false 0 12 12 true 5667749 read 0 true 3073126 currently-reading 0 true 3073125 to-read 4 false 3073147 classics 3 false 3374491 romance 3 false 3074390 historical-fiction 3 false 3440439 american 2 false 3074381 fiction 2 false 3374513 contemporary 2 false 3440280 feminist 2 false 3440277 plays 1 false 3074382 non-fiction 1 false 5188754 math 1 false 5188757 history 1 false 5188795 canadian 1 false 3074391 science-fiction 1 false 3374516 sports 1 false 3144099 journal http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58756873 to: Fermat's Last Theorem (Paperback) by Simon Singh
bookshelves: history, math, non-fiction
This book is meant for the latter half of the bell curve. If you're mathematical experience stopped at high school, this book will still disappoint you. I don't understand how you can write about math without writing some math. The equations given weren't pertinent to Fermat's Last Theorem, most were digressions that were meant to prove an already obvious point, an explanation of the Pythagorean theorem?, thank you but my elementary school teacher did plenty enough. The book skimps over the hard mathematics and tries, incorrectly, to relate it to prior explanations such as for Galois groups.

I did enjoy the thorough treatise on the history of the equation instead of simply a biography of Andrew Wiles, which the latter of the half of the book unfortunately was. Singh explores the various attempts at solving the equation providing some backstory to each mathematician, which was nice since we think of a mathematician only by their last name proceeding some formula instead of their lives.

The book did provide a general overview of the philosophy behind math and tried to capture of what it means to be a mathematician, what I was hoping to find out. However if you're looking for something more serious than the Colbert Report, I'd suggest you look elsewhere otherwise you're looking at a joke. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/60477866 to: A Streetcar Named Desire (25th Anniversary Edition) by Tennessee Williams
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58758396 to: Oryx and Crake (Hardcover) by Margaret Atwood
bookshelves: canadian, contemporary, science-fiction
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58758014 to: Outliers (Hardcover) by Malcolm Gladwell
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/53639940 to: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Paperback) by Tennessee Williams
bookshelves: american, plays, romance
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/33595368 to: A Doll's House (Thrift Edition) by Henrik Johan Ibsen
bookshelves: classics, feminist, plays
Sadly, a failure of a feminist text. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/33416954 to: Shirley (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Brontë
bookshelves: classics, feminist, historical-fiction, romance
500 pages.
Verbosity so
Shirley introduced
Only in Chapter 10.
Elegant prose.
Beautiful language.
Diction[ary].
Simple plot.
Flat characters.
Feminism?
No. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32763321 to: The Time Traveler's Wife (Paperback) by Audrey Niffenegger
bookshelves: contemporary, fiction, romance
What a reader must abhor is the popular opinion of the general public. So, very unlikely will it ever lead to a good choice in style and taste; so do not let Time Traveler's Wife to taint your opinions.
Unlike many other sci-fi books, this, firstly, is not science fiction or philosophical or even fantasy-adventure but instead the trite romance of a man, Henry, time traveling throughout his own life, often visiting his adolescent wife.
Foremost, the novel is cleaved in two and that is primarily the major flaw in this story. The title gives the perception of the book following mainly Clare's (Henry's wife/love) life and her encounters with him but the novel's tone seems much more interested in Henry's nuances and backstory instead. So, while the novel is structured to follow Clare's life (from her infancy, meeting Henry all the way through their rocky marriage) the novel itself is more interested in Henry. Although, Niffengger most likely did this to provide proper characters instead of falling into the usual trap of having one lover narrate his/her flawed hyperbolized perception of the other.
The plot was disappointing because, for one, it was too simple and Niffenegger tried much too hard to explain every little detail. It is evident that this is her first novel, as the difference between tying the novel's little details elegantly together versus mashing two distinct stories together with little details is palpably visible. Time traveling in one's own life could have lead to much more interesting possibilities than this.
The characters are rather flat. Even though the book was written in first person in both character's views, the text was dry and simple. Nothing enriching to differentiate Henry and Clare apart from their sex (oho). However their simplicity gives rise to vices and foibles, which provide interesting tension when it recurs again and again, obviously through his time traveling. However, even these flaws are not great enough to create enough conflict required for an adequate plot so instead the reader allowed to see how the future and past is tied together such that one wonders, does Henry love Clare or was it his destiny and is Clare only infatuated by a grown, experienced and scarred Henry.
The Time Traveler's Wife makes for simple pleasure skimming. Don't try to read too into it or disappointment is waiting. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32762885 to: The Natural (Perennial Classics) by Bernard Malamud
bookshelves: american, fiction, sports
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/29738944 to: Notes from the Rainforest (Paperback) by György Faludy
bookshelves: journal
Notes from the Rainforest is a journal of Gyorgy Faludy's thoughts while living in the Vancouver Forest in BC Canada.
The greatest gripe with this book is that it sadly contains none of Faludy's elegant poems.
However it makes up for this fact with an ample amount of wit applied to a wide array of topics from art, poetry, society and even, to his dismay, philosophy.
It provides a, not open nor closed, window to the mind and thoughts of a poet and his personal life and is humbling. ]]>