http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/126224 en-US Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:55:56 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 29858072 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:55:56 -0700
author: Dore Schary
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 1.75
book published: 1998
rating: 1
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/12/08
shelves:
review:
I read this for the descriptions of life at the Roosevelt cottage on Campobello Island. The play itself is a very mild, idealised portrayal of the domestic life of a powerful family, and entirely uncritical.
]]> 29900562 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 20:46:49 -0700
author: Michael Chabon
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/12/08
shelves: library
review:

]]> 29899824 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:22:05 -0700 Persepolis movie put me in mind to read Marjane Satrapi's other semi-autobiographical book. Embroideries; a crazy quilt of women's stories, stitched together in coarse embroidery stitches. Embroideries: a decorative art, a way of telling stories, and the process by which a hymen is repaired so that an Iranian woman can hide her sexual experiences and appear a virgin so that she can marry a more conservative man. Each of these three kinds of embroidery is a ruse, a way of hiding depths, secrets, flaws. The book is much like this: it appears a retelling of women's most superficial conversations, but turns out to be so much more. ]]>
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/11/08
shelves: library
review:
Finally seeing the Persepolis movie put me in mind to read Marjane Satrapi's other semi-autobiographical book. Embroideries; a crazy quilt of women's stories, stitched together in coarse embroidery stitches. Embroideries: a decorative art, a way of telling stories, and the process by which a hymen is repaired so that an Iranian woman can hide her sexual experiences and appear a virgin so that she can marry a more conservative man. Each of these three kinds of embroidery is a ruse, a way of hiding depths, secrets, flaws. The book is much like this: it appears a retelling of women's most superficial conversations, but turns out to be so much more.
]]> 29373354 Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:02:32 -0700
She won the Governor General's Literary Award twice. Why are all her books out of print?]]>
author: Gwendolyn Macewan
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1969
rating: 4
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/09/08
shelves:
review:
To me, Gwendolyn MacEwan is to Canada is as Seamus Heaney is to Ireland, rooting around in the country's soil to find its darkness, its beauty, its myths, and shaping this into something that speaks of the contemporary land. MacEwan's poems are haunted by the power of nature and the smallness of humankind. There's something fundamentally Canadian in the strange spirituality of her poems. I love it.

She won the Governor General's Literary Award twice. Why are all her books out of print?
]]> 29302020 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:52:54 -0700
author: Wayne Johnston
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 29058917 Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:35:10 -0700
author: Arthur Miller
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1949
rating: 3
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 28406755 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:49:31 -0700 The Gravesavers, but a strong step into adult fiction from a writer best known for her playful children's poetry. ]]>
author: Sheree Fitch
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 0.00
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 08/02/08
shelves:
review:
What I loved about this book is that 'Odell' is so clearly Fredericton that I could trace Mercy-Beth's movements through the city on a map. This is a sweet, funny book - not as strong as The Gravesavers, but a strong step into adult fiction from a writer best known for her playful children's poetry.
]]> 29001927 Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:46:32 -0700
author: Hammond Innes
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1985
rating: 2
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/02/08
shelves:
review:
The novel is suspenseful enough, and the unconventional setting makes it fascinating. An easy book to read - it drew me right in and spat me out the other end. But the blatant racism of the narrator made me extremely uncomfortable. Though it was certainly realistic for both the period the book was set in, and the time in which it was written, the comments concerning the savagery of Native and French Canadian characters were extremely off-putting.
]]> 29001824 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:02:48 -0700
author: Veronika Gervers
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 08/08
date added: 08/01/08
shelves:
review:
This is a fascinating, thoroughly researched study. The essay itself is only about 35 pages long, touching upon trade, garments, embroidery, and carpets, but it includes extensive glossaries, chronologies, bibliographies, and photographs. It focuses particularly on Hungary and Romania (Transylvania), but also considers many other regions. It's a worthwhile source to anyone who is interested in eastern European textiles.
]]> 27594826 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:50:17 -0700
author: E. Annie Proulx
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/30/08
shelves:
review:
A cheerful book about mourning. The writing is beautiful and the plot, compelling, but it just doesn't feel like Newfoundland to me. It's a reasonably well researched Romantic's Newfoundland imagined from tourist brochures and sea shanties. Points for the David Blackwood etching on the cover.
]]> 27594020 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:34:58 -0700
author: Katherine Govier
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 2.86
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/25/08
shelves:
review:
John James Audubon and Captain Bayfield of the Royal Navy, artists and explorers, sail up the labrador coast charting wildlife and geography. The dialogue is stylised and impressionistic, but this works in a book that is essentially about art and creativity. I adored this book.
]]> 26735205 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:39:15 -0700
Will stories of quirky entrepreneurs carving a living for themselves along Newfoundland's fishless shores become a new local trope? It would sit nicely next to the shelves of stories of adventure, exploration, and survival against all odds. ]]>
author: Edward Riche
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/18/08
shelves:
review:
A quick, enjoyable read. Dave is a deliciously flawed character, and Phonse's schemes and paranoias are brilliant and hilarious. Gourmet food may not fill a dream restaurant in Newfoundland, but a rare bird sighting certainly will. May you and your projects never attract the attention of the Winnebago corporation.

