Jennifer (coriandersea) - Philadelphia, PA (254 books)

Jennifer gave

to:

House of Many Ways (Castle, #3)
by Diana Wynne Jones

read in February, 2012

My rating:

I thought this might be better than the other Castle sequel, but I was a bit disappointed. Neither of them were great.

Charmain reminded me a lot of Sophie in the way she could tell something to work and her natural "magic" would make it happen. Th...more

Jennifer gave

to:

Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë

read in February, 2012

My rating:

Reread this for the 2012 Classic Challenge. I loved this book tremendously when I first read it 15 years ago. Now, however, there's so much I see subject to scrutiny. It's still a great story, but only for those who like super sappy romances with a d...more

Jennifer gave

to:

The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1)
by John Buchan

read in January, 2012

My rating:

Dud number two of the 2012 Classics reading challenge. I read somewhere that this book was a sort of precursor to the modern mystery/thriller novel and though I can see why it would be, it's a rather bad start to the genre, IMHO.

The writing came ac...more

Jennifer is finished with The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1)
by John Buchan

progress:

My rating:

Jennifer gave

to:

Nicholas Nickleby
by Charles Dickens

read in January, 2012

My rating:

I was completely bored of this by the end. The Disney-ish ending was simply nauseating to say the least. Yes, everyone got exactly what was coming to them and what would be expected, but it was so obvious I didn't feel much more than bored by it.
I r...more

Jennifer gave

to:

Barefoot Running Step by Step by Ken Bob Saxton

Barefoot Running Step by Step: Barefoot Ken Bob, The Guru of Shoeless Running, Shares His Personal Technique
by Ken Bob Saxton

read in January, 2012

My rating:

After reading Born to Run, this was a nice change. The writing was tolerable and interesting - to a point.

I applaud Ken Bob's enthusiasm, but had to sneer and roll my eyes a few times at how extremist he comes across. His tips and steps for runnin...more

Jennifer gave

to:

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall

read in December, 2011

My rating:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

While reading this, I developed a love/hate relationship with it. Not because of the content, but because of the way it was written.

Summary: Big dude goes running and constantly hurts himself and wants to know why. While on some boring journalist ...moreWhile reading this, I developed a love/hate relationship with it. Not because of the content, but because of the way it was written.

Summary: Big dude goes running and constantly hurts himself and wants to know why. While on some boring journalist assignment he comes across super runners article in a magazine and decides to hunt down his new inspiration: the Tarahumara people. Lots of little stories about crazy ultra marathon runners, hippies, scientists, and how Nike is EVIL included.

The first half of the book deals with small stories and their 3-tiered sub-stories. It can get a bit annoying reading about one story within another within another. When all the somewhat confusing (and unnecessary) backpedaling was done and the actual plot comes into view I was a bit exasperated. But all the backstories were nothing compared to his inability to write what he means and resort to using pop cultural metaphors.

It's obvious he's a magazine writer. Each little sub-story had it's own climax and after a while it comes across as a series of small magazine articles loosely held together. Being on a roller coaster like that can only be entertaining for so long. The ups and downs of THIS. IS. THE. GREATEST type moments and statements throughout numbed me to anything else that might truly be grandiose by the time I was halfway done. But what was worse were all the metaphors. At first, the metaphors referring to everything from pop stars to popular drinks to comic book characters (and everything in between with a good dose of poorly used idioms) was amusing - for two pages. But when I realized I was coming across these AT LEAST five times per page I was spending more time rolling my eyes in the back of my head than reading. Some of the metaphors even had me scratching my head, wondering what the hell McDougall was thinking. Some are used as explanations, some are used to reinforce what he just stated (trying to be funny, I guess), and some make no sense at all. Unless you are a subscriber to about ten pop culture magazines and have been for at least 20 years, I'm not certain everyone who reads the book will get all the metaphors, which is a shame because the subject is fascinating. In an effort to make his writing seem clever, relevant and cool, he was putting me off by being a cliche spouting one-trick pony with his writing.

For a while I was inspired to run while reading this, but when his backstories and descriptions of the ultramarathoners starting piling up I realized I had no desire to ever meet any of these people, and as a result, started backing away from the idea of running as well. Sure, they are great runners and I bet a lot could be learned from the way they run, but their personalities as depicted on the pages of this book had me sneering. Ok, I get it, they are the 'crazy' ones and you have to be a little crazy to be this type of ultra runner in today's society, but it still didn't move me. If anything, I almost felt disappointed some of them didn't get lost (permanently) in the Copper Canyons.

So what's good about this book? The second half. When the plot FINALLY started rolling and the trip to the Copper Canyons for the final Ultra Race Never Known And No One Would Care About was about to happen - McDougall goes to backstory land again. However, now there was method in the tangents. He FINALLY starts getting into technical details that I'd been waiting for all along. I've recently become interested in barefoot running (ok, not entirely barefoot - I bought barefoot style shoes- I'm easing into it) and was hoping for technical data to help me along. While there is a very good dose of it in the book, unfortunately, there's no references. I don't know if it's because I read the Kindle version, but I seriously wanted footnotes and an appendix to research at the end. There wasn't one. Again, it might be the Kindle version, but if it's not, then McDougall's credibility falls even flatter with me. In a book where everything comes across as OMG. BIGGEST. BESTEST. FASTEST. NOTHING COMPARES SO DON'T EVEN TRY I start to snort, "Back it up, bitch." Give me the references! In other words, I get skeptical. There's plenty he paraphrased that could be referenced and provide fascinating further study. I understand he's a prize-winning journalist who is supposed to do his homework before writing a story for a magazine or whatever publication - even a book, but I found the style of writing so off-putting I felt he was bullshitting me to a degree.

