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August 30
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Sabra
gave
to:
The Condemned (Paperback)
by Noah Cicero (Goodreads author!)
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: Sarah Palin
read in July, 2008
Sabra said:
"
It took me less time to read Cicero's book than it takes to watch a Blockbuster movie. About an hour. It was way cheaper too, since I found it on my friend's bookshelf, placed there by another reader/writer's recommendation. I took the book to t...more
It took me less time to read Cicero's book than it takes to watch a Blockbuster movie. About an hour. It was way cheaper too, since I found it on my friend's bookshelf, placed there by another reader/writer's recommendation. I took the book to the park down the street in Brooklyn and read it sitting alone listening to traffic and Puerto Rican children playing and waiting for the ice cream man.
The first 100 pages are about the days in a life of a pregnant stripper and the people interacting with her. Reading about her life of drugs and misery is a pornographic train wreck, but a compelling one nonetheless. It gives a glimpse of reality that most people try hard not to acknowledge in, perhaps, the avoidance of some chaotic feeling of dread in the face of disparity.
For people who have not experienced poverty, first or second hand, or a look into the life of 'the real working class' (aside from being serviced by them or not exchanging eye contact on the subway) this book will probably make you feel uncomfortable and maybe even read as vulgar, misogynistic, or asinine in some parts.
To others, like me, coming from a small town, witnessing first hand and learning to respect ways in which people survive with tools like drugs, sex, and/or hard work amidst the confusion of Christian conditioning, there's a sad familiarity in identifying with the characters; a familiarity which chips away defense mechanisms tempting to make life easier with subtle, or dramatic, renderings of denial. (It's good to know who we are in order to become better people as a whole, or individually, which also leads to a better whole.)
The rest of Cicero's novel was just as interesting, but not recommended for people who are only into pop radio, or men who spend too much time comparing the girls they date to their mothers.
...less
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August 29
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Sabra
gave
to:
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho (Goodreads author!)
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Sabra said:
"
Cute story. Reminded me of Siddhartha. A sheep herder goes on a journey to find purpose in his life, treasure, love, and finds it.
"The Alchemist" I read because it's been recommended to me more than any other book in my life, it's passed...more
Cute story. Reminded me of Siddhartha. A sheep herder goes on a journey to find purpose in his life, treasure, love, and finds it.
"The Alchemist" I read because it's been recommended to me more than any other book in my life, it's passed my gaze on bookshelves of friends. I'm glad it's over.
I can finally say I've read the epic hyped out novel about a guy who learns to intuitively guide himself through life paying attention to omens and people with wise things to say who are good at magic.
An easy read. A little over an hour. Not too much flash. Lots of spiritual guidance type substance. A dallop of God and manipulating nature with inherent psychic abilities stuff. Camels.
...less
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August 26
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Sabra
is currently reading:
American Psycho (Paperback)
by Bret Easton Ellis
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Sabra
is currently reading:
Me Talk Pretty One Day (Paperback)
by David Sedaris
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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April 29
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Sabra
gave
to:
Silva Stories: My Adventures and Life-changing Journeys with the Silva Method (Paperback)
by Nelda Sheets
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: mystics
read in April, 2008
Sabra said:
"I know it seems out there that I just added this book to my list of mostly classics and pop fiction, but I actually met the lady that wrote it, at work; she gave me a copy like, "Here read this, I wrote this, I'm an artist and my job forte's bas...more
I know it seems out there that I just added this book to my list of mostly classics and pop fiction, but I actually met the lady that wrote it, at work; she gave me a copy like, "Here read this, I wrote this, I'm an artist and my job forte's base dwells on the art of optimism as a tool to reach one's full potential based on wants and needs manifested through meditation and conscious self-hypnosis," or something.
But seriously, she showed up one day on payroll to help the TBI gain some brain muscle, and she's got him visualizing the number 5, then 4, and so on to 1, breathing deeply for a natural valium'd out affect.
So I get onto her book, and after a few chapters of honing-hyper-intuitiveness-amongst-a-group-of-artists-in-a-small-Texas-community-practicing-the-materialization-of-one's-deepest-desires-through-mental-and-mutual-telepathy business, I think oh shit, this lady's a psychic, that's awesome, I wonder if she knows what I'm thinking!
Then all freakin out after finishing the book in a second sitting, the latter chapters regarding issues like finding kidnapped people and government black suit UFO stories, I say to Nelda, "Wow, foresight's awesome isn't it, and she agrees, but then looks at me kind of hard and says, "You need to write about your mother," and I go, "okay, you're probably right."
Later that afternoon I wrote a five-page essay about my mom and our relationship in some sort of trance like I was on Adderall, but all I'd had that day was maybe some coffee.
No shit.
...less
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Sabra
gave
to:
Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel (Paperback)
by Jonathan Safran Foer
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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recommended for: Jewish people or anyone interested in Jewish culture
Sabra said:
"Couldn't get past page 36. Just too much going on.
