If you like your scifi gritty, realistic, multiple-narrative, and highly political, you will love this book. If you love William Gibson novels (@Great...moreIf you like your scifi gritty, realistic, multiple-narrative, and highly political, you will love this book. If you love William Gibson novels (@GreatDismal) you will love this book. I loved this book. ;)(less)
This was a book club recommendation which came with a verbal footnote from my friend Ali: "It's full of facts, you'll love it". Indeed. "Bonk" took me...moreThis was a book club recommendation which came with a verbal footnote from my friend Ali: "It's full of facts, you'll love it". Indeed. "Bonk" took me about 3 days to read and I did go back and re-read parts. "Bonk" studies how we (in modern, and not-so-modern science) study "Sex": everything from the G-spot to ED (so much nicer than saying "it don't work like it used to"). Often humorous and again, with that surprising depth of character (see my review for "Stiff", and I can't wait to read "Spook") Mary Roach has done an excellent job of taking a juicy topic, shoving it full of science, and rendering it just as, or possibly more, juicy. (less)
This was a recommendation by a dear (never met him, but he's dear all the same) friend in Tucson who is an Information Researcher. He said I should re...moreThis was a recommendation by a dear (never met him, but he's dear all the same) friend in Tucson who is an Information Researcher. He said I should read this book and so, having placed it on hold at the local library, and then waited 4 months to get it (a good sign, indeed), I read it.
I read it in 2 nights.
It is NOT light fare -- it is full of amazing complexity and you will indeed find yourself re-reading passages to see if you've got things right. My friend indicated that there was a character he thought was much like me in it: I agree, with caveats. That didn't propel me through it, though: the vivid descriptions of the Swedish countryside and characters, how everything seemed "so like home" (descriptions of living conditions -- I live in Seattle) and so not (everything in Kronor! I had to pull out Google to get Standard-of-living equivalents). It was written in the early 2000's and the author has since deceased, and there is ONE HELL of a turnaround at about the 75% mark and again at the 90% mark --another one of those re-read bits. Lars does an excellent job of showing the fullness of human emotion, temperament, ambivalence, cruelty, horror, and tenderness. I must look and see what else he has written. (less)
Scalzi's book is as textured as any of RAH's work, his characters are more evolved (especially the women...moreHeinlein has, at last, found a suitable heir.
Scalzi's book is as textured as any of RAH's work, his characters are more evolved (especially the women), and his writing style is as technical (and non) as you want it to be (in short: you like physics? Great! you don't get physics? No problem!). Pockets of humour are in this fabric of a novel and I am so very much tracking down his other stuff.(less)
The Book Thief is written first person, which I usually find jarring, but (and you figure this out in the f...moreI laughed, I cried, I read it in one night.
The Book Thief is written first person, which I usually find jarring, but (and you figure this out in the first 3 pages) it's written first person by some sort of being that takes souls after people die. I don't want to call it an Angel of Death because I suspect it would be offended. And that's one of the really cool things about this book, it made that sort of character multifaceted and engaging.
The story follows an orphaned girl to her adoptive family (in Hitlerian Germany) as she comes of age (mostly), learns to read(eventually quite well) and steals books (the first two before she could technically read).
Warning: You will cry at the end. I did. Great wet blops of tears.(less)
Stephen King is what M. Night wants to be when he grows up, I think: you *know* going in there's goin...moreI am saving this one for my permanent collection.
Stephen King is what M. Night wants to be when he grows up, I think: you *know* going in there's going to be a majorly squicky, icky twist at the end, you *know* there's going to be twists and turns, and yet you spend the entire book fascinated as to what it will be. You second and third and fourth guess it: about 20% of the way through you have hypothesis A, by the time you're 60% through you're at hypothesis P. And none of mine were correct.
My first King book was "Christine", which I found creepy and visually intense (something hard for a book to do). Nearly 25 years later he is as creepy and visually intense.
I do wonder, though, if he's going to run out of geography. Like Jessica Fletcher and her travels (and always running into a murderer/eress), I cannot now go to the Florida Keys. Mountain ski resorts, small suburban towns, etc. are all out too.
I am *not* going to divulge plot points, only to say that, like most King novels, the protagonist suffers and discovers his/her less than wonderful side; he does in fact pay a price; and (unlike MNight movies) there isn't a neat and nice tie up at the end.
I read it in 4 hours on a lovely Saturday afternoon, and was still creeped out at bedtime.(less)
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