Will stories of quirky entrepreneurs carving a living for themselves along Newfoundland's fishless shores become a new local trope? It would sit nicely next to the shelves of stories of adventure, exploration, and survival against all odds.
]]> 27593902 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:28:46 -0700
Is it Crime & Punishment or is it Hamlet? Alex, the disgraced adopted nephew of the tyrannical business baron in this corner of Northern New Brunswick (a failed academic and a priest too pathetic even to be defrocked) discovers that his uncle has won a $13,000,000 jackpot, and decides that his uncle must never see that money. With $13,000,000, finally, Alex imagines himself realizing his dreams, becoming a true humanitarian, respected by English, French, and Native alike. Leo, a poor French labourer, who bullied Alex on the schoolbus as a child, but later tried to emulate him, discovers Alex's plan and blackmails him into a share. They need to claim the money without anyone knowing they've stolen the ticket. This is when innocent people die.

The book, it rambles. From the introduction of this ticket plot to two hundred pages laying out Alex's failure as a priest and his disgrace as an academic, back into the ticket plot, and oh yeah, there's romance, too. Four hundred pages of inaction, and ultimately inaction saves the day. Thank goodness there's David Adams Richards to remind us that whether educated or not, whether striving, or merely struggling to get by, there is so little hope, that any success is a miracle. ]]>
author: David Adams Richards
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 2.00
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/18/08
shelves:
review:
On bad days, I know that I'm a character in a David Adams Richards novel: arrogant, insecure, and utterly ineffective. His books are nothing if not inspiration to finish a project or two, fulfill a promise, send out a birthday gift on time rather than six months too late.

Is it Crime & Punishment or is it Hamlet? Alex, the disgraced adopted nephew of the tyrannical business baron in this corner of Northern New Brunswick (a failed academic and a priest too pathetic even to be defrocked) discovers that his uncle has won a $13,000,000 jackpot, and decides that his uncle must never see that money. With $13,000,000, finally, Alex imagines himself realizing his dreams, becoming a true humanitarian, respected by English, French, and Native alike. Leo, a poor French labourer, who bullied Alex on the schoolbus as a child, but later tried to emulate him, discovers Alex's plan and blackmails him into a share. They need to claim the money without anyone knowing they've stolen the ticket. This is when innocent people die.

