http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/1080480 en-US Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:06:24 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 20112415 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:06:24 -0700
author: W.Y. Evans-Wentz
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/23/08
shelves: spirituality-mysticism
review:
Good, but not practical to us Westerners. I never did like the color orange in abundance.
]]> 21304716 Sat, 24 May 2008 15:19:10 -0700
author: James Baldwin
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/24/08
shelves: essays, politcs
review:
The essay form works well here. You can digest and absorb Baldwin in bits. An important read for understanding the writer with his later works. Baldwin was made larger than life by his contemporary critics - in retrospect, he deserved it. An important American writer.
]]> 21619337 Sat, 24 May 2008 15:17:40 -0700
author: Franz Schulze
name: Patrick\
average rating: 1.00
book published: 1899
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 05/24/08
shelves: architecture, fascinating-trash
review:
Beuatifully orthogonal, meticulously detailed, and the most sterile, anti-human campus in America. Even a single dandelion is starkly out of place here.
]]> 20110800 Sat, 24 May 2008 15:13:42 -0700
author: George MacDonald Fraser
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/24/08
shelves: faux-history
review:
And what a lady she is! Flashman as always is back to his old tricks, trouble, and world changing history.
]]> 21679365 Sat, 24 May 2008 15:11:27 -0700
author: Gore Vidal
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1973
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 05/24/08
shelves: faux-history, novels
review:
A well written twisting of history. Hamilton was a seer, competent and ambitious, that is all - well, maybe a bit of an Anglophile. Burr was a scoundrel (old sense).
]]> 22886007 Sat, 24 May 2008 15:10:35 -0700
From Federal style, through Greek Revival, into the Brown Decades following the Civil War and ending with the neo-classical, it's all here, photos for each survivor.

If you like New York City, have an affection for Brooklyn, and simply enjoy architecture, this is a must.



]]>
author: Clay Lancaster
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at: 01/08
date added: 05/24/08
shelves:
review:
An architectural survey of extant buildings from 1820 (the first remaining)through the 1890's, this little volume is a worthy addition to the building of the City. Domestic architecture always takes a back seat to the monumental, but not here. Once we stopped tearing down our heritage, we ended up with this small enclave in the City, and though its period integrity is broken, the remaining remnants are considerable in number.

From Federal style, through Greek Revival, into the Brown Decades following the Civil War and ending with the neo-classical, it's all here, photos for each survivor.

If you like New York City, have an affection for Brooklyn, and simply enjoy architecture, this is a must.




]]> 22350103 Thu, 15 May 2008 23:33:47 -0700
author: St. Benedict
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/15/08
shelves: christianity
review:
If you like getting in line, this is for you. Observing members of many an order living rather indolent lives in a monestary while others supplied them with food, drink, and (mostly) women, Benedict put the hammer down. A singular concentration to bring the "Force" down and into the world was noble, but here suffocatingly rigid. But I did not live then (I think), so it is not for me to complain when considering this little volume in historical context - but for today?
]]> 22350064 Thu, 15 May 2008 23:27:26 -0700
I would have been dead 500 miles in. ]]>
author: Meriwether Lewis
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/15/08
shelves:
review:
An amazing tale, all true. Not one of the fantasy up-the-hill down-the-hill works filling the checkout.

I would have been dead 500 miles in.
]]> 22348915 Thu, 15 May 2008 23:13:23 -0700
]]>
author: Gavin Menzies
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/15/08
shelves: science, world-history
review:
A bit hard to figure where to place this book. Is it historical or is it historical interpretation or misinterpretation? Did Bao, Wang, Qing and Man split off from the Cape Verde Islands with Wen brining the Cherokee Rose plant to N. America, along with some male DNA? That China explored intentionally or unintentionally the West Coast of the continent has more physical eveidence of support. That the entire coastal areas of the continents, less Europe and Antarctica - but including Greenland - were mapped as result of a grand fleet is argued for in this well documented work. It's a half and half sort of result in my view - some of it true, some not but pushed to the fore with scanty evidence and much interpretation. Gets you thinking. China has been an odd place of brilliant invention and daring followed by Egyptian-like aridity of idea and a closed border. Still, what an amazing history.


]]> 22215183 Wed, 14 May 2008 01:11:31 -0700
Druid in your background? Not a bad genetic pool to be from. Work is readable but dryish, some repeats, some pushing of the factual envelope. Should be your primary source for investigating this topic, but there can be no avoiding the multiplicity of Druidic trash past and present still for sale at our local bookstores, unless you enjoy make believe and dress-up.

