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May 14
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Alina
gave
 
to:
Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years (Paperback)
by Michael J. Collins
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008
Alina said:
""I was a counterfeit, an impostor who had infiltrated this society of brilliant surgeons. [...] I would have thrown myself on the floor and asked them to shoot me and put me out of my misery." When I read these lines, I knew that this book ...more
"I was a counterfeit, an impostor who had infiltrated this society of brilliant surgeons. [...] I would have thrown myself on the floor and asked them to shoot me and put me out of my misery." When I read these lines, I knew that this book was the real thing.
There's something in Collins' self-deprecation and love of his work that reminds me of James Herriot, but the humour of "Hot Lights, Cold Steel" is starker, though no less funny. The laughter is there, of course, but it sounds more like a man joking at the stake than in front of a fireplace.
I wonder if the author has finally gotten some sleep since he finished his residency - then there might be hope for the rest of us!
...less
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May 09
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Alina
gave
to:
London: A History (Modern Library Chronicles)
by A.N. Wilson
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in April, 2008
Alina said:
"Despite its title, this book is far from being a systematic historical account; instead, it peoples London with ghosts of "old, unhappy, far-off things/ And battles long ago".
The style is very clear but scholarly; the book is obviously w...more
Despite its title, this book is far from being a systematic historical account; instead, it peoples London with ghosts of "old, unhappy, far-off things/ And battles long ago".
The style is very clear but scholarly; the book is obviously written by one who knows and loves London and its history and communicates that love to the reader.
On the other hand, Wilson's attempts to reconcile the history of London with its modern self sound as strained as they are well-intentioned. I do wish he had left the odes to multiculturalism to the politicians!
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April 07
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Alina
gave
to:
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures: Stories (Paperback)
by Vincent Lam
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Alina said:
"Too bad Dr. Vincent Lam decided to write fiction. Real life at the hospital is much more exciting - and more nuanced.
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Alina
gave
to:
The Devil Wears Prada (Mass Market Paperback)
by Lauren Weisberger
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2008
Alina said:
" The Devil Wears Prada is one of those books that were meant to be good but somehow didn’t make it. The style is almost lively; the characters are almost believable; the dialogues are almost funny. The story of the country mouse being wiser than t...more
The Devil Wears Prada is one of those books that were meant to be good but somehow didn’t make it. The style is almost lively; the characters are almost believable; the dialogues are almost funny. The story of the country mouse being wiser than the town mouse is none the worse for being one of the “seven original plots”. What, then, is missing?
A quick summary. Andy is a small-town American girl who dreams of writing for the New Yorker. In the meantime, she lands “the job a million girls would die for”: as an assistant to Miranda Priestly, the tyrannical editor of the most prestigious fashion magazine. Eventually, she realizes that her work requires her to betray her friends, her family and her own self - and quits. She then finds her true place as a writer for a youth magazine.
Most obviously, the book would have been better if it had been shorter: the style isn’t good enough to sustain a long novel. The main problem is, though, that its satire is directed at targets that are just too easy: high fashion, workplace tyrants, pampered children and, most of all, the career-first mentality of modern business. Flogging a dead horse can be fun, but it’s hard to do well.
...less
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March 17
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Alina
gave
to:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Great Classics for Children)
by Dalmatian Press
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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March 08
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Alina
gave
to:
Never Cry Wolf : Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves (Paperback)
by Farley Mowat
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in March, 2008
Alina said:
"Wonderful book! Fascinating, warm, witty and very funny with that self-deprecating humour that seems common to most people who write about animals (Conrad Lorenz, Gerald Durrell, James Herriot). It seems that after seeing oneself from an animal's poi...more
Wonderful book! Fascinating, warm, witty and very funny with that self-deprecating humour that seems common to most people who write about animals (Conrad Lorenz, Gerald Durrell, James Herriot). It seems that after seeing oneself from an animal's point of view one cannot take oneself too seriously.
The book also strikes a note of sadness and alarm over the destruction of wolves by us humans, but somehow contrives to do so without sounding too self-righteous. ...less
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February 24
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Alina
gave
to:
The Aeneid (Paperback)
by Virgil, Robert Fitzgerald, translator (Vintage), Michael Oakley, translator (Wordworth Classics)
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in February, 2008
Alina said:
"“Calliope, I pray, and Muses all,
Inspire me as I sing the bloody work,
And tell what men each fighter sent to Orcus…”
Sometimes I wish the Muses were less generous with their gifts. Virgil succeeds admirably in telling “what men each fi...more
“Calliope, I pray, and Muses all,
Inspire me as I sing the bloody work,
And tell what men each fighter sent to Orcus…”
Sometimes I wish the Muses were less generous with their gifts. Virgil succeeds admirably in telling “what men each fighter sent to Orcus”, in what order and how:
“Now Caedicus cut Alcathous down,
Sacrator killed Hydaspes, Rapo killed
Parthenius and Orses, man of brawn;
Messapus finished Clonius and Ericetes,
Lycaon’s son…”
This makes the last hundred pages or so a little tedious, and I cannot deny that I breathed a sigh of relief when the spirit of Turnus finally “fled into the gloom below.” Yet there is beauty and suspense even in these chapters, and they are worth plodding through if only for the sake of the rest of the book.
I leafed through a few translations of the Aeneid before settling on Robert Fitzgerald’s, and I am as certain as one who knows no Latin can be that this is the best translation around. At its worst, the style is unobtrusive; at its best, magical:
“…When you reach the town of Cumae,
Avernus’ murmuring forests, haunted lakes,
You’ll see a spellbound prophetess, who sings
In her deep cave of destinies, confiding
Symbols and words to leaves…”
What unrolls before one’s eyes is a primarily a series of pictures that can be interpreted as myth, as allegory, as political flattery or as artistic license, but somehow escape analysis. They seem to contain a summons that speaks to the reader as much as to the hero:
“The morning star
Now rose on Ida’s ridges, bringing day.
Greeks had secured the city gates. No help
Or hope of help existed.
So I resigned myself, picked up my father,
And turned my face toward the mountain range.”
Archetypes, anyone?
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What's The Name of That Book???
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