looks like Botticelli’s Zipporah from The Trials of Moses:  M. Swann’s very relationship with Odette becomes embodied in the little phrase from M. Vinteuil’s sonata. We ironically know from the story of Combray that M. Vinteuil died of heartbreak at least in part, presumably, because of his own “intense prudishness” and in reaction to his daughter’s lesbian tendencies – ironic, obviously, because M. Swann’s deepest disappointment with Odette is that she has ever been with a woman. Towards the end of Swann in Love, I kept picturing M. Swann's relationship with Odette as Love the Way You Lie. I wonder if the sonata sounded like that. Swann handed over his preferences regarding beauty to painters like we hand over our preferences to movie producers and modeling agencies. M. Swann reconciled himself to owning Odette as a mistress while they both slept with other people, but if Odette slept with a woman, that was betrayal. Today, we can handle adultery, abuse, marital rape, and bride purchasing, but if gay people get married, that will undermine the institution. People never change. Or maybe we change, but we change as individuals. This book made me love Proust. I think he captures all of this with the awe of adolescence and the cynicism of adulthood. I also love him because he reminds me so incredibly of one of my best friends from school. My friend, whom I am calling Marcel below because, you know, privacy, matches his polo shirts to his argyle socks every day. He is always on gchat, and some of us were planning to start a blog where we posted our gchats with him because we think they are so hilarious. Anyway, I am posting some of them below because I think they are how a modern day Proust would be. In our first year of law school, a lot of people thought that Marcel was a snob. But, I don’t think he is. Or, technically, he is, and his snobbishness might stand out more because of his money, but aren’t we all snobs about something? He is a snob about BMWs, and I am a snob about coffee and middlebrow literature. So, when people say Proust is a snob, I’ve started to feel a little defensive because, sure, but aren’t you? He is also sweet and witty and shy. And has more weird allergies than anyone you’ve ever met – or at least my friend does. Seriously, who is allergic to lettuce? But, now I am mixing up my Marcels. And, oh Marcels, why do you get so taken in by other people’s rules about beauty? If you think a girl is ugly, think she's ugly. And if you like her anyway, like her anyway! But, don't get so taken in by other people's ideas and expect them to be universal. But, ah, you do, and I love you anyway. Some cattleyas for the bitches:    _________________________________________ And the Marcel gchats (keep in mind that this person is like twelve years old): Day 1: I'm including this one because it is probably Marcel's favorite, but I also really love it. 12:49 PM Marcel: our sea of whirly twirly lamps is a little too organized right now 12:50 PM me: i was thinking that too 12:51 PM Marcel: much better 1:17 PM Marcel: Rosamond wants me to be facebook friends with Octave and his girlfriend so she can creep on them that makes me uncomfortable me: yeah, don't do it she will regret it later too 1:18 PM Marcel: i don't think i'm much of an enabler anyway i mean i wouldn't want that on my resume or anything 1:19 PM me: yeah, i hear firms look for "passive aggressive" before "enabler" 1:20 PM Marcel: i'll have to work on that then i'm not sure i'm good at being passive aggressive unlike some people... Day 2: This is really more expressive of him as a person. 9:40 AM Marcel: this dude in front of me in admin law spends his time in class looking at assault weapons on his computer all class 9:42 AM me: whoa that is not good who is the dude? Marcel: disturbing Albert something 2L 9:43 AM me: ohh, Albert Bloch? Marcel: that sounds right 9:44 AM me: yeah, that guy is pretty weird. he dated mlle Lea all last year he's a big republican or, like, maybe just last spring 9:45 AM Marcel: crazies attract 9:46 AM me: so true Marcel: i mean you should see the people i've attracted over the years i sadly mean that jokingly and seriously 9:47 AM me: same 9:48 AM literally, one guy who liked me went running through the streets of seattle naked because he made a deal with god that if he gave up everything, including his clothes, god would get these friends of his back together as a couple. He was a nice guy, though. 9:49 AM and, you know, that was a really good deal for god. 9:50 AM Marcel: you can't call someone crazy for believing in god joke i'm intentionally missing the point 9:51 AM me: bah dum tss 10:10 AM Marcel: i don't think i'm very comfortable with the expression that's how the sausage gets made me: it's like "flesh it out" bad visual 10:23 AM Marcel: if norpois or cottard were in admin law i would actually skip this class but we still get bontemps so it's tempting to skip 10:25 AM me: who teaches that class? 