http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/52734 en-US Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:20:01 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 2554643 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:20:01 -0700
The exploration of sexuality, individuality, and institutionalism is so deliciously concieved and executed in this book.

Better yet, it is beautifully written, which is rare in a sci-fi work of this depth and scope.

Wilhelm has given the world a truly relevant and insightful piece of work. ]]>
author: Kate Wilhelm
name: francesca
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/22/08
shelves:
review:
After a mysterious blight literally wipes out global populations, one economically/socially/intellectually prominent family manages to survive and perpetuate life on their farm by cloning themselves.

The exploration of sexuality, individuality, and institutionalism is so deliciously concieved and executed in this book.

Better yet, it is beautifully written, which is rare in a sci-fi work of this depth and scope.

Wilhelm has given the world a truly relevant and insightful piece of work.
]]> 26469936 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:56:05 -0700
author: Margaret Atwood
name: francesca
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 01/99
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:
It's been a zillion years since I read this, but I remember it being creeeepy. And hauntingly good.
]]> 26469727 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:55:08 -0700
Atwood manages to be delightfully funny in spite of fairly grim subject manner.

Sidenote: I really wanted the protagonist to "get some" because it just seemed like he deserved a break. ]]>
author: Margaret Atwood
name: francesca
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:
Fun, slightly zany depiction of an apocalypse created by a future mankind too dependent on technology to extricate themselves from its stranglehold.

Atwood manages to be delightfully funny in spite of fairly grim subject manner.

Sidenote: I really wanted the protagonist to "get some" because it just seemed like he deserved a break.
]]> 26469509 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:51:12 -0700
author: Jack Kerouac
name: francesca
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1957
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 26469396 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:50:58 -0700
Seriously. ]]>
author: Jane Jacobs
name: francesca
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:
All planners and architects should be required to read this before college and then once more before they are allowed to practice.

Seriously.
]]> 26468958 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:48:33 -0700
Yawn. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. ]]>
author: Janet N. Abramovitz
name: francesca
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 11/07
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:
Of course I will the only person on earth to write a review for a reference book... but screw it, Abramovitz is a great resource for any future disaster professionals.

Yawn. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
]]> 26468678 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:44:42 -0700
So there. ]]>
author: Harlan Ellison
name: francesca
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at: 07/07
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:
Goddammit, I love Ellison. This is decidedly not his best collection, but it contains "A boy and his dog" and one of the best forwards of any book I've ever read.

So there.
]]> 26468438 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:41:32 -0700
Pretty much what you would expect. ]]>
author: Arthur Golden
name: francesca
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 01/02
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:
Meh, good enough, but pretty fluffy and a not-challenging read.

Pretty much what you would expect.
]]> 26468263 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:40:22 -0700
One of the most incisive, intuitive glances into the human soul, and the spirit of world without sight, without dignity, and surprising hope against hope.

I would read it again in a second. ]]>
author: José Saramago
name: francesca
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 06/08
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:
Slightly painful to read, this soon-to-be film (and oh how they will screw it up) is an apocalypse of terrifying proportions: one wrought not of environmental collapse or global war, but rather of a global, collective blindness...

One of the most incisive, intuitive glances into the human soul, and the spirit of world without sight, without dignity, and surprising hope against hope.

I would read it again in a second.
]]> 26468046 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:35:41 -0700
Delicious. ]]>
author: Bram Dijkstra
name: francesca
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 01/00
date added: 07/06/08
shelves:
review:
A fabulous reference of artistic allusions to mythology and folklore, with a wealth of images from both renowned and obscure works.

Delicious.
]]> 6602813 Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:24:31 -0700
author: Peter Carey
name: francesca
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 10/31/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 8437670 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:15:09 -0700
author: Walt Whitman
name: francesca
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1855
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
Rainy day, late night, sumptuous reading.
]]> 8437545 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:14:31 -0700
author: James Wines
name: francesca
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
The pictures should be bigger. I really mean that. Nevertheless, this is a gorgeous book of sustainable architecture all over the world, from airy earth-plastered hobbit houses to the most technologically advanced eco-homes. A real treat for eco-structure geeks.
]]> 8437421 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:12:36 -0700
It makes learning the sometimes overly technical aspects of physiology an exploration in verse...Love it. ]]>
author: Gustav Eckstein
name: francesca
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
This is my all time favorite poetic rendering of the human machine, inside and out from top to bottom. It generously extrappolates on the body mechanic in metaphor and simile.

It makes learning the sometimes overly technical aspects of physiology an exploration in verse...Love it.
]]> 2568888 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:09:41 -0700
author: Ann Patchett
name: francesca
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
Lovely, Lovely, complicated social story, beautifully told. Almost believeable.
]]> 2568904 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:08:32 -0700
author: Michael Pollan
name: francesca
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
Really excellent coverage of how man has shaped plants and vice versa. Quite shockingly beautiful.
]]> 8437213 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:07:51 -0700
author: Zachery A. Smith
name: francesca
average rating: 2.60
book published: 2003
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
Poorly written and badly edited. Save your money and check out Norman Vig's "Environmental Policy: New Directions for the 21st Century" instead.
]]> 8437143 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:06:44 -0700
author: Richard O. Brooks
name: francesca
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
Top notch reading for environmental policy nerds like me.
]]> 8437054 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 10:05:48 -0700
Scary. ]]>
author: Janet Biehl
name: francesca
average rating: 3.14
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 10/30/07
shelves:
review:
Who knew that Hitler was a vegetarian, environmentalist, animal rights proponent? The Nazi movement was one of the "greenest" political movements in history.