The book, it rambles. From the introduction of this ticket plot to two hundred pages laying out Alex's failure as a priest and his disgrace as an academic, back into the ticket plot, and oh yeah, there's romance, too. Four hundred pages of inaction, and ultimately inaction saves the day. Thank goodness there's David Adams Richards to remind us that whether educated or not, whether striving, or merely struggling to get by, there is so little hope, that any success is a miracle.
]]> 24216571 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:02 -0700
author: Pico Iyer
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 06/08
date added: 07/18/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 24216614 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:59:46 -0700
author: Italo Calvino
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 06/08
date added: 07/17/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 27593850 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:59:12 -0700
author: Jerome K. Jerome
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1889
rating: 3
read at: 07/08
date added: 07/17/08
shelves: borrowed
review:

]]> 24216597 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:55:05 -0700
author: Tom Stoppard
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/26/08
shelves:
review:
Every time I read a play by Tom Stoppard, I feel reborn.
]]> 24013332 Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:53:52 -0700
author: Pico Iyer
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/26/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 23803002 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:52:37 -0700
author: Noel Streatfeild
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 23802964 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:28:26 -0700
author: David Levithan
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 06/08
date added: 06/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 23802876 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:27:25 -0700
author: Terry Pratchett
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 06/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 21272033 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:26:33 -0700
author: Dave Barry
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at: 05/08
date added: 06/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 8309740 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:23:57 -0700
author: Doris May Lessing
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1989
rating: 2
read at: 10/07
date added: 06/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20564681 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:22:52 -0700
author: Sarah Vowell
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 06/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 10739109 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:22:24 -0700
author: Milan Kundera
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 06/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 11436542 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:15:59 -0700
author: Noah Richler
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 05/08
date added: 06/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 20951921 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:44:00 -0700
author: Tom Stoppard
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/25/08
shelves: audiobooks
review:
The best thing I've listened to in ages. Gardening, the Picturesque, Lord Byron, mathematics, and literary research all rolled into one. I was so engrossed I almost got run over by a bus.
]]> 20160103 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:30:22 -0700
author: Meg Cabot
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/17/08
shelves:
review:
It's true, chick-lit *does* taste better in a language you only have an intermediate understanding of.
]]> 19722595 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:33:09 -0700
author: Paul Theroux
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/17/08
shelves:
review:
Loved it.
]]> 19016327 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:55:05 -0700
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/08/08
shelves:
review:
Emotionally manipulative and unsubtle, yet I still enjoyed it.
]]> 19721439 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:51:58 -0700 otaku.

I did enjoy finding out a thing or two I didn't know (but suspected) about Mobile Suit Gundam, among other texts, though the number of errors in the book, obvious even to one as un-knowledgeable in the field as I am, lowered his credibility. I'll check before I cite anything I read as fact.]]>
author: Peter Carey
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/08/08
shelves:
review:
Peter Carey went to Japan because his son likes manga, and because he's Peter Carey and he's got a good agent, scored interviews with a who's who of Japanese comics writers. The book might be more successful if Carey had been more willing to abandon his preconceptions about Japan, to accept it when his understanding of Japan is corrected, or to open his mind to youth culture; an interest in text-messaging and video games does not make one an otaku.

I did enjoy finding out a thing or two I didn't know (but suspected) about Mobile Suit Gundam, among other texts, though the number of errors in the book, obvious even to one as un-knowledgeable in the field as I am, lowered his credibility. I'll check before I cite anything I read as fact.
]]> 19016041 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:18:52 -0700
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at: 03/08
date added: 03/30/08
shelves:
review:
Well, that was a disappointment.
]]> 10739298 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:15:55 -0700
author: Walter Benjamin
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 03/08
date added: 03/30/08
shelves: lent
review:

