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June 09
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MacK
gave
 
to:
Travels with Charley (Penguin Modern Classics)
by John Steinbeck
bookshelves:
am-lit
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in May, 2008
MacK said:
"Steinbeck begins the piece with a beautiful description of what it is to be a permanent wanderer. That you may be told every few minutes that you'll settle down and be happy with your situation in life, but realistically, once the travel bug bites yo...more
Steinbeck begins the piece with a beautiful description of what it is to be a permanent wanderer. That you may be told every few minutes that you'll settle down and be happy with your situation in life, but realistically, once the travel bug bites you, you never can live without it.
Steinbeck wrote this at the end of his life, four years before his death and one year before he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was a giant among men, an literary scientist who concocted experiments with language and form in the crucible of his own brain, and this book is no different. It's a series of essays and an autobiography, an atlas, a travelogue, a social critique, a diary, a letter to those who stayed at home.
Its a beautiful thing to read for anyone who travels, for anyone who feels adrift from the regular thrum of life's existence. For expats, for travelers, for voyagers beyond the edge of the earth, it's like everything you've ever thought, crystalized into an intelligent form.
(It also talks about how cool Montana is, which guarantees it a high ranking)...less
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May 25
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MacK
gave
to:
The Princess Bride (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by William Goldman
bookshelves:
childrensbooks,
contemporary,
favorites
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in May, 2008
MacK said:
"I'm a little biased when it comes to this book. Yes, I saw the movie first and it made me happier than anything I've ever seen before or since. Yes, I do consider how much a person likes The Princess Bride before determining how good a friend ...more
I'm a little biased when it comes to this book. Yes, I saw the movie first and it made me happier than anything I've ever seen before or since. Yes, I do consider how much a person likes The Princess Bride before determining how good a friend to be with them. (I don't insist on it, but it can queer a good friendship)
I'm not alone in this, but I do share a similar affinity for the book, despite discrepancies that may make others blanche. And even for me Fezzik will always be a Frenchman and not a Turk, and Goldman's "Zoo of Death" will be forever confused with "The Pits of Despair" but these are minor points.
The fact is that Goldman is a hell of a writer. The movie is great because it uses his screenplay wonderfully. The book is fantastic becasue he employs all his talents. He is a master of dialogue (what else would you expect from a man with two screenplay Oscars?), he details setting and character with a few quick flashes of his pen, and he has enough acerbic wit to have created what is, at once, both a brilliant satire of fairy tales and a compellingly readable fairy tale in its own right.
One of the surprising things is that Goldman sticks so doggedly to the conceit that there is an S. Mogenstern, a country called Florin, and that the novel is at once really "abridged" rather than written by him, and that everything actually does happen.
That becomes a trifle irritating, you almost want the man to admit that: "yes, I am the man, I did write something that is beloved and adored and will be passed down from generation to generation, just as I claimed this book was passed down to me. Only, it is all me. My imagination, my genius, bow down and praise me!"
But he doesn't. And that, though irritating, is actually one of the best things about the book. Goldman himself suspends his disbelief and forces us to do the same. Imagination takes hold at the beginning and our immersion in it makes every page, every quip tantalizing to behold and easy to savor....less
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May 12
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MacK
marked as to-read:
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time (Paperback)
by Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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MacK
gave
to:
The Book Thief (Paperback)
by Markus Zusak
bookshelves:
childrensbooks,
favorites,
world-lit
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in May, 2008
MacK said:
"I work with a woman named Kathy, who loves this book. She reads it to her 9th grade students each year. She revels in the language, the poetry, the immediacy of the story and its relevance to kids.
I live next door to a man named Steve, who loves ...more
I work with a woman named Kathy, who loves this book. She reads it to her 9th grade students each year. She revels in the language, the poetry, the immediacy of the story and its relevance to kids.
I live next door to a man named Steve, who loves this book. He found it on a shelf and picked it up on speck. He was captured by the story line, the characters, the artistry and images evoked both through the written word and the overt inclusion of pictures.
I loved this book: for all the reasons listed above and more. It is a beautiful account of a young girl coming of age, and of the humanity to be found in all of us, even in death, even under the most horrifying political regime in recent memory.
It was simply marvelous. And like Kathy, like Steve, I loved it....less
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MacK
gave
to:
Peter and the Shadow Thieves (Hardcover)
by Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson
bookshelves:
childrensbooks
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
MacK said:
"I find that my patience with sequels is waning rapidly. Barry and Pearson seem to know that they have lucked onto a solid concept and know how to execute it adequately.
Unfortunately solid writing does not make for extremely good writing. The writ...more
I find that my patience with sequels is waning rapidly. Barry and Pearson seem to know that they have lucked onto a solid concept and know how to execute it adequately.
