http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/62208 en-US Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:34:03 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 835070 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:34:03 -0700
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Katey
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 06/08
date added: 07/15/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 20130487 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:03:23 -0700
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Katey
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 04/08
date added: 04/30/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 14864168 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:43:27 -0700
author: John Steinbeck
name: Katey
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1952
rating: 5
read at: 03/08
date added: 04/14/08
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 821442 Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:54:39 -0800
author: Franz Kafka
name: Katey
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1915
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 12/26/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 9173625 Sat, 17 Nov 2007 22:33:34 -0800
author: George Ellis
name: Katey
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 11/07
date added: 11/17/07
shelves: self-help
review:

]]> 821741 Sun, 04 Nov 2007 09:31:37 -0800
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Katey
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 10/07
date added: 11/04/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 4048282 Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:00:12 -0700
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Katey
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 09/07
date added: 09/27/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 765956 Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:59:45 -0700
author: Michel Faber
name: Katey
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 08/09/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 835089 Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:02:16 -0700
author: Tom Robbins
name: Katey
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 05/07
date added: 08/03/07
shelves: fiction
review:
In a nutshell: I enjoyed the excellent writing paired with the wild plot, the alchemy of the story was almost akin to blending a perfume itself. Quite enjoyable.
]]> 835370 Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:43:29 -0700
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Katey
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1951
rating: 5
read at: 11/96
date added: 06/04/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 835102 Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:03:46 -0700
Perhaps James purposely left Catherine as a scantily sketched character as a reflection of the opinions of the male characters in the book (mainly her father and Morris Townsend) and of Victorian society's opinion of women as a whole, but I can't help thinking that the overall story could have been helped with a richer portrait and insight into her psyche.]]>
author: Henry James
name: Katey
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at: 05/07
date added: 06/04/07
shelves: fiction
review:
I did not like any character in this book, and found myself actually despising Catherine the most(close runner-up: Dr. Sloper, her father). The only part of the entire novel that was even remotely likable was the last few chapters, and Catherine redeemed herself a bit for me in the end. James' actual writing is quite good of course (hence my 2 star instead of 1 star rating), but I would have to disagree with an assessment from Graham Greene that was on the back sleeve of my copy: "The delicate, feline Washington Square, perhaps the only novel in which a man has successfully invaded the feminine field and produced work comparable to Jane Austen's." No: as a woman I can identify with the females in Austen's work, and my opinion is not a product of modern times. I could identify with, and understand Wharton's Lily Bart, or Bronte's Cathy Earnshaw. James' depiction of a lovelorn and dismissed woman left me cold and unmoved.

Perhaps James purposely left Catherine as a scantily sketched character as a reflection of the opinions of the male characters in the book (mainly her father and Morris Townsend) and of Victorian society's opinion of women as a whole, but I can't help thinking that the overall story could have been helped with a richer portrait and insight into her psyche.
]]> 802628 Sun, 20 May 2007 13:41:30 -0700
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Katey
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/20/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 835130 Sat, 19 May 2007 09:16:07 -0700
author: Nick Hornby
name: Katey
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 05/07
date added: 05/19/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 822702 Tue, 15 May 2007 15:54:45 -0700
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Katey
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 05/07
date added: 05/15/07
shelves: fiction
review:
I've always been fascinated by the struggle between good and evil, especially in the literal Judeo-Christian sense, either from having it entwined in my daily education in my formative years, or from watching the original Star Wars trilogy too many times. But anything involving angels and demons, the Anti-Christ, prophecies and witches, PLUS really clever, facetious British humour... I'm all over it. This book was hilarious and somehow charming all at once.
]]> 802747 Tue, 08 May 2007 15:57:57 -0700
author: Caroline Kettlewell
name: Katey
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 05/08/07
shelves: biographyandauto-biography
review:

]]> 885639 Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:00:20 -0700
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Katey
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/25/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 885636 Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:59:48 -0700
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Katey
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/25/07
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> 885615 Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:58:47 -0700
author: Walt Whitman
name: Katey
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1855
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/25/07
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> 885605 Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:58:14 -0700
author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
name: Katey
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/25/07
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> 765770 Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:40:00 -0700
The premise of the book, aside from it being about one of my favourite animals, was what attracted me to it: The life of a rat, through the eyes of a rat. I'll forgive some scientific errors on the author's part, since he makes up for it in a seeming empathy with the creatures as I have. While most of the world either demonizes rats or merely dismisses them as pests and vermin, they truly are remarkable creatures; their success as a species has matched ours step by step. Where we colonize, they colonize. Where we thrive, they thrive. But as an enormous amount of the people on this planet struggle every day to survive, so does the protagonist of this story.

I still cannot grasp why the writer decided to switch from first to second person (or rat as the case may be), often in the same paragraph. Perhaps it's due to the translation from the original Polish, or just a literary technique I can't understand.

]]>
author: Andrzej Zaniewski
name: Katey
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/23/07
shelves: animals, fiction
review:
"Don't think that you love and fail, win and lose, or live and die differently from a rat."