]]> 11436520 Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:18:27 -0800
author: Thomas Wharton
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/14/08
shelves:
review:
So far: compelling ideas, less compelling storytelling; I'm never completely immersed in this book. Occasional exquisite turns of phrase. Borges influence obvious; am undecided whether they are heavy-handed. Clockwork castle! Wow!
]]> 8309653 Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:29:18 -0800 Der Vorleser by Bernard Schlink, but in a much simpler manner, appropriate for a much younger audience. ]]>
author: Denis Lachaud
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 02/07
date added: 02/11/08
shelves:
review:
Ernst, raised in France, seeks his family history, veiled by a generation of silence, and finds his identity as a German (Allemand) and as a homosexual, through his relationship to a friend he meets on a school exchange to Germany. This is a book about the third generation - the grandchildren of the Nazis - and the ways that collective guilt, whether spoken of or not, shapes their experience of the world and understandings of themselves. It echoes some of the ideas explored in Der Vorleser by Bernard Schlink, but in a much simpler manner, appropriate for a much younger audience.
]]> 13840703 Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:31:02 -0800
author: Bernhard Schlink
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 02/08
date added: 02/05/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 12770704 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:50:27 -0800 Alone in the Appalachians didn't, is that it's a story about the trail rather than about the hiker. Bryson, who is not a rugged outdoors man but isn't whiny, either, speaks for the trail and about the trail, rather than using the trail as a jumping-off point for ruminations about his own identity. I was disappointed that he didn't include more about the White Moutains in New Hampshire, which sparked my own obsession with the trail, but I can deal with that. Other books about the AT will fill that gap. ]]>
author: Bill Bryson
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.58
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/17/08
shelves:
review:
Bryson still isn't my favourite writer, but I did enjoy this one. Could be the subject matter. I loved, among other things, his rants about the forest service, Katz (as a character), Centralia, and how he manages to write a book about hiking the Appalachian trail, completing less than half of it, and still leave me satisfied. Perhaps what makes this book work where Alone in the Appalachians didn't, is that it's a story about the trail rather than about the hiker. Bryson, who is not a rugged outdoors man but isn't whiny, either, speaks for the trail and about the trail, rather than using the trail as a jumping-off point for ruminations about his own identity. I was disappointed that he didn't include more about the White Moutains in New Hampshire, which sparked my own obsession with the trail, but I can deal with that. Other books about the AT will fill that gap.
]]> 10739310 Mon, 14 Jan 2008 01:35:37 -0800
author: Jamie O'Neill
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 01/08
date added: 01/14/08
shelves:
review:
Stars awarded for the way this man forms a sentence.
]]> 11198858 Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:08:48 -0800
author: Elizabeth Hay
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 12/07
date added: 01/01/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 11250160 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:10:35 -0800
author: Jason
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/29/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11198892 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:09:49 -0800
author: Thomas King
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/29/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11198775 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:09:57 -0800
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/28/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 11022748 Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:08:35 -0800
author: Stephen Colbert
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/26/07
shelves:
review:
I laughed 'til I cried. It deserves four stars for the ab workout, at least.
]]> 10924088 Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:03:15 -0800
author: David Byrne
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 12/23/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 10860386 Sat, 22 Dec 2007 04:07:07 -0800
author: Robert Nye
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 10739281 Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:28:13 -0800
Dykstra's writing style is terrible; she's whiny, self-indulgent, superficial in her characterisation of the people she meets, and trite in her descriptions of the landscape. If writing involves stringing one cliche phrase after another, then Dykstra is a skilled writer. Given her lack of hiking experience, one wonders why Raincoast Books offered her the contract to write this book. Still, her research is thorough, and the Essential Guide, at the back of the book, is well laid out, so I would recommend this book to anyone planning to hike the IAT. Rather than lessening her credibility, Dykstra's mistakes suggest (to me, at least) that this hike would be difficult, but not impossible. She learned. Anyone following in her footsteps can learn from her. If I'm hanging onto this book, it's for the information it contains. The photography is also beautiful.]]>
author: Monique Dykstra
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/21/07
shelves:
review:
With Amazon as my witness, I've had this book on my to-read list for over two years. Hiking the Appalachian Trail, or at least portions of it, is a dream of mine, and this memoir of a city girl's trek through the Canadian portions of the trail, seemed to promise a vicarious experience that might satisfy me until I find the time and money to invest in the project.