Unfortunately solid writing does not make for extremely good writing. The writing for Peter and the Shadow Thieves is a ramshackle hodgepodge of story arcs, developed haphazardly and lacking any clear focus for the first 300 pages or so.
When it finally gets going with sinister villains chasing after Peter and Molly, you are half irritated that it took so long, and equally frustrated that the authors continue to bounce back to Neverland every few chapters in a plot line contrived simply to keep Captain Hook in the story.
It seems to take the worst of both Barry and Pearson's styles, coupling the irritating winking nature of Barry's overwrought newspaper columns and matching it with Pearson's angsty coming-of-age teenagerisms.
After a stellar first effort the sequel is a bland shadow of it's predecessor. Unfortunately, the ending promises more to come....less
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June 09
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MacK
marked as to-read:
Bell (Paperback)
by Iris Murdoch
bookshelves:
to-read
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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April 21
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MacK
gave
to:
Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras (Paperback)
by Diana L. Eck
bookshelves:
gave-up
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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MacK said:
"Would that I had the energy to read this, but I don't. I liked what I did read, mostly because it talks about Montana and India. But I couldn't drum up the energy to come home from a day of work and read theology. (Yes, I'm a horrible heathen...you m...more
Would that I had the energy to read this, but I don't. I liked what I did read, mostly because it talks about Montana and India. But I couldn't drum up the energy to come home from a day of work and read theology. (Yes, I'm a horrible heathen...you may throw your eggs now)...less
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April 19
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MacK
gave
to:
Mostly Harmless (Book 5)
by Douglas Adams
bookshelves:
brit-lit,
contemporary,
dramas,
favorites,
mr-macks-syllabus,
world-lit
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in April, 2008
MacK said:
"Adams last book summarizes the whole series. It's not perfect, it's not brilliant, it's a little too long, too complicated and too inane to be totally enjoyable. But it has some solid laughs and intriguing characters (though, unfortunately, Arthur De...more
Adams last book summarizes the whole series. It's not perfect, it's not brilliant, it's a little too long, too complicated and too inane to be totally enjoyable. But it has some solid laughs and intriguing characters (though, unfortunately, Arthur Dent returns to Moron in Chief).
There's something for everyone in Adams' series. This is the book that is for those who want it to end. And end it does. In a way that would make even paranoid androids smile....less
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MacK
gave
to:
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Mass Market Paperback)
by Douglas Adams
bookshelves:
brit-lit,
contemporary
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in April, 2008
MacK said:
"The best since the original is the most inventive since the original.
Adams veers away from his standard plot twists to give us something more. Arthur Dent leaves behind his constant idiocy that makes him less a hero than the protaganist by defaul...more
The best since the original is the most inventive since the original.
Adams veers away from his standard plot twists to give us something more. Arthur Dent leaves behind his constant idiocy that makes him less a hero than the protaganist by default, and becomes what he has always threatened to be, a complete, engaging, well rounded "everyman" character.
His adventures here are remarkable, witty and fun, without the tediousness of being tied to to advanced lectures in quantum mechanics. Secondary characters round out the book, rather than overpowering it, and the most direct of all of Adams' story lines leaves the reader satisfied....less
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MacK
gave
to:
Life, the Universe and Everything (Book 3)
by Douglas Adams
bookshelves:
brit-lit,
contemporary
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in March, 2008
MacK said:
"A step up from "Restaurant" this book has a little more going for it. A new story line, and one that does not rely (as much) on a repetition of the standard events and phrases.
Adams' penchant for tying the absurdity of sci-fi with the i...more
A step up from "Restaurant" this book has a little more going for it. A new story line, and one that does not rely (as much) on a repetition of the standard events and phrases.
Adams' penchant for tying the absurdity of sci-fi with the immediacy of modern life hits a high point here. Particular the world of Krikkit, which seems pleasent enough, except for it's homocidal tendencies. And it's merry music which, Adams notes in a running joke, could help Paul McCartney rule the galaxy.
But again, the repetitious appearances of Zaphod and dopey old Arthur make the book lag at the end, and leave it as anticlimactic as its predecessor, though, fortunately, funnier....less
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The Woodstock Readers Society
— 63 members
— last activity 12/12/2007 01:39AM
A Book Group on a Hilltop
— 6 members
— last activity 08/28/2007 11:48PM
While your ratings of Atonement and Equus provide some hope for you, your 2 out of 5 for Wuthering Heights leads to significant doubt of your ability to recognise and appreciate literary masterpieces! On your next teacher appraisal should I mention that you consider Maxine Hong Kingston a better writer than Emily Bronte???
Benny!!! We are nerds. Nerds rock the shit.
