|
September 02
|
|
Deana
marked as to-read:
Little Women (Paperback)
by Louisa May Alcott
bookshelves:
to-read
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
|
|
July 27
|
|
Deana
gave
to:
Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business (Paperback)
by Esphyr Slobodkina
bookshelves:
children-s
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in April, 2008
Deana said:
"To be honest, this was one of my favorite books when I was a child. So when I saw this book on a shelf, I had to read it to find out whether or not it stood up to the test of time or whether it was just as horrible as the other books that were my fav...more
To be honest, this was one of my favorite books when I was a child. So when I saw this book on a shelf, I had to read it to find out whether or not it stood up to the test of time or whether it was just as horrible as the other books that were my favorites.
This one stood up to the test. I love this story. It's funny, suspenseful, and intelligent. The illustrations are kind of bland in color, but it's an old book so I guess that's to be expected. They're still very creative and amusing, though. And the way in which the matter is resolved is quite funny, I remember laughing every time we read that book when I was a kid.
My only question is... where does he live that there are monkeys just hanging out in trees right outside of town?...less
"
|
|
Deana
gave
to:
Once a Mouse... (Paperback)
by Marcia Brown
bookshelves:
children-s
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in April, 2008
Deana said:
"I rather enjoyed this book. It is apparently a traditional moral tale told in India. The story is told very well, and the illustrations are beautiful, although they are unlike the traditional illustrations one finds these days. Many of the illustrati...more
I rather enjoyed this book. It is apparently a traditional moral tale told in India. The story is told very well, and the illustrations are beautiful, although they are unlike the traditional illustrations one finds these days. Many of the illustrations are monocromatic in yellow or red, possibly also containing black. A few of them incorporate other colors, but the effect of the illustrations was really amazing.
The only thing I found slightly annoying about this book is that it would
stop a sentence in the middle and
continue it on the next page. But other than that
I found the book to be a great read. I will probably purchace a copy myself eventually....less
"
|
|
Deana
gave
to:
The Door into Summer (Paperback)
by Robert A. Heinlein
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
recommended for: everyone!
read in July, 2008
Deana said:
"This book was amazing! I've had it for a few years ... I went on a Heinlein kick back then and purchaced a good number of his books. But I'd never actually read this one. Mostly because it's far shorter than most of his others (only 159 pages) and ha...more
This book was amazing! I've had it for a few years ... I went on a Heinlein kick back then and purchaced a good number of his books. But I'd never actually read this one. Mostly because it's far shorter than most of his others (only 159 pages) and has a SERIOUSLY horrible tagline scrawled across the cover of my version of the book, "He entered the Future -- bend on Revenge -- and found himself trapped in 2000 A.D." If that's not lame, I don't know what is.
But I finally decided to pick it up, and I am SO glad that I did. It is, of course, masterfully written -- I expected no less from a Heinlein novel. It takes place beginning in 1970, but since the book was written in the 1950s, there are many liberties taken with "history" in the 60s and 70s, and with technological progress at the time. A thing called "cold sleep" or "the long sleep" had been invented, in which you would have your body frozen and revived at some pre-determined point in the future without having aged a day. Many people were using this as a means to earn money - after all, the interest accrued over that amount of time would be wonderful!
Dan, a well-known engineer who created many famous household help products, has been jilted by his fiance and business partner and forced out of his own company. He decides to take the long sleep and go forward 30 years when surely their age compared to his will enable him to take revenge far easier. But of course, things rarely go as planned... There are so many twists and turns in this book, it's amazing. And while I was somewhat embarrassed not to have figured out what the "trick" was much earlier than I had, it was still a great and entertaining read. Even if you're not into gadgets and science fiction, it's still really worth the read so you can see what someone in the 50s thought the year 2000 would be like. It's pretty neat :)
My favorite part of this book was actually the sub-story about Dan's cat, Pete. Originally, Dan had wanted to take the cat with him on the long sleep, but ... events happened such that he was unable to do so, and he was heartbroken. But it all works out in the end :)
Seriously, read this one....less
"
|
|
Deana
gave
to:
Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics)
by Jane Austen
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in July, 2008
Deana said:
"I had never endeavored to read Emma before, although I have read and enjoyed others of Jane Austen's novels. This one, I didn't care for as much. The plot was interesting, and I did enjoy the twist at the end involving Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfa...more
I had never endeavored to read Emma before, although I have read and enjoyed others of Jane Austen's novels. This one, I didn't care for as much. The plot was interesting, and I did enjoy the twist at the end involving Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax - I was never expecting that and I actually laughed aloud with surprise. This is rare for me in any book - so obviously it did have its merits. It was just really long, an even more difficult read for me than her other novels (which is saying something). I have only one "real" complaint, and that is with regards to Emma's feelings about Frank Churchill. She first believes herself to be in love with him - and later decides she never was. And manages to convince poor Mr. Knightly of that as well (with help from the fact that Frank says in his letter he never believed Emma to be taken in by his act). But really, I think she may have been, at least to some extent. Certainly not the same kind of love that she felt for Mr. Knightly, but... love can express itself in many ways. I guess that's all I have to say about that. I'll be watching the movie Emma sometime in the future for my own movie community, so I'll be interested to see how it compares.
Speaking of that - I forced myself to read both the Introduction to the book (which is usually best read AFTER reading the work in question, rather than before) as well as the "Inspired by Emma" section at the back. In the "Inspired by Emma" section, it was noted that the movie Clueless was actually based on this novel, which I NEVER would have guessed if they hadn't mentioned it. I guess there are some similarities (Cher was a matchmaker, tried to improve Tai's status at school by taking her under her wing), they certainly took some liberties with a lot of the plot (falling in love with her step-brother rather than a sibling's husband's brother, which is far more removed).
