Yang read and liked Jenne's review of The Host:

"Okay, so I was reading along, and thinking all, hey, this is pretty interesting! Not bad, Stephenie!

And then I got to about page 80 or so, and OH MY GOD THERE IT IS AGAIN, THE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SAPPINESS OH MY EYES MY EYES

I ...more Okay, so I was reading along, and thinking all, hey, this is pretty interesting! Not bad, Stephenie!

And then I got to about page 80 or so, and OH MY GOD THERE IT IS AGAIN, THE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE SAPPINESS OH MY EYES MY EYES

I just can't do it. CAN'T DO IT AGAIN! Not the older man, and the younger woman, and the 5-page discussion of why they can't have sex yet because NO DEAR YOU'RE JUST NOT READY EVEN THOUGH YOU REALLY WANT IT BECAUSE LOOK, YOU'RE A GIRL AND YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS.

BUT JARED I LOOOOVE YOU!! YOU ARE MY SOULMATE! BECAUSE WHY? I DON'T KNOW, I JUST LOVE YOU! MAYBE BECAUSE OF YOUR STRONG JAW AND GOLDEN SKIN AND BLOND HIGHLIGHTS AND LACK OF A PERSONALITY. THAT IS PROBABLY IT.

I LOVE YOU TOO! AND I WILL PROTECT YOU! AND NEVER LET YOU DO ANYTHING! EVEN THOUGH YOU ALREADY SAVED YOURSELF AND YOUR BROTHER FROM HORRIBLE ALIENS!


i think i need to go lie down now.

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Yang read and liked Robin's review of The Unbearable Lightness of Being:

"I felt this book was contrived and to me it seemed as if the author tried desperately to sound intellectual. Instead he came off egotistical. First off all the meandering about Nietzche and quite frankly he set me off to start off by making statem...more I felt this book was contrived and to me it seemed as if the author tried desperately to sound intellectual. Instead he came off egotistical. First off all the meandering about Nietzche and quite frankly he set me off to start off by making statements I couldn't agree but he goes right on as if it is a trueism that everyone must believe in.

To be quite frank the characters were boring. The prose was uninteresting. There was no emotion, no real depth, and how many times to I have to hear about him pluking the woman from the reed basket - please!

Another reviewer mentioned slogging thorugh life and this book - I couldn't agree more - it was a chore and that's not what we read for. I finally "gave up the ghost" so maybe I shouldn't review it since I've not read it all the way through but bad is bad, and I can't see how this was going to turn itself around.

This author has created a facade - he talks a good story, with lots of smoke and mirrors with words that sound intellectual but there is no real depth there.

(Overrated) Rhetorical games, combined with recurrent references to Nietzsche and Beethoven, create an intellectual facade that seems much weightier than it really is. Built on many false presumptions and bolstered by an epic, scholarly tone, the novel has potential to be interesting in its musings, but just can't be taken seriously as a work of philosophical or psychological depth.

I would recommend that people avoid this book - There are so much better uses of their time.

Robin
robin.sullivan.dc@gmail.com
Medieval fantasy series: The Crown Conspiracy (Oct 2008), Avempartha (April 2009)
Upcoming Book Signings at: http://www.michaelsullivan-author.com/Mi...
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