http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/1063991 en-US Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:35:10 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 27977385 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:35:10 -0700
author: Dave Lapham
name: Sam
average rating: 2.78
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/22/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 27144716 Sun, 13 Jul 2008 15:22:33 -0700
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Sam
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 07/13/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 25266592 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:25:12 -0700
author: Paul Alexander
name: Sam
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves: politics
review:

]]> 19691206 Fri, 30 May 2008 19:55:23 -0700
author: Melissa Bank
name: Sam
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/30/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 23050008 Tue, 27 May 2008 10:19:48 -0700
I can imagine that a good deal of people disliked the book, but I, for one, loved it. It provided some interesting off the wall answers to some of the questions that you could pick up from reading the official Holmes and Watson stories and was just a lot of fun, to be honest, especially in it's depiction of the real relationship between Holmes and Moriarty, and where they come from (spoiler: the future!), and what the hell's going on with Mycroft.

As far as heavily sci fi tinged pastiches go, I imagine you can do a lot worse (I notice that there's a lot of books where Holmes is fighting Dracula or teaming up with that racist bastard Lovecraft to go after Cthulhu), but this, as I said, has to be more fun than those. And for once, Holmes seems more human and three dimensional and Watson gets to show his true mettle in what actually feels like a very epic adventure.


]]>
author: Robert Lee Hall
name: Sam
average rating: 2.57
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/27/08
shelves: mystery, speculative
review:
I remember reading this as a kid, after a rash of reading several of the official canon of Holmes stories and being left just a little unsatisfied (with the canon, that is). And then I saw this book in a library, read some interesting blurbs on the cover, and figured, "What the hell?"

I can imagine that a good deal of people disliked the book, but I, for one, loved it. It provided some interesting off the wall answers to some of the questions that you could pick up from reading the official Holmes and Watson stories and was just a lot of fun, to be honest, especially in it's depiction of the real relationship between Holmes and Moriarty, and where they come from (spoiler: the future!), and what the hell's going on with Mycroft.

As far as heavily sci fi tinged pastiches go, I imagine you can do a lot worse (I notice that there's a lot of books where Holmes is fighting Dracula or teaming up with that racist bastard Lovecraft to go after Cthulhu), but this, as I said, has to be more fun than those. And for once, Holmes seems more human and three dimensional and Watson gets to show his true mettle in what actually feels like a very epic adventure.



]]> 23047927 Tue, 27 May 2008 09:41:40 -0700
author: Rob Grader
name: Sam
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/27/08
shelves:
review:
I bought this as a gift for a cousin's graduation before he moves on to NYU and I sat down and quickly read it before mailing it off. It's decent and gives you exactly what it promises on the title. If I lived in NYC, I'd probably keep a copy of this laying around somewhere.
]]> 23047893 Tue, 27 May 2008 09:39:49 -0700
author: Mark Frost
name: Sam
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/27/08
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 22949679 Mon, 26 May 2008 15:12:16 -0700
author: Kazu Kibuishi
name: Sam
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/26/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:
This is an amazingly fun and beautifully crafted book of short stories in a comic narrative, and I've only read this volume and skimmed the previous volume, but like a previous review very accurately said, there's a little too much dealing with cute kids playing, cute monsters playing, or cute monsters playing with cute kids and all of it being very, very cute. That said, the cuteness is wonderfully drawn and told, and the colors are bright and vibrant. An excellent chunk of storytelling, ideal for any library, especially a home, or a long drive, or just any opportunity to let your mind and imagination stretch and wander around the room, meeting new people and seeing new things.
]]> 22949976 Sun, 25 May 2008 19:33:51 -0700
author: Malcolm Lowry
name: Sam
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 05/25/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 22778707 Thu, 22 May 2008 17:02:50 -0700
author: Charles Dickens
name: Sam
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1860
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 05/22/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 22778405 Thu, 22 May 2008 16:56:13 -0700
author: Milton Glaser
name: Sam
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 05/22/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 22778390 Thu, 22 May 2008 16:56:03 -0700
author: Philip Rieff
name: Sam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 05/22/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 22778375 Thu, 22 May 2008 16:55:54 -0700
author: Clifford A. Pickover
name: Sam
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 05/22/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 22778356 Thu, 22 May 2008 16:55:37 -0700
author: Barbara Ann Kipfer
name: Sam
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 05/22/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 21426888 Thu, 22 May 2008 08:02:56 -0700
A lot has gone on before this, the union of the JLA shattered, and now, as so many times before, it's time to rebuild. There's a lot of that in this storyline. The recruiting process and what it means to be in the team. In fact, there's a hell of a lot of that. And it gets annoying fast. I liked the focus on the little guys, the Red Tornado's and Black Lightning's of the group, but I could've done without all the metaphorical patting on the asses and jerking each off over how great it is to be in the fucking JLA.

