false 0 80 58 true 5682031 read 1 true 5092628 currently-reading 21 true 5092616 to-read 5 false 5092676 childhood http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57116423 to: Here They Come (Paperback) by Yannick Murphy
The basic premise: Holden Caulfield's long-estranged sister speaks her mind from a maggot-infested apartment in the boroughs of New York. Brought to you by McSweeney's, of course.

I liked this quite a bit, Ms. Murphy--although if Freud were to take a long, hard look at this novel, he'd say you almost certainly have some major daddy issues; not a single male character redeems himself for his sins in this novel. But sometimes a dude just, you know, doesn't. I can dig.

This novel is certainly worth a read for the new perspective that it offeres. I've never seen a character quite like this girl. Read it. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57116915 to: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler (Paperback) by E.L. Konigsburg
This book, like all other E.L. Konigsburg books, was actually written by one Margot Tenenbaum.

From the Mixed Up Files is really excellent, subtly magical childhood reading--some of my best summer vacation memories are of reading this book late into the night with a flashlight in hand, the crickets strumming away outside. I must have read it fifteen times.
Buy this book for your kids, and make them slow down their tightly-wound lives enough to enjoy it. Then take them to a local museum. On a leash. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57116148 to: Moby-Dick: or, The Whale (Penguin Classics) by Herman Melville
The only way to make this story even vaguely interesting is to interpret all of its phallic symbols as you read--straight down to the title.

Read Bartleby the Scrivener instead. Or better yet, abandon Melville altogether and read something of actual substance. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57116441 to: High Fidelity (Paperback) by Nick Hornby
I picked this book up as a casual read, assuming that it would be a fun, sugar-coated brain vacation peppered with pop music references and quirky quotes from Barry. (Dumb, I know, but sometimes that's what we want.) Of course, what I got instead was Hornby's wry, witty insight into the workings of long-term love relationships--a frank and much-needed perusal of relational and personal stagnancies, "settling," the phenomena of itchy feet and infidelities, the possibility of a devotional and creative revival, and all.

The greatest truths are found in fiction. Read this novel in the fifth year of your relationship, when you're getting itchy feet. I can almost guarantee that you'll re-assess your circumstances, for better or worse. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/57116077 to: The Great Gatsby (Paperback) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
bookshelves: currently-reading
The Great Gatsby is basically a literary cocktail party teeming with overgrown, overprivileged, and ultimately disenfranchised boys and girls who are uncertain of how to define themselves in a climate in which social and economic expectations and roles are constantly evolving. I think what I like the most about this story is how each and every character (minus, perhaps, the narrator) is absolutely abhorrent on some level. F. Scott Fitzgerald's characters are truly fascinating: they're glamorous yet uncultured, hardened yet vulnerable, seemingly simple yet deceivingly complex, spoiled and pampered yet discontent. In short, they're wonderfully, repulsively American, straight to the core. You'll love, hate, and most likely recognize at least a few aspects of yourself within them.

Short of a few choice excerpts, I didn't find this story particularly extraordinary in terms of content. The themes of social disenfranchisement and the delicacy of the American Dream are kind of old news after growing up with early 90s MTV (bahaha)--though I'm sure that during its time, The Great Gatsby probably felt fresh and unspoiled. To me, the true redeeming quality of this story was in the nuance of Fitzgerald's descriptions of mundane scenes and settings. Chiggity check:

"The lawn started at the beachand ran toward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens--finally when it reached the house, drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of its run."

"He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening fora moment longer to the tuning-fork that had been struckc upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower, and the incarnation was complete."

"So engrossed was she that she had no consciousness of being observed, and one emotion after another crept into her face like objects into a slowly developing picture."

"There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went, like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars."

The book is certainly worth a read for its lyricism at the very least. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58791090 The Grapes of Wrath (Paperback) by John Steinbeck
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58791070 Cannery Row (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58791050 The Road (Hardcover) by Cormac McCarthy
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58791018 The Code of the Woosters (Everyman Wodehouse) by P.G. Wodehouse
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/58613353 A Handbook to Luck (Hardcover) by Cristina Garcia
bookshelves: to-read
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