10:26 AM Marcel: Mme. Verdurin i think i don't like her 10:27 AM but i'm not positive me: huh, interesting i have never had a class with her, but she has always been nice to me 10:29 AM Marcel: i think she just annoys me in class and so far it has been unrelated to her red hair at least consciously me: yeah, it is tough to separate that Marcel: but maybe i've been seeing her red hair and just not liking her bc of that me: definitely possible and not unreasonable 10:30 AM Marcel: i'm not sure where i picked up my default of strongly disliking redheads until i get to know them like gilberte and saint loup are great me: true, but they might just be an exception to the rule Marcel: fact 10:31 AM one of my business partners has red hair and i appreciate greatly when he wears a hat me: "one of my business partners." please say more words about that. Marcel: well one of six others 10:32 AM they're certainly not all redheads 10:33 AM me: "business partners." please say more words about that. 10:34 AM Marcel: Beta Cascade Ventures, LLC we're an investment company with focuses on philanthropy, education, and networking 10:38 AM me: huh 10:39 AM that is very 1% of you 10:40 AM Marcel: our logo is a sailboat me: o m g 10:41 AM Marcel: i'll have to show you sometime(less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| May 13, 2012
| Jun 2012
|
May 12, 2011
| Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0451451562
| 9780451451569
| 4.09
| 6,581
| Jun 01, 1986
| May 05, 1992
|
Okay, this story finally got me. Fiction takes life and crystallizes it. It boils down and simplifies, so that when real life is too overwhelming, I c...more
Okay, this story finally got me. Fiction takes life and crystallizes it. It boils down and simplifies, so that when real life is too overwhelming, I can remember what to filter out and what to hear. I can remember that the pining lovers reunite, the little girl grows into wisdom, the white horses win. The double-edged part of that sword is that it’s probably not true, it probably shouldn’t be true. But, sometimes stories don’t need to be true in order to be somehow necessary, I guess. I was in the right mood for this book. I was in the right craving of escape, craving of simplicity. I know this story isn't all good guys winning all the time, but it still organizes good and evil and love and hate and family into something manageable. These are my random thoughts about the story: (view spoiler)[Jennifer has Satan’s baby in this book. That rules. I totally love Satan’s baby stories, I guess. I had just watched the X-Files where they do Rosemary’s Baby, and it’s officially one of my favorites. I hadn’t realized before that I really dig Satan’s baby stories, but I do. Maybe it’s my Mia Farrow thing. I still don’t get what Satan’s motivation was for choosing Jennifer, though, but maybe book 3 will clue me on that. Satan’s motivations are a big mystery to me in this story. Also, I’m totally okay with the Camelot stuff, but I’m not in love with it. And, Kim has sex with Loren!!! GROOOOOOOSSSSS! That guy is like one million years old in my brain, and just cause she has white hair doesn’t make her elderly! I thought she and the king were going to have a thing, so I was SHOCKED when she went for the old dude. Shocked. (hide spoiler)] So, I really love the story of the rake prince and the princess from the south. I guess I love a rake, and a rake finding his girl, and all that. I just like that story. I like the idea of guys appearing careless to cover up their own passion and perfection. It's a failing, but I'm a sucker for it. I also like that the couple likes each other and are basically nice to each other except when it makes sense for them not to be. And it's nice that the story has come around to make the fighter girls (the priestess and the princess) respectable or endearing, rather than threatening or psycho like I felt they were in the last book. I’m still feeling like the girls keep getting the short end of the stick, though. (view spoiler)[Like, Paul sacrifices himself, but then he gets to rise again and be a god/man. Kevin sacrifices himself, but, like, he dies of orgasm as he impregnates the head goddess, right? Not too shabby of a way to go. And both of those sacrifices save the world. But, Jennifer gets taken and impregnated by Satan, which possibly curses the entire world (or saves it, no one knows yet). And Kim is just naturally a seer, which seems to be pretty much a hassle for her all around. So, the guys seem to get a better deal, and their better deal seems to work out better for everyone generally. I know I’m looking too closely at it, but the girls are my models! Why do our stories have to suck more?! (hide spoiler)] Ultimately, I am not totally comfortable with the typical fantasy format that assumes an enemy’s physical characteristics mark the enemy as evil. That just seems like propaganda that leads to race wars. It is comforting to read, though, when real life is so opposite of that kind of simplicity. I guess that’s one of the reasons it’s called fantasy.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Apr 21, 2011
| May 09, 2011
|
Apr 21, 2011
| Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1582406723
