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July 17
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Dan
is currently reading:
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Paperback)
by Gregory Maguire
bookshelves:
currently-reading,
fantasy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Dan
gave
to:
Rushing the Growler (Paperback)
by Stephen R Powell
bookshelves:
beer
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in July, 2008
Dan said:
"This is a great overview on the history of brewing in Buffalo, which at one time was a giant industry. Stephen Powell has done a great job researching the breweries, including I assume painst...more
This is a great overview on the history of brewing in Buffalo, which at one time was a giant industry. Stephen Powell has done a great job researching the breweries, including I assume painstakingly poring over newspaper archives at the Historical Society.
The problem that kept coming up, though, is that -- at least in my copy; there may have been later editions -- there is a surprising number of typos and spelling errors. The same information in a chart appears two lines down slightly reworded, dates are gives as both 1930's and 1930s (on the same page), letters are transposed, etc.
The presentation may be somewhat lacking, but the information is wonderful. Anyone interested in the history of Buffalo, or brewing, should try to get their hands on a copy.
(Hint: it's out of print, but the Central library has multiple copies)...less
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March 19
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Dan
is currently reading:
Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 (Penguin history)
by R.F. Foster
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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March 18
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Dan
gave
to:
99 Coffins: A Historical Vampire Tale (Vampires, Book 2)
by David Wellington
bookshelves:
horror
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in February, 2008
Dan said:
"I'm really a fan of David Wellington. I like what he does with the horror archetypes that he works with, enough so that I'd be willing to read the werewolf book Frostbite if it ever ...more
I'm really a fan of David Wellington. I like what he does with the horror archetypes that he works with, enough so that I'd be willing to read the werewolf book Frostbite if it ever comes out in print.
13 Bullets was a good vampire story, especially as it made the vampires out to be complete badasses. They aren't sissies like in Underworld: these guys are legitimately scary.
While 99 Coffins was a good book, I don't feel as though it lived up to its predecessor. It was more action-based, which is neither good nor bad, but there's something missing that I can't put my finger on. The book bills itself as 'An historical vampire tale' (or is it 'A historical'?), and it does live up to that with Wellington's apparent trademark little snippets between chapters coming from old diaries and letters from the Civil War. They fit in well, and just when I thought it was going to go over the top and get too silly he backed off, which was reassuring.
The ending may as well have been, 'The end, until I write the next book': there will be a third in the trilogy (making it akin to the Monster Island series I guess, though everyone knows zombies are better than vampires). It was a nice if fairly predictable twist, and maybe some of the slower areas of this book will be eliminated. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing akin to the 'Hey let's camp out in the woods' section of Deathly Hallows, but Wellington definitely saves the good bits for the second half of the book.
Don't get me wrong, I'm still a die hard fan of his. There's a good story that's told well in this book, but I feel as though I've been a bit of a fanboy in the past and need to show fault where it occurs. Actually, Monster Nation is the weakest of its trilogy, so maybe he has an issue with the middle chapter (he seems to write in a Premise, Elaborate, Go Crazy format)....less
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January 30
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Dan
gave
to:
The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3)
by Philip Pullman
bookshelves:
fantasy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in January, 2008
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Dan
is currently reading:
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Paperback)
by Gabriel García Márquez
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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January 08
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Dan
gave
to:
I Am Legend (Paperback)
by Richard Matheson
bookshelves:
horror
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in November, 2007
Dan said:
"I picked this up after being told from a few completely different sources simultaneously that I should (luckily, I got the version without Will Smith on the cover). I haven't seen the movie yet, but I can't imagine it's anything like the book.
I c...more
I picked this up after being told from a few completely different sources simultaneously that I should (luckily, I got the version without Will Smith on the cover). I haven't seen the movie yet, but I can't imagine it's anything like the book.
I can see why people credit Richard Matheson with revitalizing the vampire genre: I Am Legend isn't at all what I expected, and in a very good way. It's Cast Away meets vampires, except with a much better ending.
It's fairly short (the version I own also came with a collection of short stories, which were on the whole very good), which almost makes it more imperative that you read it: it's simply a damn good book, even if you don't generally like the horror genre....less
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January 07
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Dan
read and liked
Lucy's
review of The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2):
"
I am not a fan of forwarded emails. They frustrate me, because they usually come from the same group of people, people I like a great deal but who never send me a normal "hey, how's it going?" message. Just "Support our Troops" ...more
I am not a fan of forwarded emails. They frustrate me, because they usually come from the same group of people, people I like a great deal but who never send me a normal "hey, how's it going?" message. Just "Support our Troops" or "Tell every woman you know she's special" or "Microsoft is running a test and if you send this you could get a check for $1,000!" When I see the letters FWD in the subject line, I usually simply delete it.
