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August 03
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Lori
gave
 
to:
The Other (Hardcover)
by David Guterson
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
Lori said:
"A boy from a working-class Seattle family and a boy from one of the wealthiest upper-crust Seattle families become friends in high school and maintain that friendship as one of them becomes a high school English teacher and one rejects all societal v...more
A boy from a working-class Seattle family and a boy from one of the wealthiest upper-crust Seattle families become friends in high school and maintain that friendship as one of them becomes a high school English teacher and one rejects all societal values and becomes a backwoods hermit ala Christopher McCandless. The narrative wanders forward and backward in time at a slow, introspective pace. All characters, even minor ones, are given full backstories and at least a chapter or two of description and information. Seattle and its surroundings receive lots of description, again in that measured, word upon word pace. But every time I would start to feel bogged down by all this info and writerly writing, the narrative would pick up the thread of the friendship between Neil Countryman and John William and draw me back in.
...less
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Lori
gave
to:
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (Paperback)
by Christopher Moore
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my rating:
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read in June, 2008
Lori said:
"Listened to this on audiobook during a recent road trip. This book reminded me of a Saturday Night Live skit: great concept that somehow wasn't as good in the execution. It's highly irreverent and very funny. The first third is also thought-provo...more
Listened to this on audiobook during a recent road trip. This book reminded me of a Saturday Night Live skit: great concept that somehow wasn't as good in the execution. It's highly irreverent and very funny. The first third is also thought-provoking and quite sweet. I really enjoyed the depiction of Joshua (Jesus) as a child, trying to come to grips with his abilities, with whether or not he really is the son of God and what, exactly, that means for him and for his people. Also loved the friendship between Biff, Joshua and Maggie (Mary Magdalene) as childhood pals, teasing and protecting each other, secure in their places in a tight Jewish community even while they bump against its strictures.
I liked the author's idea of exploring Jesus' young-adulthood, the part of his life that is a big blank in the Bible. Joshua and Biff leave home to explore other places and cultures, with Joshua taking ideas and teachings and wisdom from those other places and cultures and incorporating them to form his own gospel. Joshua grows into a man and comes into his own on this physical and spiritual journey. But this is also where the book became too ridiculous for me to suspend belief and remain immersed in the story. Chinese concubines? A cartoon-like demon? Sasquatch? I felt stuck in a roadrunner/Wily Coyote episode. Fun to read, naughty and funny, but I missed the thoughtful undertone of the beginning of the book, and I increasingly wondered why Biff remained unaffected by all of his time and shared expereiences witih Joshua. Biff was the ultimate loyal friend, sure, but he remains a caricature--a horny wisecracker. Likewise all of the other apostles--the depictions are funny, but they remain totally flat and buffoonish. I wanted them to really feel something, to question, to show emotion beyond their one-word stereotypes (the village idiot, the fanatic, the penny pincher, the surfer...). It felt like the author got tired and resorted to goofball humor rather than trying to tackle a more serious effort to explore the different reasons these men took up with Joshua and what they may or may not have believed and understood about the ministry they helped create.
The ending was also a letdown. The author seems overwhelmed by how to handle the known story of Jesus' trial and crucifixion. Biff's lack of dimension really comes out here, as the narrative degenerates into Biff's desperate, frantic chase to prevent Joshua from killing himself. It felt like the author didn't quite know what to do with Biff once he arrived at the end of Jesus' life and what he does decide to do to tie it up was disappointing....less
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August 01
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Lori
gave
to:
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia (Paperback)
by Elizabeth Gilbert
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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July 15
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Lori
read and liked
Kristen's
review of Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal:
" Remember back in 9th grade when you wrote a wonderful, insightful papers for every assignment and then, eventually, you got cocky, got drunk on your own brilliance, got sloppy and lazy with self assurance? And, inevitably, your next paper wou...more
Remember back in 9th grade when you wrote a wonderful, insightful papers for every assignment and then, eventually, you got cocky, got drunk on your own brilliance, got sloppy and lazy with self assurance? And, inevitably, your next paper would come back with a comment from your teacher that went something like this "Accurate, and mildly interesting, but doesn't compare with your previous work...What happened?" This is what I felt like writing in my copy of "Lamb" about 120 pages in.
There's a really lovely forward to this book, inviting believers and non believers alike to enjoy the book, take what they need from it, disregard the rest. I should have liked to take the first 1/3 of the book and left the rest. The story's protagonist is not Christ himself, but his best buddy Biff, brough back from the dead by an angel of the Lord. The reason for Biff's resurrection is that the Powers that Be (Uh, God) has decided that the Bible doesn't really tell us enough of what happens to Jesus between the time He's born and around 30, when He becomes a big deal with His proclaiming to be the Son of God bit. So, Biff is brought back by the angel Raziel to write the Gospel According to Biff, giving us an insight to Jesus from the man who knew him best.
What a great idea. It's such a great idea, that as a writer, I'm jealous and annoyed I didn't come up with it first. Anyone unclear as to why they've never come across a "Biff" in their readings of Leviticus or Matthew should note that the protagonist's real name is Levi. He's just called Biff. Just like Jesus Christ, who's name in Hebrew translates to Joshua. At first I thought this was a clever trick of Moore's, enabling the reader to see past what we already know about Jesus Christ by giving that character a new name. That was, of course, before I got to the chapter where Joshua and Biff are living in a desert fortress with one of the three Magi and seven Asian concubines. Yup. You read that sentence correctly. Incidentally, that's where it all went down hill for me.