I know that Meltzer is a better writer than this, and I think part of the problem is that he wanted to write an epic story and so he just assumed it was epic. He didn't bring the epic with him. He didn't let the character bring the epic with them. Maybe I would've brought the epic with me if I hadn't had to sit through Green Arrow going off on how amazing it is to be in the League and everyone getting ready for their group photo. Sigh.]]>
author: Brad Meltzer
name: Sam
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/22/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:
This first storyline from Brad Meltzer isn't bad, and he's clearly a smart and intelligent writer with a love for the characters and genre, but the storyline sure as hell isn't good.

A lot has gone on before this, the union of the JLA shattered, and now, as so many times before, it's time to rebuild. There's a lot of that in this storyline. The recruiting process and what it means to be in the team. In fact, there's a hell of a lot of that. And it gets annoying fast. I liked the focus on the little guys, the Red Tornado's and Black Lightning's of the group, but I could've done without all the metaphorical patting on the asses and jerking each off over how great it is to be in the fucking JLA.

I know that Meltzer is a better writer than this, and I think part of the problem is that he wanted to write an epic story and so he just assumed it was epic. He didn't bring the epic with him. He didn't let the character bring the epic with them. Maybe I would've brought the epic with me if I hadn't had to sit through Green Arrow going off on how amazing it is to be in the League and everyone getting ready for their group photo. Sigh.
]]> 22743679 Thu, 22 May 2008 07:50:18 -0700
That's what I brought to the book. What the book brought to me was a similar experience to what I was feeling on an emotional level, and a process by which I could enjoy getting lost in a book again, and a return to not just thinking about things, but thinking about what lay under the surface of things.

I know, I know. How fucking pretentious and twee can you get.

To start on a plot description in my review would be a waste of everyone's time. There's some excellent reviews already here on the site and some of them tackle the nuts and bolts a hell of a lot better than I could. Especially since this is a book with a wonderfully quicksand like concoction of a plot.

I want to make special note of the way Murakami is an expert at listing the mundane normal activities of daily life. In all of his books, there's at least one scene of a character making some kind of rudimentary meal, having a cup of coffee or a bottle of beer, and then relaxing while listening to either old jazz records or a Beatle's album. It should come off as boring, especially in a book about people with special healing powers and dream prostitutes and exotic torture sequences in World War II, but it never is. It just blends into the fabric of Murakami's simple but lovely oneiric writing.

The book continues another masterful trend in Murakami's books that I've always loved in that, on one level, it's a very slow, patient book that does have something of a plot, but it's all over the place with a passive narrator who slowly makes his way through it, making it easier and comfortable for the reader to venture along with him (even when he's not the most excited or active of protagonists). But then there's a deeper level, what I would almost say is a kind of second novel hidden within, written in tone and emotional resonance and really composed just for your subconscious to pick up on.

In a lot of ways, I feel that I can't write a normal review for the book, or that it's hard with Murakami's dream novels. Obiviously, they're just novels, intellectual constructs to breeze through and enjoy, but they're like walking through a person's brain and reminisces, navigating through their desires and their wounds, admiring their weird little ephemera all around you. Reading this novel, for me, was much like several of the character's paths in the book: They went into a place that was strange and new, both scary and amazing, and they found something and brought it out with them. In the sunlight, while examining it, they realized that something was their's.]]>
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Sam
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/22/08
shelves:
review:
Prior to reading this book I had fallen down in my regular reading. Where I was once reading at least one, but usually more books a week, I was reading a book maybe every 7 or 8 months and dreadfully slowly. Concurrent to the start of me reading this, I had just gone through a break up and things just generally felt like they were slowly beginning to come apart at the seams wherever I cast my gaze.

That's what I brought to the book. What the book brought to me was a similar experience to what I was feeling on an emotional level, and a process by which I could enjoy getting lost in a book again, and a return to not just thinking about things, but thinking about what lay under the surface of things.

I know, I know. How fucking pretentious and twee can you get.

To start on a plot description in my review would be a waste of everyone's time. There's some excellent reviews already here on the site and some of them tackle the nuts and bolts a hell of a lot better than I could. Especially since this is a book with a wonderfully quicksand like concoction of a plot.

I want to make special note of the way Murakami is an expert at listing the mundane normal activities of daily life. In all of his books, there's at least one scene of a character making some kind of rudimentary meal, having a cup of coffee or a bottle of beer, and then relaxing while listening to either old jazz records or a Beatle's album. It should come off as boring, especially in a book about people with special healing powers and dream prostitutes and exotic torture sequences in World War II, but it never is. It just blends into the fabric of Murakami's simple but lovely oneiric writing.

The book continues another masterful trend in Murakami's books that I've always loved in that, on one level, it's a very slow, patient book that does have something of a plot, but it's all over the place with a passive narrator who slowly makes his way through it, making it easier and comfortable for the reader to venture along with him (even when he's not the most excited or active of protagonists). But then there's a deeper level, what I would almost say is a kind of second novel hidden within, written in tone and emotional resonance and really composed just for your subconscious to pick up on.