I lost track of the number of emails I received telling me about the Anti-God movie The Golden Compass and the need to boycott the movies and the books. It was well over ten. Ten people wanted me to send that email on to everyone I know, telling them the same thing. Don't see this movie! Don't read these books! Alert! Alert! Alert!
Nothing like calling attention to something like a planned boycott. I haven't seen the movie, because I'm cheap and it's not something I'd take my kids to or something I'd be prone to see anyway, but as I had already read the first book in the series, enjoyed it and hadn't found it to be Anti-God, I was curious to read the next to see what the fuss was all about.
I don't know if the emails worked and I read with a bias, but I did not enjoy this second book. Not because it is Anti-God...which it really isn't, but more anti organized religion and organized religion's version of god, but because the writing is bad.
Dialogue - choppy.
Descriptions - cliched. (how do I get that little accent marking over the e?)
Storyline - totally falters.
I felt enormously disappointed in the direction of this book. Lyra, the young female protagonist in search of dust and her father, all but disappears in this second story. She still plays a part, but now as the sidekick to Will, a new character who is a giant "young adult fiction" stereotype (in search of the father he never knew while protecting his mother from bad guys and seems to be gifted in the combat department). I don't remember the writing being bad in the first book. I thought it descriptive and unique and thoughtful. Not so, in The Subtle Knife. Pullman changes gears and loses focus. There is a lot more going on and none of it is developed well. I stopped caring about the characters and their goals.
I think these books had great potential. There could be a lot to discuss with adolescents (not young children...at all). The nature of the soul, the natural man, the costs and benefits of religions. All appropriate things to discuss with youth ready to question and discover on their own.
Pullman takes that conversation away with his lack of metaphor. It becomes impossible to argue, "I think the dust means this." or "what do you think The Authority is for Pullman?" when he throws his opinion at you with real life Christian beliefs. It's inappropriate and unfair. Write a fantasy or a satire or a parable if you want to. Other authors have done it...and done it well.
Pullman didn't.
I won't be reading the third book....less
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Dan
gave
to:
The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2)
by Philip Pullman
bookshelves:
fantasy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in January, 2008
Dan said:
"The second entry in a trilogy is often, in my opinion, the best. The author doesn't have to introduce the universe or the characters, as they did in the first installment, but they don't need to worry about wrapping up all the plot points either. Ins...more
The second entry in a trilogy is often, in my opinion, the best. The author doesn't have to introduce the universe or the characters, as they did in the first installment, but they don't need to worry about wrapping up all the plot points either. Instead, the focus can be on 'the good stuff': elaborating on the story, teasing us more, giving action, chopping off Luke's hand and so on. Instead of the good stuff, in The Subtle Knife I feel as though we've had a bait and switch pulled on us.
In The Golden Compass, we were treated to a rich alternate universe that had elements that were similar to our own, like some of the geopolitical structure, and elements that were entirely fantastical, like armored polar bears and witches. The Subtle Knife, however decides that most of this is insignificant and takes place almost entirely in different universes. It seems like Philip Pullman wanted to reel us in with fantasy before he could preach at us.
Some of these elements are expanded upon in The Amber Spyglass, which I'm currently reading, so forgive me if they don't all apply. I had heard before I started the series that they were 'about killing God.' This seemed highly unlikely, and was probably a knee-jerk reaction from people who heard it from other people who read a synopsis of the book, etc. But... no. Some of the main characters have decided to wage war on 'The Authority.'
Herein lies my main concern with the series as a whole: it's not (excuse the pun) subtle. I'm an agnostic, so these complaints don't come from someone insulted by the material, they come from someone unhappy by their handling. I love plots that put a spin on traditional religion (Waiting for the Galactic Bus, for example), but it seems like Pullman came up with a story involving a culture's religion and then decided to make it fit with the Judeo-Christian framework no matter how hard he had to push.
The concept of Dust is interesting. Adapting it to fit with concepts of physics in our world works because it uses something we only know a little about. Once you try to toss in angels and consciousness and so on (which is insulting in a children's book, as he's claiming that children are entirely self involved until puberty), though, it seems contrived and silly.
I may have been more willing to swallow his philosophy, such as it is, if there hadn't been a complete lack of the elements I liked in The Golden Compass: there were no Gyptians, there were no panserbjörne... they seem to make a reappearance in the final book of the series, but why spend so much time on their culture in the first book if you aren't going to include them in the second? (I know that the panserbjörne's culture is basically that of any warrior society, but they're still armored polar bears and the ten year old in me think that's awesome)
It's not so much that the book is bad, per se, though I do think it becomes too dark for the age group I initially thought it was written for. I just don't think Pullman is writing for the same reason I want to read: he wants to write religious commentary while I want to read fantasy....less
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January 04
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Dan
gave
to:
Slaughterhouse-Five (Mass Market Paperback)
by Kurt Vonnegut
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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