No mention of Celts inventing the modern scissors, which they did. Pity. Oh, and they invented soap, that mentioned.]]>
author: Peter Berresford Ellis
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/14/08
shelves: british-history, world-history
review:
An unusual apology, meticulous in its sourcing, but somewhat strange in its advocacy: the Druids were a caste as in the Hindu system of social structure, and probably hereditary. Not the magicians and purveyors of human sacrifice (only one mention of it in all celtic sources, and that spurious!) Points out the sham reconstruction of Druidism (if there ever was such a thing) and the white robes and shallow spiritual posturing found in wannabees of today. Topics cover all aspect of a Celtic intelligentsia caste, the historical digging vast and virtually every Celtic source investigated.

Druid in your background? Not a bad genetic pool to be from. Work is readable but dryish, some repeats, some pushing of the factual envelope. Should be your primary source for investigating this topic, but there can be no avoiding the multiplicity of Druidic trash past and present still for sale at our local bookstores, unless you enjoy make believe and dress-up.

No mention of Celts inventing the modern scissors, which they did. Pity. Oh, and they invented soap, that mentioned.
]]> 20273635 Mon, 05 May 2008 22:13:08 -0700
author: Jane Guskin
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 05/08
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: commentary, politcs
review:
Incomplete, but the arguments for immigration reform, though one-sided, are good. However, to use an example that is off topic but makes things clearer: if Russia wants Abkhazia independent of Georgia, then Georgia should say OK on condition Chechneya becomes independent of Russia. You know the answer here. It is never a one-way push where fairness is called for. Dual conditions need to be searched then the dialogue can work for all.
]]> 20808977 Mon, 05 May 2008 22:05:06 -0700
author: Diarmaid MacCulloch
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: biography, christianity
review:
He walked the line, sometimes more than one, but did his best. A brilliant, learned man, gifted in spiritual pragmatism, and his legacy endures.
]]> 21681135 Mon, 05 May 2008 22:02:39 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: children, novels
review:
The education of Harry Potter continues with Rowling more assured in her writing and editing. A terrific series; good movies.
]]> 21681036 Mon, 05 May 2008 22:00:42 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: children, novels
review:
A bit amateurish with grammar and flow, but a terrific story. What a vivd imagination and understanding of children. If you don't read the book, see the movie.
]]> 21680463 Mon, 05 May 2008 21:54:02 -0700
author: Studs Terkel
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: american-history, memoirs, non-fiction
review:
Turkel is the master of the interview mixed with insightful commentary. What a read!
]]> 21680644 Mon, 05 May 2008 21:53:05 -0700
author: Frank Norris
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: economics, novels, politcs
review:
When trappeed in a filling wheat bin - a lasting image and 'Biblical' moral. The book moves slowly, but then books of the time did so. Still, the narrative moves along and keeps one interested.
]]> 21680152 Mon, 05 May 2008 21:47:22 -0700
author: Studs Terkel
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: american-history, memoirs, non-fiction
review:
Interviews with and commentary about incredibly normal, but, in fact, societal changing people. About us. Journalistic in style in that it moves quickly and never boring. It's good to now-and-then reaffirm that we live in something of a caring community.
]]> 21679605 Mon, 05 May 2008 21:32:34 -0700
author: Carl Sandburg
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: poetry
review:
Lyrical with muscle - an uneven, but grabbing poem of us.
]]> 21616173 Mon, 05 May 2008 21:30:04 -0700
author: Swami Chetanananda
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1995
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: biography, fascinating-trash, spirituality-mysticism
review:
So what goes wrong when an Eastern ascetic plops his butt down on the beach at Oceanside? More than a smile. This chapter is missing.
]]> 21619444 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:26:55 -0700
author: Donald Albrecht
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: art, furniture
review:
Brilliant furniture designers.
]]> 20817972 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:26:49 -0700
author: Mary Renault
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: novels
review:
Ahead of its time with all the narrative excellence Renault brings to all her works. I leave others for in-depth reviews as many are supurbly insightful.
]]> 20818984 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:26:01 -0700
author: Nevil Shute
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: novels
review:
A spearhead book for the anti-nuclear weapons movement. The end as we know it, the end of us. Frightening in its time, not so much anymore - we have grown immune to the horros of unleased fission.
]]> 20818640 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:25:29 -0700
author: Frank McCourt
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: memoirs
review:
Vivid misery as only an Irish author could write.
]]> 20819359 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:23:52 -0700
author: Carson McCullers
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: novels
review:
Gut-wrenching, people on the outs, really on the outs, and in the depression-era South (when is it not the depression era South?). A brilliant, compassionate tale with all the vividness of character we come to expect from our best southern writers. (There are so many of them! Why?) A gem.
]]> 20948860 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:23:38 -0700
author: Peter Tremayne
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: mysteries
review:

]]> 21304326 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:22:41 -0700
author: James Baldwin
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: novels
review:
Still hs best work, I believe. Holds up better than most older celebrated works. A very important read in its time, life changing in its own small way to many.
]]> 21616861 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:19:23 -0700
author: James Jones
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: novels
review:
Enduring and morphing as a person in combat. A male, somewhat existential work of intensity, crisp and realistic dialogue, vivd in setting, with a Sartian-like close. This is a great book.
]]> 21617215 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:19:10 -0700
author: Irwin Shaw
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: novels
review:
A bit below Thin Red Line in my rating system, but a gripping read of three men in war.
]]> 21617704 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:18:55 -0700
author: James Joyce
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1914
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: short-stories
review:
I really liked this collection. Brilliant writing. Not a disappointment in the lot. A literary bar was put in place with its publication that has, I think, been matched with rarity but not exceeded.
]]> 21618707 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:17:48 -0700
author: Lewis Carroll
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1871
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: human-behaviour, novels
review:
Always whacky yet always relevant. It's sustainability gets curioser and curioser. Nothing more than this short review as I must move down - oops, on.
]]> 21618775 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:17:14 -0700
author: Edna Ferber
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: novels
review:
3.5 stars: An epic family tale - and an internal feminist story line to go with it. Clash of a regressive patriarchal culture in a world that moves on. The sweep of content and place is grand; the writing first-rate.
]]> 21619130 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:17:03 -0700
author: Paul Clemence
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: architecture
review:
Other than Johnson's glass house (which is not as good), this is the ultimate domestic statement of glass and plane. It follows from his Barcelone pavillion spacial concepts(a masterpiece) translated as house. A national treasure. The house must be visited as the photos in the book are works of art in themselves, and consequently are lies.
]]> 21619258 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:16:52 -0700
author: Josep Quetglas
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: architecture, art
review:
To architects everywhere at the time an earth-shaking apparition. Ultimate simplicity, beautiful materials, planes and textures and light. Decoration abolished. A new way of doing things brought into reality from vann der Rohe, the master of joints an of minimalist detail. This structure is still more modern than any building around today.
]]> 21619484 Mon, 05 May 2008 01:09:55 -0700
author: Philip Johnson
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: architecture
review:
A parallel statement to van der Rohe of the glass house, The setting includes a couple other Johnson buildings that take away, somewhat, from the truly dramatic effect this crystaline gem presents. Can one really live in a glass house? Without blinds?
]]> 21619383 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:58:32 -0700
author: Christiane Lange
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: architecture, furniture
review:
Amazing and timeless furniture. Chrome meets minimalism.
]]> 21619341 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:53:57 -0700
author: Werner Blaser
name: Patrick\
average rating: 1.00
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: architecture
review:
From the genius of the minimalist detail man, van der Rohe, comes this orthogonal wasteland of a campus. Glass and steel and clipped lawns alongside blacktop parking areas. A more soul stealing set of buildings could not be imagined. Unbelievable!
]]> 21618995 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:39:57 -0700
author: Le Corbusier
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: architecture, philosophy
review:
It gets 3 stars but not for the validity of its content. Corbusier helped shape urban planning in a most disasterous way - abandoned in the West by the mid-70s (except France) and in the East only with the fall of Communism. An important read to understand a post-WW2 approach to the massive relocation and emplacement of people in an urban setting. In counterbalance, read Huxtable and Mumford - even Ebeneezer Howard.
]]> 21619036 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:38:09 -0700
author: E. Stoller
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: architecture, art
review:
Absolutely Corbusier's best work. Small, well sited, and powerful in its ability to express spiritual energy. A work of art as well as great architecture.
]]> 21618918 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:31:09 -0700
His father, Eliel, still has going and largely undisturbed, Cranbrook Academy in Michigan - well worth a visit for a spatial, textural soak. ]]>
author: Pierluigi Serraino
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: architecture, art
review:
Now he is called a structural expressionist. I wondered when they could place this genius of unrepeated form into a category. The TWA terminal has been bastardized, along with Dulles, but the St. Louis arch reamins untainted. He definitely was an expressionist, but one of great understanding of function and function's realationship to the 'us.' Unlike Van der Rohe with his sterile campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, Saarinen created to express the 'us' of our time. Not much more to be said.