The premise of the book, aside from it being about one of my favourite animals, was what attracted me to it: The life of a rat, through the eyes of a rat. I'll forgive some scientific errors on the author's part, since he makes up for it in a seeming empathy with the creatures as I have. While most of the world either demonizes rats or merely dismisses them as pests and vermin, they truly are remarkable creatures; their success as a species has matched ours step by step. Where we colonize, they colonize. Where we thrive, they thrive. But as an enormous amount of the people on this planet struggle every day to survive, so does the protagonist of this story.

I still cannot grasp why the writer decided to switch from first to second person (or rat as the case may be), often in the same paragraph. Perhaps it's due to the translation from the original Polish, or just a literary technique I can't understand.


]]> 849610 Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:23:17 -0700
author: Kathy Peiss
name: Katey
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/23/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 783409 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:06:16 -0700
author: Matthew Scully
name: Katey
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: animals, toreadagain
review:
A book I definitely need to re-read, as it was hard for me to get through, and I had to put it down several times. I feel a kinship to Matthew Scully; a conservative who truly is compassionate (he was a speech writer for George W). Not only does he plead the case of animal rights and welfare in an intelligent, well-researched manner, but most importantly, he sounds the call to arms to protect animals with that which makes us human: our sense of morality. Well, we're supposed to have one at any rate.
]]> 835680 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:04:57 -0700
author: Graham Greene
name: Katey
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction, toreadagain
review:

]]> 835646 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:02:31 -0700
author: Thomas Harris
name: Katey
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 835366 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:41:21 -0700
author: Marguerite Henry
name: Katey
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 835322 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:40:08 -0700
author: Anna Sewell
name: Katey
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1907
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: animals, fiction
review:
I can still recall crying uncontrollably when Ginger dies. One of those "Old Yeller" moments from childhood you never forget.
]]> 835270 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:34:23 -0700
author: Emily Dickinson
name: Katey
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> 835265 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:34:01 -0700
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Katey
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1981
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: poetry
review:

]]> 835243 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:33:33 -0700
author: Anne Sexton
name: Katey
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: poetry
review:
Not read cover to cover, but it's poetry, so it's a book I go back to often.
]]> 835227 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:31:09 -0700
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Katey
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction, toreadagain
review:

]]> 835183 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:30:44 -0700
author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
name: Katey
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:
A very dear literary part of my childhood was reading these books over and over.
]]> 835080 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:21:26 -0700
author: Willa Cather
name: Katey
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1918
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 829168 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:58:40 -0700
author: Michael Graham
name: Katey
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:
It's not what you might think; Graham writes about how Southern culture has infiltrated all of America for the worse, i.e: like how NASCAR has become so damn popular.
]]> 829102 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:46:11 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Katey
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 829097 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:45:38 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Katey
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 829091 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:45:11 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Katey
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 829087 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:44:41 -0700
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Katey
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 829082 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:44:18 -0700
author: Kurt Vonnegut
name: Katey
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 829078 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:43:42 -0700
author: Kurt Vonnegut
name: Katey
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 829073 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:43:09 -0700
author: Kurt Vonnegut
name: Katey
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 817155 Sun, 22 Apr 2007 07:38:47 -0700
author: Terry Jones
name: Katey
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/22/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 823374 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:12:24 -0700
author: Brian Froud
name: Katey
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:
Beautiful artwork and some good myths from the British isles.
]]> 823373 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:11:09 -0700
author: Terry Jones
name: Katey
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 823369 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:09:42 -0700
author: Gregory Maguire
name: Katey
average rating: 3.41
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 823367 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:09:24 -0700
author: Yann Martel
name: Katey
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 823363 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:08:22 -0700
author: Douglas Adams
name: Katey
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 823355 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 16:06:46 -0700
author: Arundhati Roy
name: Katey
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 822674 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:11:07 -0700
author: Rosemary Kingsland
name: Katey
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: biographyandauto-biography
review:

]]> 822632 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:05:48 -0700
author: Chuck Klosterman
name: Katey
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 822616 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:04:11 -0700
author: Clive Barker
name: Katey
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 822613 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:03:34 -0700
author: Clive Barker
name: Katey
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 822601 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:02:04 -0700
author: Clive Barker
name: Katey
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 822596 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 14:01:42 -0700
author: Clive Barker
name: Katey
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 821624 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:31:55 -0700
author: Mandy Aftel
name: Katey
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:
I loved the author's attitude to the art of perfume making, but this book partly reads as a "how-to" book. But it does give you great insight into deconstructing the fragrance you wear. But for some, (me included part of the time), sometimes you just want to enjoy a beautiful scent, like a beautiful piece of art, without breaking it down beyond the sum of its parts.
]]> 821603 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:27:10 -0700
author: Suetonius
name: Katey
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: non-fiction, toreadagain
review:
I actually started this one, but due to what I find as the um, "cut and dry" writing style of Suetonius (or the translator), I only made it half-way through Tiberius. A book I'll pick up again... eventually.
]]> 821588 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:23:19 -0700
author: Christopher Buckley
name: Katey
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 821580 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:22:42 -0700
author: Norman F. Cantor
name: Katey
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: non-fiction
review:

]]> 821578 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:21:44 -0700
author: Gustave Flaubert
name: Katey
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 821570 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:21:10 -0700
author: Milan Kundera
name: Katey
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 821567 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:20:41 -0700
author: Edith Wharton
name: Katey
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1905
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 04/21/07
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> 821557 Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:20:08 -0700