false 2 68 43 true 6675771 read 1 true 3562718 currently-reading 24 true 3562717 to-read 2 false 7597438 abandoned-in-progress http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76150843 The Portrait of a Lady (Paperback) by Henry James
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35192357 to: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Hardcover) by Gabriel García Márquez
I've heard about this book for years, and I've always meant to read it. So I finally got around to it, and finished it a few days ago.

Essentially, the book follows a family from the time the patriarch and his wife became the first settlers Macondo, a small, south american village, to the time the last member of the family (the founder's great-great-great grandchild, i believe...though there may be another "great" in that lineup) is dead, along with the family name. The family members go through periods of peace, war, love, scandal, and intrigue - but, this is where I have to question if it's really a plot line about the family at all.

Throughout the text, you become aware of an overall human emotion to the book - which is what both fascinated and confused me. The family and its many and vaired characters are used more to show the raw emotions of human beings than to express any type of realistic history of a family. Events in the text are certainly "fictitious," such as when the most beautiful girl in the family rises up and is assumed into heaven wearing a white robe made of her sister's linens - and its things like that, and the mention of traveling gypsies with flying carpets from Persia that really worked, that really threw me in a circle when reading and lead me to believe that there is some kind of further story about human emotion and and the ebbs and flows of the human soul and psyche in this book, and you experience it when reading - but trying to make heads or tails of it at the end is really turning into the impossible task. Its as though the story is designed so you see through the frivolity of the people's traditions and customs, while simultaneously appreciating their importance and moving emotionally with the characters through all of it.

Perhaps I just didn't pay enough attention, as I've read this rather quickly and at times without 100% concentration; but I really think the text would have been better, and even more understandable, if I read it in Spanish.

Honestly, though, I enjoyed reading the book - even if my ability to converse intelligently about it is somewhat questionable. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65968317 Caesar: Life of a Colossus (Hardcover) by Adrian Goldsworthy
bookshelves: abandoned-in-progress, to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/65600969 Patterns of Heartbreak: How to Stop Finding Mr. Wrong (Paperback) by Yehuda Nir
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/62001460 Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times (Paperback) by H.W. Brands
bookshelves: abandoned-in-progress, to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/62001455 to: In Cold Blood (Paperback) by Truman Capote
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/35191436 to: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (Audio Cassette) by Erik Larson
I didnt mean to pick casette tape - but whatever.
This book is a microhistory, and I loved it. The book tells of all the troubles dealing with securing the chicago world's fair and building all the buildings and getting the exhibits together. THe text talks about Olmstead and his landscapes, Ferris building the first ferris wheel, and a psychokiller who lived in chicago at the same time and built a building with closets that had gas pipes going to them and chutes to the basement where he kept a kiln capable of reaching temperatures that could incinerate human beings. Insane.
Both stories are fascinating - a quick and good read. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50645058 George's review of Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage of Wall Street
by Michael Lewis

Mike is reading this now too ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48699618 The Lost Childhood: The Complete Memoir (Paperback) by Yehuda Nir
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48594045 George's review of The Lost Childhood: The Complete Memoir
by Yehuda Nir

You said it was an interesting story - I didnt imagine running into the author in an art gallery though! ]]>