false 38 118 113 true 5649748 read 4 true 424710 currently-reading 1 true 424709 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77878285 teresa's review of Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace

I loved this book, but I have to admit, towards the end, I lost interest in everything but the character in rehab and was skimming through the tennis bits pretty blatantly. Also, won't say any more about this, since you're still reading, but it ends as if he ran out of paper. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/78194840 to: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Hardcover) by Barbara Kingsolver
I can't remember the last time I was so queasy about a book I basically agree with. Organic is good. Local organic is better. Raise animals humanely. Cook your own. Eat food in season. All good ideas, but the messianic tone makes me want a big ole salad with cucumbers...in January. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70662901 AJ's review of Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
by Barbara Ehrenreich

Yes, this looks good. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/77241905 to: The Kingdom Beyond the Waves (Hardcover) by Stephen Hunt
Ambitious but not especially coherent sci/fi fantasy novel about a lost civilization buried in a jungle lake...good ideas, murky development. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76191440 to: The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee (Paperback) by Stewart Lee Allen
Part goofball travelogue, part anecdotal history of coffee. The author travels from Ethiopia to Yemen to Turkey to Vienna to Paris and finally to the US, tracing the major developments in the humble cup of joe. He has terrible judgment, continually involving , he becomes enmeshed in a con which involves shipping counterfeit paintings from Calcutta to Paris. He is stopped in rural Tennessee by police and has his car searched. The cops find a vial of pure caffeine ordered over the internet, which they immediately assume is cocaine. It's one ridiculous mishap after another, with breaks for discussion of the colorful history of coffee. My favorite part, perhaps because it makes me feel better about my wine with dinner habit, proposes that the switch from alcohol to coffee made the enlightenment possible, since people were not always stumbling around drunk, as in medieval times. He writes:

"Beer for breakfast, ale for lunch, stout with dinner and a few mugs in between. The average Northern European, including women and children drank three liters of beer a day. That's almost two six-packs, but often the beer had a much higher alcoholic content. People in positions of power, like the police, drank much more. Finnish soldiers were given a ration of five liters of strong ale a day (about as much as seven six-packs). Monks in Sussex made do with 12 cans worth."

Sounds like Dartmouth.

Anyway...silly but fun. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75990322 to: Gone to the Dogs (Paperback) by Mary Guterson
Definitely a guilty pleasure, about as close to chick lit as I can bring myself, but very snarky and funny in spots, and how can you resist a book where, in the very first chapter, our heroine steals her exe's dog? I haven't had a romantic break up since the 1980s, but for some reason, strongly identified...maybe cos I love dogs?

Anyway, fun but lightweight. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75883586 Jennifer's review of Inherent Vice
by Thomas Pynchon

It's a lot more accessible and 300-400 pages shorter. GIve it a shot. I still haven't finished Gravity's Rainbow, though I've started it maybe five times and once got through more than 400 pages. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/75883586 to: Inherent Vice (Hardcover) by Thomas Pynchon
Possibly the most cracked and brilliant gumshoe novel ever, set in LA (and maybe Lemuria, too), amongst reformed real estate predators, beach babes, druggies, surf band saxophonists, maritime lawyers and a sinister cartel named the Golden Fang. You really think you're in a detective novel and start to get comfortable and then Pynchon pulls one of his surreal asides out and you realize you are not in Kansas anymore.

I did get kind of confused and exhausted towards the end, but since this is not Gravity's Rainbow-long, managed to finish anyway. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/74824370 to: The Stalin Epigram: A Novel (Hardcover) by Robert Littell
Weirdly, this is kind of a crowd-pleasing page turner about the life of a poet under Stalin. It's told in half a dozen voices, including the poet's wife, his actress mistress, one of Stalin's bodyguards, another poet and a circus strongman. I gather it's a true story, more or less, and based on extensive interviews and research. But it nonetheless has a bit of a airport novel feel to it...serious subject, treatment a bit pulpy, but interesting. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73996966 Jennifer's review of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh: A Novel (P.S.)
by Michael Chabon

Yeah, love that movie. Tobey Macguire pre-Spiderman when it seemed like he was still going to turn into an interesting actor.

I don't think the last paragraph gives away any plot points. ]]>