bookshelves: books-i-own, currently-reading
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bookshelves: books-i-own, modern-history, non-fiction, soviet-union
I found this little gem at the VNSA Book Sale, which is the best used book sale on the planet. I paid $1.00 for a first-edition hardcover. The book is no collector piece, but it's in great shape and, even better, has that wonderful old-book musty smell to it.
Anyway, the author John Fischer visited Russia, mainly the Ukraine, for about two months in 1945, very shortly after the conclusion of WW2. Before that, he studied the Soviet Union as an academic, and during the war as a member of the Board of Economic Warfare (which, btw, sounds like a very cool board). His purpose for writing the book was to examine, not critique or defend, the Soveity economic system to determine how it might react under stress.
He concludes that the Communists ruling Russia were afraid, for the publicly-stated reason of an invasion by the Western capitalist powers, as predicted by Marxist doctrine. The question, then, is how does the West deal with Russia?
But before answering that, he details several facets of Soviet life in the Ukraine, the industry, the farms, the secret police, and so on. It's a mix of travel narrative and economic and political analysis. It's interesting and fun to read, in fact, even if at times the author's analysis proved a bit deficient. For example, he chalks up the inefficiency in the factories to cultural reasons unique to Russia, as opposed to ideological reasons unique to Marxism. After all, if the worker's wages don't rely on profits, then the worker has no incentive to improve profits by improving effieciency. But the author overlooks these reasons.
That's not entirely a bad thing, though, since I think a lot of analysis of the Soviet system tends to de-emphasize the historical and cultural aspects of Russian that informed its implementation of socialism.
The book also is not without its charms. For example, in describing Ukranian wet nurses, he writes that "their mammalian equipment can only be described as magnificent," and that "Lana Turner wouldn't get a second glance in Kiev," due to all the busty babes. I thought that was funny.
He also predicts, in the end, that American and Soviet tensions will probably last a long time. He proved pretty prescient there!
Anyway, if you can track this down somehow, and are interested in Russian history, you'll enjoy this book. ]]>
bookshelves: books-from-library, fiction, historical-fiction
This is my second attempt with O'Nan, and I can't get into him. He writes wonderfully, but perhaps to a fault. The present tense and second-person POV seemed too much like stunts. I couldn't get very interested in the character because I sensed the author intruding every chance he got. The plot was dark and I liked the story's progression and the added suspsense of the fire, but ultimately didn't care enough about the characters to generate too much interest. ]]>
bookshelves: books-from-library, fiction, horror, mystery
This is my first Heather Graham novel, and I wish I could say I was more impressed. The book was boring, quite frankly, and predictable and, at times, awfully annoying. How many times can the characters ask each other "are you all right?" or "are you okay?" Seemed to happen every other page. Enough already!
The mystery is standard fare, with the characters hanging around and not doing much to solve it, except for one, and at the end, they essentially luck into identifying the murderer by hypnosis.
The ghost gives this is a horror sheen, but it's really just a light little mystery that isn't very mysterious, with a romance that has more sex than actual romance. Bleh. I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it and can take it back to the library. ]]>
bookshelves: books-from-library, fiction, horror, mystery, vampires
I never really got into this book. To use a cliche, I wasn't feeling it. Something about the mythology seemed off to me. I've never liked my vampires outside during the day, so that's probably part of it. Also, this is really just a mystery story with the vampires thrown in to spice things up.
But here's my major complaint: Gomez doesn't really do anything to solve the mystery. He drives around and talks to people but finds only more questions. All the major breaks come as a result of chance and luck, and not as a result of any action he took. The result is a plot that just drift along until the author inserts an action point. It seemed too artificial. ]]>
bookshelves: books-from-library, fiction, horror, vampires
A light, fun and enjoyable book. Characters and endearing and the world is intriguing, if not entirely original. The plot is a bit thin and the murder mystery is close to an after-thought, but I am interested enough to read at least one more book in the series. ]]>
bookshelves: books-from-library, fiction, halloween
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bookshelves: books-i-own, to-read
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