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July 03
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Fanny
gave
to:
Messages from Your Angels (Paperback)
by Doreen Virtue
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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June 10
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Fanny
gave
to:
Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas Novel, Book 1)
by Dean Koontz
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in June, 2008
Fanny said:
"Excellent book!
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Fanny
read and liked
Matt's
review of Earthbound:
"A Chilling Ghost story. Dark and fascinating. Grabs you immediately. I could not put it down. It's hightly erotic,sometimes disturbingly so. Beneath the the ghost story is an intelligent probing of the relationshiop between mind and body, and a sharp...more
A Chilling Ghost story. Dark and fascinating. Grabs you immediately. I could not put it down. It's hightly erotic,sometimes disturbingly so. Beneath the the ghost story is an intelligent probing of the relationshiop between mind and body, and a sharp and provoking contrast between lust and craving on the one hand, with it'd deadly and empty results; and Love and intimacy on the other, with it's power to renew, redeem, and and ultimately save us all . . from ourselves. ...less
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June 03
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New comment on Matt's review of
Odd Hours (Odd Thomas Novel, Book 4)
(see all 2 comments)
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April 16
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Fanny
added:
The Other Boleyn Girl (Paperback)
by Philippa Gregory
bookshelves:
wishlist
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Fanny
read and liked
John's
review of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War:
"There are reasons to be wary of this book. The title is a little silly, and Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide was tongue in cheek. Hell, he's the son of legendary comedy director Mel Brooks. And zombies are creatures that gained popularity tha...more
There are reasons to be wary of this book. The title is a little silly, and Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide was tongue in cheek. Hell, he's the son of legendary comedy director Mel Brooks. And zombies are creatures that gained popularity thanks to film, which is contrary to the nature of most good creatures. Vampires, ghosts, wizards, witches, dragons, orcs, goblins, angels, werewolves and even Frankenstein's undead abomination came from literature first, and entered film later. Film seldom contributes originality to prose. Fortunately Max Brooks pulled off a minor miracle in adapting the largely theatrical terror into the written word, by use of the literary apocalypse convention and oral stories. Our familiarity with the outlines of a zombie outbreak (or any plague outbreak) from so many films helps fill in the gaps between his various storytellers' accounts.
Brooks has a remarkable sense of voice, and places the various interviewees well, such that they sound all the more distinct in contrast to the preceeding and following speaker. We get a lot of interesting subjects, from the country doctor in China who treated the first "bite," to a hitman hired to protect a millionaire mogul, to a blind man who somehow managed to survive in the most infested parts of Japan - Hiroshima. Thus we also get a total sense of the rise and fall of the outbreak, with each arc illustrated by brilliant personal narratives of "true" stories from those periods that give us a sense of not just the plot, but how culture changed in this fictional earth. The narrative is unified by the interviewer who visits them and directs parts of their story, but only enough so that we can both enjoy the overarching plot and the survivors' stories.
Like the best science fiction the outlandish premise allows us to get a fresh view of real human issues. Brooks approaches such issues on multiple levels, from simple human interests like base selfishness and how we act in desperation, to political crises, such as early on in the book when the Israelis and Palestinians blame each other for the plague, and even claim it is a hoax perpetrated by their enemies. Many of the characters are inspired by people from real life, like Howard Dean, Karl Rove and Nelson Mandela - but rather than coming off as cheesy, they lend an air of authenticity to the tale. There is just enough real tension, both base and topical, to lend it the right aura for a great exercise in modern fantasy/sci fi - it's easily one of the best fantasy/sci fi books set in the modern world I've read in quite some time.
The quality of Brooks' book was totally unexpected. This was supposed to be a spin-off from an impulse-buy. But by the time you finish World War Z I think you'll hope along with me that this, his first work of fiction, won't be his last....less
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Fanny
gave
to:
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Hardcover)
by Max Brooks
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: Anyone fascinated with Zombies...
read in March, 2008
Fanny said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
My kids and I have this love...more
This was an amazing 'history' book. Written in the form of interviews and the entire book presented as 'fact', regarding the terrible Zombie war. I was impressed (and not a little bit scared) by the subject matter.
My kids and I have this love/hate relationship with Zombies. All of us have had nightmares about them, I wonder why? Could it be that there really WAS a Zombie war, someplace, sometime? In a past life? (j/k!)
This is an impressive book of information about Zombies, answering alot of unanswered questions. Such as, did you know that a Zombie's eyes are not cloudy because they are dead? No. They are cloudy from all the scratches covering the lenses. They do not blink after all, and there are no tears to lubricate them even if they did, and there is always dust and impurities in the air. I found that one little bit of information alone fascinating.
What this book DOES do is make you wonder, if such an event actually happened would these events happen? Like the people who were not Zombies but suffered some terrible psychological break where they believed they WERE Zombies and the 'interviewees' who discussed them said they were the most dangerous of all.
Then they describe the millions upon millions of Zombies walking the ocean floor... that gave me chills reading that part! Even when the war is over, there are still dead walking the ocean.
I highly recommend this book!! ...less
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February 01
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Fanny
read and liked
Jason's
review of The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, Book 7):
"WARNING! THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS, ONCE YOU GET PAST THE PART "THE ENDING:". DO NOT READ ON UNLESS YOU WANT IT SPOILED FOR YOU! YOU WERE WARNED!