In a lot of ways, I feel that I can't write a normal review for the book, or that it's hard with Murakami's dream novels. Obiviously, they're just novels, intellectual constructs to breeze through and enjoy, but they're like walking through a person's brain and reminisces, navigating through their desires and their wounds, admiring their weird little ephemera all around you. Reading this novel, for me, was much like several of the character's paths in the book: They went into a place that was strange and new, both scary and amazing, and they found something and brought it out with them. In the sunlight, while examining it, they realized that something was their's.
]]> 22651409 Tue, 20 May 2008 18:31:35 -0700
author: Agatha Christie
name: Sam
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1946
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 22651201 Tue, 20 May 2008 18:28:56 -0700
author: Agatha Christie
name: Sam
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> 22612260 Tue, 20 May 2008 08:16:09 -0700
author: Warren Ellis
name: Sam
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels, flat-out-awesome
review:

]]> 22612211 Tue, 20 May 2008 08:15:46 -0700
author: Warren Ellis
name: Sam
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels, flat-out-awesome
review:

]]> 22603090 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:22:45 -0700
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Sam
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602857 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:13:55 -0700
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Sam
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602852 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:13:46 -0700
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Sam
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602847 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:13:28 -0700
author: James Blish
name: Sam
average rating: 3.29
book published: 1970
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602835 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:13:07 -0700
author: Diane Duane
name: Sam
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602784 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:11:24 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602769 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:10:39 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 22602761 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:10:04 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 22602742 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:09:21 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 22602731 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:08:50 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 22602722 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:08:16 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 22602711 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:07:56 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 22602705 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:07:43 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602697 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:07:27 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 22602692 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:07:06 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602690 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:06:57 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602685 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:06:39 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 22602671 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:06:27 -0700
author: Peter David
name: Sam
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: franchised-sci-fi
review:

]]> 20014865 Tue, 20 May 2008 05:05:11 -0700
author: Antony Johnston
name: Sam
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/20/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels, end-of-the-world-zeitgeist, speculative
review:

]]> 22553171 Mon, 19 May 2008 09:52:12 -0700
author: Dan Auiler
name: Sam
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/19/08
shelves: film
review:

]]> 22553140 Mon, 19 May 2008 09:51:35 -0700
author: Howard Koch
name: Sam
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/19/08
shelves: film
review:

]]> 22479111 Mon, 19 May 2008 09:43:56 -0700
author: Mat Johnson
name: Sam
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/19/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels, flat-out-awesome, history
review:

]]> 22552562 Mon, 19 May 2008 09:42:49 -0700
author: J. Michael Straczynski
name: Sam
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/19/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 22479359 Sun, 18 May 2008 07:59:20 -0700
author: Howard Sounes
name: Sam
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/18/08
shelves: bio, memoir, music
review:

]]> 22479339 Sun, 18 May 2008 07:58:34 -0700
author: Pattie Boyd
name: Sam
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/18/08
shelves: bio, memoir, music
review:

]]> 22463385 Sat, 17 May 2008 20:17:24 -0700
author: Jane Wilson-Howarth
name: Sam
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/17/08
shelves: travel
review:
Wow. Very informative.
]]> 22463313 Sat, 17 May 2008 20:14:48 -0700
author: Cliff Schecter
name: Sam
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 05/17/08
shelves: politics
review:

]]> 19674723 Thu, 15 May 2008 21:01:43 -0700
author: Robert Shea
name: Sam
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/15/08
shelves: end-of-the-world-zeitgeist, ergodic-fiction, speculative, wtf
review:

]]> 21426908 Thu, 01 May 2008 17:56:04 -0700
author: Brad Meltzer
name: Sam
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/01/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 21426869 Thu, 01 May 2008 17:55:29 -0700
author: Brad Meltzer
name: Sam
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/01/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 21236242 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:01:18 -0700
author: Bruce W. Watson
name: Sam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/29/08
shelves: history, politics
review:

]]> 20710372 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:43:44 -0700
author: Bryan Lee O'Malley
name: Sam
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels
review:

]]> 20710331 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:43:19 -0700
author: Warren Ellis
name: Sam
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels, speculative
review:

]]> 20710312 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:42:46 -0700
author: Warren Ellis
name: Sam
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels, speculative
review:

]]> 20710301 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:42:28 -0700
author: Warren Ellis
name: Sam
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/08
shelves: comics--graphic-novels, speculative
review:

]]> 20626342 Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:06:08 -0700
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Sam
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/21/08
shelves: memoir, travel
review:

]]> 20587131 Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:44:46 -0700
author: Leora Tanenbaum
name: Sam
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/20/08
shelves: people
review:

]]> 20443499 Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:51:14 -0700