false 15 548 481 true 5644030 read 1 true 2846540 currently-reading 63 true 2846539 to-read 3 true 2849790 roadtrip-audiobooks 207 false 3983078 novel 108 false 2902687 read-for-class 98 false 2878274 fantasy 86 false 2878273 sf 62 false 2903468 undergrad 55 false 2902611 comics 55 false 2902423 history 45 false 2878340 humor 39 false 2903467 grad-school-masters 34 false 2878295 poetry 28 false 3983132 essays 28 false 2878281 reference 25 false 2970371 childrens 24 false 2878314 drama 22 false 2878272 victorian 21 false 2903441 language 21 false 2970910 mythology 16 false 2971161 military-history 16 false 3983223 alternate-history 15 false 2903901 anthology 14 false 2903466 high-school 13 false 2970522 memoir 12 false 3983087 short-stories 11 false 2970862 politics 11 false 3681243 literary-criticism 11 false 3174221 historical-fiction 11 false 2902670 french 11 false 2940652 science 10 false 2970992 travel 10 false 2903542 signed 9 false 3718147 masters-thesis 7 false 5145547 peace-corps-prep 6 false 3068458 sports 6 false 5497967 audiobook 5 false 2970420 biography 5 false 3754970 medicine 5 false 2903492 middle-school 5 false 2970861 philosophy 4 false 7443328 kyrgyz-republic 3 false 2903461 german 3 false 7443657 switzerland 3 false 7444143 ireland 2 false 3984499 relationships 1 false 7443824 england 1 false 7443749 russia 1 false 7085233 russian 1 false 7255936 economics 1 false 7443704 czech-republic 1 false 6910202 psychology 1 false 2903975 chinese 1 false 7443563 kyrgyz 1 false 3983040 natural-history 1 false 7443686 germany 1 false 7444187 anthropology 1 false 3982705 latvian 1 false 2903968 spanish 0 false 7443599 read-in-peace-corps http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79218742 to: Western Way Of War, The: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece (Hardcover) by Victor Davis Hanson
bookshelves: history, military-history
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78870324 to: Kyrgyz Statehood and the National Epos "Manas" (Paperback) by Askar Akaev
bookshelves: history, kyrgyz-republic, peace-corps-prep, politics
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78560602 to: The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time, #12; A Memory of Light, #1) by Robert Jordan
bookshelves: fantasy, novel
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78501985 The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy (Hardcover) by Bill Simmons
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78097446 to: The Sword of the Lady: A Novel of the Change (Change Series) by S.M. Stirling
bookshelves: fantasy, novel, sf
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/38854596 to: The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (Paperback) by Max Brooks
bookshelves: comics, sf
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76580949 to: The Memorial Feast for Kokotoy-Khan: A Kirghiz Epic Poem (London Oriental Series) by A.T. Hatto
bookshelves: kyrgyz, mythology, peace-corps-prep, poetry
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76159005 to: Kyrgyzstan: Central Asia's Island of Democracy? (Postcommunist States and Nations) by John Anderson
bookshelves: history, kyrgyz-republic, peace-corps-prep, politics
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74049338 to: Kyrgyz Republic: Heart of Central Asia, Third Edition (Odyssey Illustrated Guides) by Rowan Stewart
bookshelves: kyrgyz-republic, peace-corps-prep, reference, travel
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68909351 to: Ariel (Paperback) by Steven R. Boyett
bookshelves: fantasy, novel
What a huge disappointment. It got high praise from several authors whose taste I generally respect, but their judgment must have been clouded by nostalgia. If I was reading this at age 14 I might have loved it just for the strong action scenes and interesting concept, but reading it as an adult I can't get over how poorly written it is. It's a teenage writer's first novel, and it reads like the work of an amateur. I couldn't help laughing at the author's comment in the afterword that he's "big on verisimilitude." Sure, it's important to do your research about hang-gliding and swords, but actually thinking through your setting is much more important. If five years after the end of civilization every building is completely intact and completely edible food can still be found in stores, your post-apocalyptic setting is a joke. I might have given Boyett some credit for doing a few things right, but abruptly imposing an unnecessary unhappy ending and then trying to invoke Cervantes as an excuse for authorial sloppiness/laziness is a sure-fire way to squander any sympathy from this reader. ]]>