| 9781582406725
| 4.32
| 52,945
| May 26, 2004
| Sep 26, 2006
|
Okay, is this where the random bolding phenomenon is coming from?? Have you all known this and not told me? Is it just so you can laugh behind my back...more
Okay, is this where the random bolding phenomenon is coming from?? Have you all known this and not told me? Is it just so you can laugh behind my back? See? I can’t even randomly bold if I try. It always ends up being for emphasis. This book is about don’t give kids guns. That’s pretty much it. But, sometimes, you know . . . zombie apocalypse . . . sounds like a good idea to give a kid a gun. And if you think that, you’re an idiot. My dad used to keep a lot of guns in the house at one particularly precarious point in my childhood, and the parents would leave my brother and I alone for the day while they went to work. One day, my brother found a gun and shot the wall. My mom flipped out, and all the guns got sent out of the house, but I think ultimately it somehow got blamed on the X-Men. Anyway, don’t leave guns in the house. This was definitely better than the show because not as much emphasis on the love triangle. Also, I like the sounds the zombies make. They say, “Gak” and “Iligh” and other non-zombie-sounding noises. That is pretty great. (view spoiler)[ 
(hide spoiler)] I don't know if that's a spoiler or not, but the zombies do make funny zombie noises. Especially when everything else is pretty straight “BLAM” and “POW” and other old school Batman stuff.  Overall, I’m not so big on Westerns, and I think this series is a Western with zombies. British zombies are so much more compelling than American zombies. Watch Dead Set, people. WATCH DEAD SET. This one is okay, though.(less) | Notes are private!
| Katie
|
1
| Jul 05, 2012
| Jul 05, 2012
|
Nov 01, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0316102865
| 9780316102865
| 3.80
| 2,705
| Sep 01, 2010
| Sep 01, 2010
|
As an unmarried person with many married friends, I have heard my share of lectures and seen my share of demonstrations about how to have a successful...more
As an unmarried person with many married friends, I have heard my share of lectures and seen my share of demonstrations about how to have a successful (or repair a broken) marriage. I get why you would have to talk about marriage lessons after you learn them because it really is an accomplishment to realize something about relationships. But I never realized until I read this book that it would be SO MUCH MORE FUN if they told their stories with ZOMBIES!!!! Yaaaaay! Not that I wish they had to fight zombie hordes (well, maybe I do wish some of them would, if we’re being completely honest . . .). But, sometimes I bet half of what they’re saying is made up anyway, whether they know it or not, so add some freaking undead, people!! So, yes, I’m giving this book a very inflated 4 stars. This is another casualty of the Skye O’Malley tragedy. This is probably more of a 3-star book, but it’s so much better than all of the other RBR reads! I’m suspicious that it is better because it’s not actually a romance, but we’ll choose to turn a blind eye to that for now. The minute I held this book in my loving little hands at Powell’s in Portland, I knew we had a connection, though. This is my kind of self-help. Self-help with BRAAAaaaaAAAINS!!! My only complaint is that there is a great part with a cult, but the cult was not nuanced enough for my taste. I like to see a cult that has some draw at first and then later chains you up. The cult leader in this book was a little too stranger-danger for me to feel sorry for them when they got locked up. Don’t worry, I won’t tell you what happens then. I think that complaint goes to how I still think watching zombies is a more pleasing overall experience than reading about zombies. Like, if the cult leader guy had been on the TV, it probably wouldn’t have bothered me that he was too obviously loony tunes. Horror movies are so flash-bang that you don’t have the time to pause and want a little more complexity. And I don’t want to want complexity with my zombies! If I get it, great, if not, then I get omg-we’re-all-gonna-die instead, which is just as good. So, basically, I’m bothered by my being bothered. There’s not a lot to say about this particular piece of litratuhr, and my fellow rippers have done an excellent job in their analysis already by noting the references to Whedon, Zombieland, and Shaun of the Dead. I was satisfied by those references. Jesse Petersen knows her shit. Also, she knows where her book is going to land in the continuum of zombie stories. That’s a bonus. But, now I am off to explore the complexity of the human spirit in The Egg Said Nothing and This is Not a Flophouse. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about those two because I can already tell they have a beautiful mix of subtlety, nuance, and flash-bang. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| Oct 25, 2010
| Nov 06, 2010
|
Oct 25, 2010
| Paperback
|
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