Dykstra's writing style is terrible; she's whiny, self-indulgent, superficial in her characterisation of the people she meets, and trite in her descriptions of the landscape. If writing involves stringing one cliche phrase after another, then Dykstra is a skilled writer. Given her lack of hiking experience, one wonders why Raincoast Books offered her the contract to write this book. Still, her research is thorough, and the Essential Guide, at the back of the book, is well laid out, so I would recommend this book to anyone planning to hike the IAT. Rather than lessening her credibility, Dykstra's mistakes suggest (to me, at least) that this hike would be difficult, but not impossible. She learned. Anyone following in her footsteps can learn from her. If I'm hanging onto this book, it's for the information it contains. The photography is also beautiful.
]]> 5149691 Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:27:12 -0800
author: Umberto Eco
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/20/07
shelves:
review:
More interesting for the reproductions of old Italian books and comics and for the perspective it offers into Italian fascism than for the story. Not a riveting read.
]]> 8309612 Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:25:26 -0800
author: Wladimir Kaminer
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 09/07
date added: 12/20/07
shelves:
review:
Short, comic vignettes about Berlin. A pleasant read. Nothing deep. Not too difficult for language-learners. Like me.
]]> 10739102 Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:19:33 -0800
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 12/07
date added: 12/20/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 9749439 Mon, 10 Dec 2007 05:58:07 -0800
The book, put together from interviews with Christiane F., a teenaged heroin addict, her mother, and authorities working to fight drug use in West Berlin in the 1970s, follows Christiane from her early childhood, when she was abused by her father, who was an alcoholic, to her teenage years, when, desperately hoping for acceptance and love, she sank deeper and deeper into the club scene around the Ku'damm, with all the associated drug problems. By the time Christiane figured out that addiction doesn't make you cool, she was hooked, selling herself for 40 marks a go at the Bahnhof Zoo to maintain her habit. Christiane doesn't romanticize or preach (which distinguishes this book from others of its kind), but lets her experiences serve as a warning in themselves. Though I found it impossible to sympathise with her, I found the book completely riveting. ]]>
author: Christiane F.
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 11/07
date added: 12/10/07
shelves:
review:
Living in Rudow and commuting to work through Gropiusstadt, it struck me that I should know the memoir that the neighbourhoods are famous for.

The book, put together from interviews with Christiane F., a teenaged heroin addict, her mother, and authorities working to fight drug use in West Berlin in the 1970s, follows Christiane from her early childhood, when she was abused by her father, who was an alcoholic, to her teenage years, when, desperately hoping for acceptance and love, she sank deeper and deeper into the club scene around the Ku'damm, with all the associated drug problems. By the time Christiane figured out that addiction doesn't make you cool, she was hooked, selling herself for 40 marks a go at the Bahnhof Zoo to maintain her habit. Christiane doesn't romanticize or preach (which distinguishes this book from others of its kind), but lets her experiences serve as a warning in themselves. Though I found it impossible to sympathise with her, I found the book completely riveting.
]]> 9667294 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:45:39 -0800
author: Charles Dickens
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1843
rating: 3
read at: 11/07
date added: 11/28/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 9057821 Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:00:19 -0800
- From the Biographical and Critical Notes by E. L. Epstein]]>
author: William Golding
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1954
rating: 1
read at: 11/07
date added: 11/13/07
shelves:
review:
"The entire incident forms a horrid parody of an Oedipal wedding night; these emotions, the sensations aroused by murder and death, and the overpowering and unaccustomed emotions of sexual love experienced by the half-grown boys, plus their own irrational fears and blind terrors, release the forces of death and the devil on the island."

- From the Biographical and Critical Notes by E. L. Epstein
]]> 8445740 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:55:23 -0700
I was especially taken by the story about Mary, Queen of Scots, trying to kill Queen Elizabeth with embroidery. ]]>
author: Susanna Clarke
name: The Acrobat
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 09/07
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
A stranger in Dussman's KulturKaufhaus told me that this book is not as good as Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. She was wrong.

I was especially taken by the story about Mary, Queen of Scots, trying to kill Queen Elizabeth with embroidery.
]]> 8309771 Sat, 27 Oct 2007 07:14:08 -0700