The early chapters are full of clever twists on things we already know or think we know about the life of Jesus in 5 B.C. We meet a young Mary Magdalene, and surprise surprise, she does have a crush on the Boy Who Would be the Savior, but her story take a delicious turn I didn't see coming and won't spoil for you. We also meet Jes..um, Joshua's parents, Joseph and Mary, and get a little insight into the caprenter and the virgin who produced the world's most famous son. The world of Joshua and Biff is contextualized for us, made relatable, by modern day Biff, reminiscing not only on his childhood but trying to compare it to this strange world he suddenly finds himself alone in.
Then, with almost no warning, the innocent reader is thrust into a world of sex, drugs, and kung fu. My complaint is not with the sex, drugs, kung fu, meditation, yaks, human sacrifices, and bull violating but with the seemnig randomness in the story. It's like Moore got a little too comfortable with how well he was going and jumped the shark. I have no problem with the fact that theoretically Jesus, oh right, JOSHUA, would study with Buddhist monks except this...it doesn't fit in the story. Who cares iff it doesn't fit in history, this is fiction after all, but it doesn't fit in the narration.
As the book goes on, we touch in less and less with modern day Biff, losing our conduit to the world that is slowly but sreuly getting more outlandish and harder to stay connected with. And then BAM! There are the last four chapters, with the ending we all know, slapdashed on the page as if the author has to interest in them himself, so why should we? And then the books over. Arguably, that is the author's point. This book, Biff's Gospel, is about Joshua's life, not his death, and neither Moore, nor Biff, will give us the safisfaction of retreading every moment of the end, like some perverse literary "The Passion of the Christ." But to me, that is mute point. "Lamb" prides itself, from the first sentence, on shocking us with insight and irreverance for what most people think is the most mporant story of our time. The charm of the book, of Biff himself, is that he treats his pal like anybody else...well, not quite true. He treats Joshua as his best friend in the world, but not as the Savior. By repriving the reader of the true anguish at the death of a best friend, Moore looses something...His book had smarts and it had charm. What it's missing is heart. A more detailed ending could have given us that. Without it, the book was accuate and mildly interesting...what happened?
...less
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June 25
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Lori
gave
to:
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective (Hardcover)
by Kate Summerscale
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my rating:
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June 13
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Lori
gave
to:
Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season (Hardcover)
by Nick Heil
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Lori said:
"Read this immediately after finishing Michael Kodas' High Crimes, and I felt this was a better book. Heil presents thorough, engrossing research on the 2006 Everest climbing season and portraits of the climbers. He avoids finger-pointing ala Krakau...more
Read this immediately after finishing Michael Kodas' High Crimes, and I felt this was a better book. Heil presents thorough, engrossing research on the 2006 Everest climbing season and portraits of the climbers. He avoids finger-pointing ala Krakauer or grievance-airing ala Kodas, allowing the reader to draw her own conclusions from his clear-eyed writing.
I enjoyed the history he provides of mountaineering in general and Everest summit attempts in particular. However, the history portion of the book did slow down the pace and interrupt the story of the 2006 season.
Heil includes a highly valuable index at the end of the book, helpful in keeping straight the locations and people. ...less
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Lori
gave
to:
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel (Paperback)
by Lisa See
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Lori said:
"The writing in this novel came off as too amateurish, too "graduate student in women's studies" for me. I felt the author's fascination with her research finds (foot binding, nyu shu, women's relationships)overpowered the story she created...more
The writing in this novel came off as too amateurish, too "graduate student in women's studies" for me. I felt the author's fascination with her research finds (foot binding, nyu shu, women's relationships)overpowered the story she created to report what she had learned. She reported too much rather than using carefully crafted language to illustrate/illuminate her characters and their relationships. I never connected with Lily or Snow Flower on any kind of emotional level....less
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May 28
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Lori
gave
to:
Run (Hardcover)
by Ann Patchett
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Lori said:
"This was an easy read, and interesting enough that I finished it in just a couple days, but...it wasn't particularly memorable. Patchett never really addresses the sticky race issues, despite the fact that the whole book is set up around two black b...more
This was an easy read, and interesting enough that I finished it in just a couple days, but...it wasn't particularly memorable. Patchett never really addresses the sticky race issues, despite the fact that the whole book is set up around two black brothers adopted by a wealthy white family. The novel gets off to a great start with a likeable character and an involving story about a statue, but that character is killed off in the first chapter and the statue never really earns its supposed importance. Good metaphor for the whole book.
The stalker aspect is creepy and also unbelievable. The final chapter ties everything up too neatly and almost feels like Patchett ran out of wind. ...less
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May 15
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Lori
gave
to:
The Glass Castle: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Jeannette Walls
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my rating:
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Lori said:
"Another book group choice that I started reluctantly and then could not put down. I thought it would be another introspective memoir describing all the horrible childhood abuse and parental neglect the author does or does not overcome. But Walls de...more
Another book group choice that I started reluctantly and then could not put down. I thought it would be another introspective memoir describing all the horrible childhood abuse and parental neglect the author does or does not overcome. But Walls describes the outrageous events of her childhood in such a matter of fact, unaccusatory, non-self-pitying tone, I couldn't help but laugh out loud in some spots and drag my jaw off the floor in others. She does a great job of describing her life as she must have seen and felt it as a child. She clearly loves her parents despite their amazing flaws, and her bond with her sister and brother is so heart-warming and satisfying. Some of what she describes--going hungry, scavenging garbage cans and dumpsters, freezing--is so over the top that I kept wondering if it really really happened.
The fact that Walls and her siblings get themselves to Manhattan and become successful, functioning adults is evidence that they are outstanding, unusual people.
This book was riveting....less
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