The Introduction was a bit dry (but aren't they all?) and extremely wordy. I think the average word length went up by 2-3 for the Introduction. But he made a lot of really good points that I wouldn't have noticed on my own - even though most of what he did just seemed to be summarizing the novel....less
"
|
|
Deana
gave
to:
Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs
bookshelves:
to-read
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in May, 2008
Deana said:
"Wow, and I thought I had a messed up childhood! But this guy had a crazy life!
I am not sure whether or not I liked the author's writing style - I'm FAIRLY certain that I didn't, but that the material kept me reading instead. It kept me reading be...more
Wow, and I thought I had a messed up childhood! But this guy had a crazy life!
I am not sure whether or not I liked the author's writing style - I'm FAIRLY certain that I didn't, but that the material kept me reading instead. It kept me reading because I wanted to know what completely unbelievable thing would happen next. But there were some things in the writing that annoyed me. I think the most annoying part was that it was very obvious that the book was written in sections, out of order, and put together at the end without any effort to smooth things out. Therefore, you were often given an introduction to someone after you'd already been reading about them for many chapters and already knew who they were. Or they were introduced multiple times. Or the "Christmas Tree" story was brought up many times, but never actually told until almost the end of the book. I think it would have been a much better read had it been edited for these things and put together more like a novel.
It was a very interesting story, though. A lot of the things that happened amazed me - a little boy sitting on the floor and laughing while a dog licks his naked penis, and everyone else just sitting around and watching as if it's a funny tv show. A bunch of people sitting around and munching on dog food kibbles as a snack. A therepist with a "masturbatorium" room attached to his office, so when a patient is particularly annoying he can go in there and masturbate, and come back out and deal with the patient when he feels better. I could go on and on.
If you haven't read this one, you should. Just so you know the extent of some of the things that happen in this crazy world. Wow....less
"
|
|
Deana
gave
to:
Signature Classics - The Three Musketeers (Signature Classics Series)
by Alexandre Dumas
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in May, 2008
Deana said:
"I rather enjoyed this book. I had seen a movie about it once in my childhood, and had read the very much condenced illustrated version that my school library had in middle school, but I thought that since I'm all grown up now I ought to read the full...more
I rather enjoyed this book. I had seen a movie about it once in my childhood, and had read the very much condenced illustrated version that my school library had in middle school, but I thought that since I'm all grown up now I ought to read the full version. And so, I did.
I got very engulfed in the story and sometimes read for hours without realizing how much time I'd spent. There were a lot of intricate details and twists of plot/characters that remind me of Dickens, although I think this was far better executed. Still too many coincidences for my liking, but it all worked out in the end.
Really, though, I doubt there's much to say about it. Many of you have already read the story, and besides - it wouldn't be a classic novel if it wasn't great, right? (Actually, knowing some of the other "classics" I was forced to read in my life, I'm not sure I can make this statement.) But, if you haven't read the novel in its entirety, I really enjoyed this edition. It also comes with some really great illustrations that get you into the feeling of what things may have been like during this time period. Highly recommended....less
"
|
|
Deana
gave
to:
Forever in Blue (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Book Four)
by Ann Brashares
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in May, 2008
Deana said:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
And again, too much predictability. How many of us knew that Carmen would get the ONE student role in the professional play? *raises hand* How many knew that Kostos wo...more
I didn't like this one as much as the others. Too much sex, not enough friendship.
And again, too much predictability. How many of us knew that Carmen would get the ONE student role in the professional play? *raises hand* How many knew that Kostos would show up? *raises hand again*
But, there were some great parts as well, that kept me reading. I love that Carmen finally found out about "real" friendship, though I was sad that her relationship with Win didn't work out, I really liked him. And everything with Lena and ... the artist guy (I forgot his name, he obviously made a great impression) was really great, even though it didn't turn into anything - and I was kind of glad it didn't. And Bridget? Well, she's generally the most exciting one, at least. Tibby's whole thing was a little much for me, but it came together ok.
It touched home in a lot of ways for me, though. So even though I didn't like it as much as the others, it was still pretty enjoyable. I ended up writing down a bunch of quotes from the book. So... yay! I finally finished the series!...less
"
|
|
Deana
gave
to:
Majestrum: A Tale Of Henghis Hapthorn (Book 1)
by Matthew Hughes (Goodreads author!)
|
my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
|
| |
read in April, 2008
Deana said:
"I rather enjoyed this book. This is actually the first book in a series, I read the second book first, accidentally. You can find my review of that on this site as well. Although I must admit, had I read this book first, my review of the other may ha...more
I rather enjoyed this book. This is actually the first book in a series, I read the second book first, accidentally. You can find my review of that on this site as well. Although I must admit, had I read this book first, my review of the other may have been better. While this book left the details of things fairly vague, it did somewhat explain much of the terminology and occurrences that confused me in the other. For instance, it explains about the other entity inside the main character's (Hengis Hapthorn's) head, though it doesn't explain how he got there. Then again, I'm not sure either of them know how exactly it happened either, so I suppose that it's better this way.
Overall, the story was quite entertaining. The main character is a detective, of sorts, who was asked to help with a few mysteries. And it turns out that these mysteries are somewhat intertwined, but not in the normal "this person was dating that person who was really the father of the detective" sort of way. There is internal conflict between the two entities who share a body, who are really two parts of the same person (the "rational" side and the "intuitive" side) which makes for some interesting situations. And they are of course also dealing with their artificial intelligence operated "integrator", which has been given an animal body and is getting used to things like eating, sleep, and fear. It's a very different world, but I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in a different sort of adventure story with a complex but well-thought-out plot and highly developed characters....less
"
|