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April 26
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Sabra
gave
to:
The Old Man and the Sea (Scribner Classics)
by Ernest Hemingway
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Sabra said:
"Read Old Man and the Sea, for the first time taking it seriously, after years of ignoring the book, and the author down as some boring pop culture hoopla, over admired stories with no real complicatedness.
Old Man and the Sea is not about a man...more
Read Old Man and the Sea, for the first time taking it seriously, after years of ignoring the book, and the author down as some boring pop culture hoopla, over admired stories with no real complicatedness.
Old Man and the Sea is not about a man trying to catch a fish, even though it really is; it is a difficult thing to explain, such as the intricate detailings giving appeal to the multicolored facets in a diamond, or an aged Port with hints of smoke and asparagus; it is difficult if the fundamentals are not there, the appreciation of rhythm, of sounds in music, in the flawless white powder covered back yard feeling perfect in relaxing, the whisper of an intuitive lover before climax framing the moment into a memory.
In other words: experience in a refined palete, maturity and elegant simplicity are Hemingway to me, finally.
Here, a few lines that wrecked me into reverently triple reading them:
"The old man carried the mast on his shoulder and the boy carried the wooden box with the coiled, hard-braided brown lines, the gaff and harpoon with its shaft. The box with the baits was under the stern of the skiff along with the club that was used to subdue the big fish when they were bought alongside."
Those lines had me imagining reading to my future children before bed; they lines gave me hope for the future in raising progeny in a fucked up world. Poetry in a story.
Hemingway wrote a book with enough appealing and undistracting denominators that everyone from a TBI boy's Spanish physical therapist, to his science-minded, scatter-brained contractor father would swoon at the sight of it. And now I will be among the swooners, (if anybody even uses that word anymore).
...less
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Sabra
gave
to:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Paperback)
by Jonathan Safran Foer
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in April, 2008, has a copy to sell/swap
Sabra said:
"Foer's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" presents nine year-old Oskar Schell, fan of Steven Hawking, vegan inventor, explorer, collector, tambourine player comes home from school to hear his father's last words on the answering machine ...more
Foer's "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" presents nine year-old Oskar Schell, fan of Steven Hawking, vegan inventor, explorer, collector, tambourine player comes home from school to hear his father's last words on the answering machine amidst the devastation of 9/11's events and searches for clues in a virtual scavenger hunt to lessen the blow of the traumatic incident from an unfinished and ambiguous game he started with his father the night before his death.
A friend in Frisco first recommended this book, but then mailed it to me for Christmas 2005, whereas the book stayed under the passenger seat of my car until last week when I finally decided to give it a go, disappointed by most books lately in general being more chores than pleasure to read.
Before reading "EL&IC," I actually thought I'd lost my taste for books, which put me in a funk of feeling sorry for myself. I was wrong. It seems I was too caught up in what I thought I should be reading, stuck in some classical void, when what I really needed was a fresh, modern, and fun story from a perspective of an intelligent and innocent protagonist inventor dealing with, in childish whimsy, life's unexpected tragedy of his father's 9/11 death.
My favorite thing about "EL&IC" was that I missed it when I wasn't reading it, and when I was reading, the world around seemed to melt away, as I followed the characters around New York on their crusade to find closure going door-to-door armed with: a mystery key found in a blue vase, the name "Black," a few juice boxes, and a sweet unbridled tenacity existing within Oskar's persona compelling an overall air of sentimentality in the experience of the story.
I bought Foer's debut novel "Everything is Illuminated" the same day "EL&IC" was finished and am looking forward to novel #3 ("?")already.
...less
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Sabra
gave
to:
Remainder (Paperback)
by Tom McCarthy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in April, 2008, has a copy to sell/swap
Sabra said:
"
"Remainder" fell miles short of impressing me aside from McCarthy's ability to prove that he knows his way around words.
The story revolves around a man who, from an accident of some object falling from the sky and hitti...more
"Remainder" fell miles short of impressing me aside from McCarthy's ability to prove that he knows his way around words.
The story revolves around a man who, from an accident of some object falling from the sky and hitting him (??), receives a settlement of a few million dollars from a company. With too much money and time on his hands the man pays actors and laypeople people to reenact various moments, mundane or dramatically violent, which appeal to his euphoria inducing sense of déjà vu. As tolerance levels for what creates his 'buzz' get higher, demands get more dangerously absurd to the point where the man's insatiable appetite for control ultimately spirals him out of it.
The cornucopian repetitive descriptions McCarthy typed in order to obviously showcase his writing style, the flighty main character and supporting characters were mild turn-offs, and aimful seeming plot more ambiguous than productive.
Shuffling through I kept thinking, "How much more until something really happens here?" though there was enough in the character development of the protagonist to make his quest of putting puzzle pieces of his life together seem somewhat provocative.
...less
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Sabra
is currently reading:
A Graveyard for Lunatics: Another Tale of Two Cities (Paperback)
by Ray Bradbury
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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