Scary.
]]> 6602799 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:43:23 -0700
author: Georges Bataille
name: francesca
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 6602772 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:42:44 -0700
author: Philip K. Dick
name: francesca
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 6602767 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:42:37 -0700
author: Joseph Heller
name: francesca
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 6602760 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:42:17 -0700
author: Anaïs Nin
name: francesca
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 6602598 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:41:43 -0700
This was the first book that really spurred my interest in physics, cellular mitochondria, and infinite graining to both polar extremes.

A true masterpiece. ]]>
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: francesca
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:
One of my all-time favorites. America has lost one of it's finest writers of childrens' fiction, although I would recommend this to anyone at any age.

This was the first book that really spurred my interest in physics, cellular mitochondria, and infinite graining to both polar extremes.

A true masterpiece.
]]> 6602555 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:35:56 -0700
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: francesca
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 6602550 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:35:48 -0700
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: francesca
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 6602542 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:35:33 -0700
author: Camille Paglia
name: francesca
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 6602296 Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:34:27 -0700
Disturbing and haunting, but fortunately a quick read. Does not leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling, but then McCarthy isn't exactly known for his feel-good tales. ]]>
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: francesca
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 09/22/07
shelves:
review:
Intense, dark, hopelessly grim. Strangely beautiful in spite of an overwhelming hopelessness. I'm not sure how to recommend suck a stark and bitterly pain-filled story.

Disturbing and haunting, but fortunately a quick read. Does not leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling, but then McCarthy isn't exactly known for his feel-good tales.
]]> 2948086 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:21:52 -0700
author: Noah Gordon
name: francesca
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 07/11/07
shelves:
review:
I am not a big historical fiction fan, but this book really takes you there and then some! I have rarely been as engrossed with a story as I was with this one. It is a rare pleasure to find such a captivating, shockingly historically accurate, and guileless book. A treasure.
]]> 2571629 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:39:41 -0700
author: Ken Kesey
name: francesca
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1960
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571618 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:39:24 -0700
author: Ken Kesey
name: francesca
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571600 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:38:58 -0700
author: Hanan Al-Shaykh
name: francesca
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571587 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:38:39 -0700
author: Christopher Moore
name: francesca
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571574 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:38:13 -0700
author: Ayn Rand
name: francesca
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1957
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571563 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:37:55 -0700
author: Charles Bukowski
name: francesca
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571549 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:37:41 -0700
author: Charles Bukowski
name: francesca
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571517 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:36:24 -0700
author: Charles Bukowski
name: francesca
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571490 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:35:53 -0700
author: Sylvia Plath
name: francesca
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571484 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:35:48 -0700
author: Sylvia Plath
name: francesca
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571481 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:35:44 -0700
author: Sylvia Plath
name: francesca
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571473 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:35:35 -0700
author: Virginia Woolf
name: francesca
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1915
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571461 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:35:08 -0700
author: Virginia Woolf
name: francesca
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571458 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:35:01 -0700
author: Virginia Woolf
name: francesca
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571448 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:34:44 -0700
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: francesca
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1869
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571421 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:33:28 -0700
author: C.S. Lewis
name: francesca
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1943
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571415 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:33:16 -0700
author: Richard Bachman
name: francesca
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571369 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:30:06 -0700
author: Albert Camus
name: francesca
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1947
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571362 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:29:56 -0700
author: Henry Miller
name: francesca
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571350 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:29:35 -0700
author: Henry Miller
name: francesca
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571348 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:29:27 -0700
author: Charles Bukowski
name: francesca
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571340 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:29:07 -0700
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: francesca
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571333 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:28:48 -0700
author: Shel Silverstein
name: francesca
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1964
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571330 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:28:41 -0700
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: francesca
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571326 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:28:31 -0700
author: James Joyce
name: francesca
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1914
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571321 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:28:22 -0700
author: Henry Miller
name: francesca
average rating: 3.39
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571316 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:28:12 -0700
author: Sanyika Shakur
name: francesca
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571300 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:27:39 -0700
author: Kurt Vonnegut
name: francesca
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571294 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:27:33 -0700
author: Kurt Vonnegut
name: francesca
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571292 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:27:30 -0700
author: Kurt Vonnegut
name: francesca
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1968
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571291 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:27:28 -0700
author: Kurt Vonnegut
name: francesca
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571288 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:27:21 -0700
author: J.D. Salinger
name: francesca
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 06/30/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 2571286 Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:27:12 -0700 <