I finished the Dark Tower last night. I hadn't plannet to, I really needed to get to ...more
WARNING! THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS, ONCE YOU GET PAST THE PART "THE ENDING:". DO NOT READ ON UNLESS YOU WANT IT SPOILED FOR YOU! YOU WERE WARNED!
I finished the Dark Tower last night. I hadn't plannet to, I really needed to get to bed, but once I got so close, I had to continue.
Wow ... hard to find the words, really. (This email will likely be longish)
THE SERIES: I think the Dark Tower series is King's crowning achievement as a writer. He has created a world as rich as any other fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror epic, replete with a fasincating history and characters that make you aching for more. In Roland Deschain, he's created I think his greatest and most dynamic character. He is dark, brooding, yet classicly heroic all at once, full of, like all real people, many contradictions and inner turmoils. His quest for the Dark Tower I feel is not only a holy one, not just his destiny, but something of his own personal validation, an obsession, the only way he could justify the deaths of so many loved ones and companions over the years.
The series clearly has taken on a different life from the one it started with, as most series probably do. I think King switched gears a number of times which makes for slightly shaking continuity, but I think he did his best at finding ways to weave it together. A lesser writer wouldn't have been able to do so. He has said he plans or at least would like to rewrite them, and I think that is interesting and would love to read them again. I probably will whether he does so or not.
THE ENDING: The part you're waiting for. The part we all read seven big books for.
I realized at least two or three books ago that there would be no way he could end it that would please everybody. And as I read on, I had no idea how he'd end it and decided to have no preconceived notions or hopes.
But boy, I sure didn't expect that!
I have to say, that upon reading the intro to the final chapter from the Storyteller himself, the warning to not read on and leave the story as it is, I was tempted to do so. I know many wouldn't agree with me, but I think Roland entering the Dark Tower and the doors shutting behind him wouldn't be a bad way to end the book. It would leave it to your imagination, what he would find there. I really almost put it down to sleep on it. But then I thought no, I have to go on. I've come this far!
Yes, in a way, the ending is tragic, sad, and extremely unfair. We have read now thousands of pages worth of Roland Deschain's torments and struggles he's gone through to get this far, and then only to have been blasted back to the beginning? It's horrible. It makes you angry. Or at least shocked. A knee jerk reaction might be to say that it was a cop out, that King didn't know how to end the book at went this route at the last minute.
I don't really believe that.
In a way, yes, I find the ending bittering. My heart really is broken for Roland. I don't think I've ever read a book with an ending that has left me so effected. I even reread the very end of it again this morning over breakfast. Yes, the ending is bittering, and yet, I love it in a lot of ways too. Not love it as in this is the way I think it should have ended, but love it because it knocked me on my backside, love it in the way that you can love a bad thing at times. In a way, to me at least, the ending just might make a little sense.
It you really think about it ... what did you expect to happen to Roland once he reached the top of the Tower? Would he pass into a sort of Heaven, rejoined with his love Susan and his former Ka mates? That is probably the ending some people wanted. And if that's what happened, I would have been fine with that too. Would he have confronted God himself? And if so, what would Roland have done before such a God? Roland, one of the things that makes him so wonderful, is kind of a jerk. After all that trouble, all that sacrifice, if said God said something Roland didn't like, I think, much like Conan, he'd tell his Maker to take a flying leap, maybe even draw his gun on him and get blasted into nothingness.
But why this? Why the torture? I think the answer is in Roland himself. I think it's a sort of punishment for Roland's arrogance and pride. I think Roland's destiny was to save the Beam, save the Dark Tower. He did that. But he insisted on moving on. He insisted on going to the top of the Dark Tower, something that is perhaps forbidden by Gan or the Powers That Be. He saved the Dark Tower, saved the Beam, and yet it was not enough. As always (and as echoed by the voices he hears at the end of the book) he has to have it His way. And for that, I think, like something out of Greek myth, he has to pay a price.
And as King himself says in the Afterword, there is a bit of hope. In the next incarnation, he has the Horn of Eld. Something he didn't have in the previous. Perhaps, just perhaps, with some more trial and error, once the Beam and the Tower saved (perhaps stilling getting all the way, so as to kill the Crimson King), Roland may just turn around and go back to the Callas, and live out the rest of his days quiet and peacefully, maybe as a sort of Sheriff, then going to the Clearing at the End of the Path, and THEN be united withi Susan, Cuthbert, Alain, and the rest.
Maybe I'm just grateful that King didn't end it the way I feared. The more I read on, and the more sai King appeared, I was terrified and more and more certain that once Roland met face to face with the Crimson King, that it would be Stephen King himself. I even started to fear that the name, the Crimson KING was a clue. Thankfully, I was wrong. And then, I feared even worse, that once he got to the top of the tower, that there he'd find Stephen King, sitting in a pseudo office of sorts, surrounded by old books and manuscripts, as mad as the Hatter, banging away at an old typewriter and tossing the crumpled up pages over his shoulder making a big pile. That's what I feared, and compared to that, I like this ending just fine. ...less
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New comment on Jason's review of
The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, Book 7)
(see all 2 comments)
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January 06
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Fanny
gave
to:
Papillon (Paperback)
by Henri Charrière
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Yes it really was wonderful, thank you for recommending! I have so many books to read now and Patricia Cornwell came yesterday yikes! It is a big old hard back but WHAT a deal all 3 books in one!
I see you finnished Geisha!!!! Did you love it or what!!!!!!!!!