Ok, so that was yet another complaint of the book, but still, the second half did pick up and was more inspirational and had me back in the mode to run again. The technical info was interesting, so my curiosity returned. When the plot focused back on the Ultra Race I was already trying to figure out if it would come across as a happy Disney Let's-All-Hold-Hands-And-Cross-The-Line-Together ending. After learning how drunk/egotistical/competitive/selfish the ultra runners were before the race, the ending seemed set up for an annoying group hug at the end. I was happily disappointed. There was a first, second, and third place, and THEN all the happy hippie hugging at the end.

Several times I did stop to look up the names of people and subjects mentioned in the book (again, another reason for an appendix). I wanted to know more about the old distance runners, the evolution of the running shoe, and the secret super foods of the Tarahumara people. It's been a LONG time since a book could make me stop mid-sentence because the Need To Know about a subject had me itching to do Google searches. That's a major plus for this book.

By the end, my desire to learn better form in running had greatly increased. Loose ends were tied up regarding the Ultra Race and who the hell was the White-Horse-Shaggy-True-Dog dude. I would've liked a bit more about the Tarahumara people and the history of running/running shoes than the history of freakazoid ultramarathoners, but the ending was good. The question posed at the beginning of the book of, "Why does my foot hurt?" was never explicitly answered. That loose end would've been nice to tie up with a more personal note from the author, but never happened. The subject was fascinating, but if it hadn't been written in such a poor way I would've loved this book and added it to my favorites. As is, I don't think I'd bother reading it again.(less)

Jennifer gave

to:

The Art of Howl's Moving Castle
by Hayao Miyazaki

read in December, 2011

My rating:

Love.
It was such a joy to read the "behind the scenes" look at this film, which is my favorite of all Miyazaki's. Understanding the processes behind the character sketches and transformations, what was done in CG, and little insights of what was tru...more

Jennifer marked as to-read:

Theophilus North
by Thornton Wilder

My rating:

Jennifer gave

to:

The Angel of Darkness (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #2)
by Caleb Carr

My rating:

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Jennifer gave to: House of Many Ways (Castle, #3) by Diana Wynne Jones read in February, 2012	My rating:
I thought this might be better than the other Castle sequel, but I was a bit disappointed. Neither of them were great. Charmain reminded me a lot of Sophie in the way she could tell something to work and her natural "magic" would make it happen. Th...more
Feb 10, 2012 03:12pm · see review
Jennifer gave to: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë read in February, 2012	My rating:
Reread this for the 2012 Classic Challenge. I loved this book tremendously when I first read it 15 years ago. Now, however, there's so much I see subject to scrutiny. It's still a great story, but only for those who like super sappy romances with a d...more
Feb 06, 2012 12:54pm · see review
Jennifer gave to: The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1) by John Buchan read in January, 2012	My rating:
Dud number two of the 2012 Classics reading challenge. I read somewhere that this book was a sort of precursor to the modern mystery/thriller novel and though I can see why it would be, it's a rather bad start to the genre, IMHO. The writing came ac...more
Jan 23, 2012 03:17pm · see review
Jennifer is finished with The 39 Steps The 39 Steps (Richard Hannay, #1) by John Buchan progress:	My rating:
Jan 23, 2012 03:04pm · like · see status
Jennifer gave to: Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens read in January, 2012	My rating:
I was completely bored of this by the end. The Disney-ish ending was simply nauseating to say the least. Yes, everyone got exactly what was coming to them and what would be expected, but it was so obvious I didn't feel much more than bored by it. I r...more
Jan 17, 2012 02:17pm · see review
Jennifer gave to: Barefoot Running Step by Step: Barefoot Ken Bob, The Guru of Shoeless Running, Shares His Personal Technique by Ken Bob Saxton read in January, 2012	My rating:
After reading Born to Run, this was a nice change. The writing was tolerable and interesting - to a point. I applaud Ken Bob's enthusiasm, but had to sneer and roll my eyes a few times at how extremist he comes across. His tips and steps for runnin...more
Jan 04, 2012 12:19pm · see review
Jennifer gave to: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall read in December, 2011	My rating:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Dec 30, 2011 03:06pm · see review
Jennifer gave to: The Art of Howl's Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki read in December, 2011	My rating:
Love. It was such a joy to read the "behind the scenes" look at this film, which is my favorite of all Miyazaki's. Understanding the processes behind the character sketches and transformations, what was done in CG, and little insights of what was tru...more
Dec 29, 2011 09:01pm · see review
Jennifer marked as to-read: Theophilus North by Thornton Wilder	My rating:
Dec 04, 2011 07:58pm
Jennifer gave to: The Angel of Darkness (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #2) by Caleb Carr	My rating:
Dec 04, 2011 07:51pm

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