http://www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/77842 en-US Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:20:12 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 18918490 Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:20:12 -0700
author: Preeta Samarasan
name: Rob
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 03/29/08
shelves: bedside
review:

]]> 2743659 Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:23:11 -0700
author: Angela Carter
name: Rob
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1990
rating: 3
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date added: 07/05/07
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]]> 1338249 Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:17:23 -0700
I'm still glad I read it, though, and I recommend it.]]>
author: Angela Carter
name: Rob
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 01/07
date added: 07/05/07
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Much of this book is gorgeously written, and she captures some of her characters extremely well (and I can tell they'll be kicking around my head for awhile). Not all of them, though; Uncle Phillip isn't as.. substantial for me as I think he was supposed to be, for example, and in the end I'm not sure the book completely worked for me as a whole.

I'm still glad I read it, though, and I recommend it.
]]> 1706821 Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:13:58 -0700
author: Ali Smith
name: Rob
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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date added: 06/06/07
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]]> 1300675 Fri, 18 May 2007 15:13:34 -0700
But her prose is pleasant to saunter through, she's got some good stories in there, and she makes the connection. I read most of it standing next to the bookshelf.]]>
author: Anne Lamott
name: Rob
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1994
rating: 4
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date added: 05/18/07
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I enjoyed it, and I hardly write fiction at all.

But her prose is pleasant to saunter through, she's got some good stories in there, and she makes the connection. I read most of it standing next to the bookshelf.
]]> 1300657 Fri, 18 May 2007 15:08:12 -0700
author: George Saunders
name: Rob
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 05/18/07
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]]> 1166447 Fri, 11 May 2007 15:20:03 -0700
I've been an atheist for a long time, but religion is still a topic I spend a decent amount of time thinking about (partly because of the debates I get into online, partly because the previous generation in my family is still quite religious), and this book was a mixture of good review of what I've already discovered, plus a dose of background and scientific research for support.

One new idea to me that I kind of liked: his point that it's wrong to refer to young children by their parents' religion (e.g., a young Muslim boy, a newly-baptized Catholic baby, etc.), because it treats indoctrination as assumed, and it creates separations where they don't exist. Religious belief is a choice, and a young child isn't mentally equipped to make such a choice. No one would refer to a Keynesian child, or a Marxist child, based on their parents' belief in an economic system. Or a better example: would you ever speak of an atheist child?

Dawkins is interesting as well, because so many atheists maintain that religion, even if based on false beliefs, are still generally beneficial -- Dawkins doesn't buy it.

His arguments here aren't as solid as the rest of the book, though. I actually agree with him in principle (though we'd need a better replacement than science books and TV), but his arguments here aren't as solidly founded as the rest of the book (for one, the "mainstream" religious family is bad because they validate the extremists). Fortunately, it's not a primary focus, and doesn't harm the function of the thing as a whole.

Anyway, particularly if you're a puzzled agnostic (and I think that covers a lot of people...), it's worth a quick read.]]>
author: Richard Dawkins
name: Rob
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 05/11/07
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I feel like giving it anything more than a 3 would be wrong (I mean, come on - I gave The Corrections and One Hundred Years of Solitude a 4), but he does what he set out to do quite well, in utilitarian prose that's quite easy to read.

I've been an atheist for a long time, but religion is still a topic I spend a decent amount of time thinking about (partly because of the debates I get into online, partly because the previous generation in my family is still quite religious), and this book was a mixture of good review of what I've already discovered, plus a dose of background and scientific research for support.

One new idea to me that I kind of liked: his point that it's wrong to refer to young children by their parents' religion (e.g., a young Muslim boy, a newly-baptized Catholic baby, etc.), because it treats indoctrination as assumed, and it creates separations where they don't exist. Religious belief is a choice, and a young child isn't mentally equipped to make such a choice. No one would refer to a Keynesian child, or a Marxist child, based on their parents' belief in an economic system. Or a better example: would you ever speak of an atheist child?

Dawkins is interesting as well, because so many atheists maintain that religion, even if based on false beliefs, are still generally beneficial -- Dawkins doesn't buy it.

