false 3 74 68 true 6072311 read 4 true 3940201 currently-reading 2 true 3940200 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80538488 A Man in Full (Hardcover) by Tom Wolfe
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/80537505 to: The Ugly American (Paperback) by William J. Lederer
It was fun reading an Issue book when The Issue in question has no immediate relevance to me today (except if I wanted to draw parallels to today's foreign policy, which I didn't). It was like watching the movies Traffic or Syriana or Fast Food Nation, except I wasn't required to give a damn. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79924830 to: The Bell Jar (Paperback) by Sylvia Plath
It grew on me after I finished it, when I realized how coldly detached the narrator was from herself. Sarcasm without humor, insight without inspiration. Even (and especially) the nervous breakdown felt like it was happening to somebody else. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79583796 to: Raging Bull: My Story (Paperback) by Jake La Motta
Turns out, the guy's even crazier than Scorcese made him out to be. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79590219 Lush Life: A Novel (Audio CD) by Richard Price
bookshelves: currently-reading
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74624824 to: Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (Hardcover) by Barbara Ehrenreich
A nice, breezy read, with lots of fun trivia. It's strange how a book about how we're trying too hard to be upbeat can make me feel so good about myself. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77677120 to: Winesburg, Ohio (Audio CD) by Sherwood Anderson
Would've been a five if the audio hadn't gone all folksy on me. I was looking forward to some good old fashioned American misanthropy, where the warmest emotion the author feels for his characters is the sympathy of a cruel god, but the way the cast was reading it, I may as well have been listening to Garrison Keillor. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78580674 to: Fast and fancy revolver shooting (Unknown Binding) by Ed McGivern
If I were more into guns, this would be one of the best books ever. Published in the 1930s by self-trained sharpshooter Ed McGivern, it takes a scientific approach to shooting revolvers, maintaining all the while that with enough effort almost anyone can pull off amazing acts of gunplay. Most of the book is detailed instruction, but when it veers off topic, it's sheer gold, like when the book praises J. Edgar Hoover and the G-Men, or defends some of the feats of the great gun fighters of the Old West, or demonstrates how people can make "bullet art" by shooting simple pictures into tin through precisely placed bullet holes. And it comes with tons of pictures, like Ed McGivern's wife throwing up targets in the air for her husband to shoot, or various people standing behind bullet-proof glass and getting shot at to demonstrate the glass's effectiveness. The book brought a city boy like me as close as he'll ever get to wanting to own a gun. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72997630 to: The Death of Bunny Munro: A Novel (Audio CD) by Nick Cave
Not even the great music, not even Nick Cave reading it could make up for the fact that there was only enough good material for a novel about 1/4 as long. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74014001 to: Rogue Male (Paperback) by Geoffrey Household
I found out about this book because of a TV movie with Peter O'Toole. When I got around to the book, I knew I should like it. The characters were sophisticated, the prose flawless. The novel was concise and beautiful, but I could only read about seven pages at a time before giving up on it and trying something else for a little while. It's a great novel. I know it. I just can't prove it to myself. ]]>