His father, Eliel, still has going and largely undisturbed, Cranbrook Academy in Michigan - well worth a visit for a spatial, textural soak.
]]> 21618849 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:22:07 -0700
author: G.K. Chesterton
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: mysteries, short-stories
review:
Nobody does notice the postman. Chesterton is a keen observer of 'us.' Always a bit of a moral included, as well as a word or two of true wisdom. Though the stories are dated in their physical social setting, they are a bit more than just fun reads. Recommended.
]]> 21618690 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:11:00 -0700
author: Lewis Carroll
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1872
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: poetry, politcs
review:
Substitute Bush and Cheney. Makes for a more contemporary read.
]]> 21618592 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:09:45 -0700
And they went to sea in a sieve."

Probably wrong a bit here and there, but it's what I remember. I believe an intelligent, educated, wry mind works this way on opium.

"And when the sieve went round and round/ And everyone shouted, 'You'll all be drowned!' ... "

Well, it's for you to pick this gem of a book up and read it. A pleasurable diversion from serious stuff - unless you're a nihilist and consequently will find great meaning here.]]>
author: Edward Lear
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: fascinating-trash, poetry
review:
"Far and few, far and few/ Are the lands where the Jumblies live/ Their hands are green and their heads are blue/

And they went to sea in a sieve."

Probably wrong a bit here and there, but it's what I remember. I believe an intelligent, educated, wry mind works this way on opium.

"And when the sieve went round and round/ And everyone shouted, 'You'll all be drowned!' ... "

Well, it's for you to pick this gem of a book up and read it. A pleasurable diversion from serious stuff - unless you're a nihilist and consequently will find great meaning here.
]]> 21618556 Mon, 05 May 2008 00:01:53 -0700
"There was an old lady/ Lived under a hill/ If she's not dead/ She lives there still.

That's Mother Goose.]]>
author: Blanche Fisher Wright
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1916
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/05/08
shelves: children, poetry
review:
A book that won't disappear. The best of rhyme in sound and cadence - content meaning largely obscure.

"There was an old lady/ Lived under a hill/ If she's not dead/ She lives there still.

That's Mother Goose.
]]> 21618371 Sun, 04 May 2008 23:55:30 -0700
author: Sean O'Casey
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.12
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/04/08
shelves: plays
review:
Interpersonal troubles, some political, of the Irish kind in Ireland. O'Casey is an Irish master of the cadences of spoken English. The Irish do it best.
]]> 21617919 Sun, 04 May 2008 23:49:11 -0700
author: James Joyce
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1939
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/04/08
shelves: novels
review:
A book to pick up for an any-place start and any-place end when I want my brain twisted and memory tested. Read Ulysses first.
]]> 21618018 Sun, 04 May 2008 23:48:28 -0700
author: Sean O'Casey
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/04/08
shelves: plays
review:
A hard-hitting work by a hard-drinking playwriter. I give it a 3 star, but probably would give it higher if I ever saw it on the stage. I like the cadence and timber of his language - it is very good.
]]> 21617606 Sun, 04 May 2008 23:38:46 -0700
author: James Joyce
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/04/08
shelves: novels
review:
I can add little to others who review here, except to note I think it a great novel. My one reservation with Joyce is I detect an ongoing bit of arrogant showmanship - a characteristic I dislike in an author.
]]> 21617363 Sun, 04 May 2008 23:34:47 -0700
author: Irwin Shaw
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/04/08
shelves: short-stories
review:
Lots of tales, fine craftsmanship, plenty of male hormones woven within the gifted language of Shaw. Some good, some not so good, but many terrific reads. My kind of book.
]]> 21615976 Sun, 04 May 2008 23:08:23 -0700
author: Jane Austen
name: Patrick\
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1813
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 05/04/08
shelves: novels
review:
Can't ever get through an Austin book. Others in the family read and re-read and re-re-read her. She must be good or this would be aberrant behavior.
]]> 21615607 Sun, 04 May 2008 23:04:23 -0700
author: William Shakespeare
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1597
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/04/08
shelves: plays
review:
A great work that has been over-played but not played-out.
]]> 21615308 Sun, 04 May 2008 23:01:15 -0700
author: William Shakespeare
name: Patrick\
average rating: 3.27
book published: 1623
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 05/04/08
shelves: fascinating-trash, plays
review:
If this was written by the Bard, well ... I'll write this blurb. Terrible, ugly, bloody play. There is death galore in S's works, but not quite like this. Poisonous little play.
]]> 20276291 Sun, 04 May 2008 22:51:19 -0700