His arguments here aren't as solid as the rest of the book, though. I actually agree with him in principle (though we'd need a better replacement than science books and TV), but his arguments here aren't as solidly founded as the rest of the book (for one, the "mainstream" religious family is bad because they validate the extremists). Fortunately, it's not a primary focus, and doesn't harm the function of the thing as a whole.

Anyway, particularly if you're a puzzled agnostic (and I think that covers a lot of people...), it's worth a quick read.
]]> 1166149 Fri, 11 May 2007 14:37:17 -0700
The opening chapter had me grinning ferociously at the pages in front of me, and many of the later passages transcribing Alfred's mental deterioration (and Alfred and Enid's interactions) were fantastic.

It's about a family (Alfred and Enid are the aging parents), and about adult (more or less) children coming home for Christmas; it leaps outward and back into their pasts from there. Lives falling into ruts, falling together, falling apart. There's quite a lot of humor. But the alarm bell has been ringing for years.]]>
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Rob
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/11/07
shelves:
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There are some sections and characters that don't play as well as the rest for me, but that's the only thing that keeps this one from being a 5 (which I think of as something like "not written by human hands"). Here, I'm harsher on the imperfections because of the parts that really were transcendently good [Jonathan Franzen, as you are undoubtedly reading this, take note].

The opening chapter had me grinning ferociously at the pages in front of me, and many of the later passages transcribing Alfred's mental deterioration (and Alfred and Enid's interactions) were fantastic.

It's about a family (Alfred and Enid are the aging parents), and about adult (more or less) children coming home for Christmas; it leaps outward and back into their pasts from there. Lives falling into ruts, falling together, falling apart. There's quite a lot of humor. But the alarm bell has been ringing for years.
]]> 1123667 Wed, 09 May 2007 10:46:06 -0700
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Rob
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/09/07
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]]> 1123540 Wed, 09 May 2007 10:41:52 -0700
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Rob
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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date added: 05/09/07
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]]> 1107543 Tue, 08 May 2007 15:31:33 -0700
It also changed, and still colors, my understanding of history (I have two books in this category -- Waterland and War & Peace... this one's a better read, of course). That will likely sound painfully dull to you, unless you have read this book, in which case you'll probably know what I mean.]]>
author: Graham Swift
name: Rob
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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date added: 05/08/07
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This is a book that broke my heart, but added some interesting new valves in the process. It's best consumed by wolfing it down, then going back and reading it again, lingeringly and slow.

It also changed, and still colors, my understanding of history (I have two books in this category -- Waterland and War & Peace... this one's a better read, of course). That will likely sound painfully dull to you, unless you have read this book, in which case you'll probably know what I mean.
]]> 1085493 Tue, 08 May 2007 15:07:13 -0700
On the other hand, it was a book that I read over a long period of time. I would read a bit, then put it aside. There were scenes I found moving, and sections where I cared about particular characters... but then I'd follow them into a sequence of relatively random events (usually of some symbolic import when I'd think about it later) and my interest would trail off.

And yes, he had reasons for giving everyone variations on the same names, but the chief effect it had was to periodically knock me right out of the flow of the narrative, as I'd have to reread a paragraph a few times and/or flip back through what I'd already read to get the characters straight.]]>
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Rob
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at: 01/06
date added: 05/08/07
shelves:
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One Hundred Years of Solitude was like no book I had ever read, or have read since. Much of it was gorgeous, and it's a book with fully functioning viscera.

On the other hand, it was a book that I read over a long period of time. I would read a bit, then put it aside. There were scenes I found moving, and sections where I cared about particular characters... but then I'd follow them into a sequence of relatively random events (usually of some symbolic import when I'd think about it later) and my interest would trail off.

And yes, he had reasons for giving everyone variations on the same names, but the chief effect it had was to periodically knock me right out of the flow of the narrative, as I'd have to reread a paragraph a few times and/or flip back through what I'd already read to get the characters straight.
]]> 1067286 Sun, 06 May 2007 16:02:57 -0700
author: Dave Eggers
name: Rob
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/06/07
shelves:
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]]> 1058653 Sun, 06 May 2007 03:44:07 -0700
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Rob
average rating: 3.20
book published: 1926
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 05/06/07
shelves:
review:

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