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July 12
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Ian
is currently reading:
Don't Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems (Paperback)
by David Rakoff
bookshelves:
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my rating:
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Ian
gave
to:
Moby-Dick (Bantam Classics)
by Herman Melville
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my rating:
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read in July, 2008
Ian said:
"Everyone knows the story of this book, which is fine enough, but what really stuck with me were the small, sophisticated touches Melville makes. I was expecting more of a straight-ahead seafaring yarn with philosophical and allegorical overtones, but...more
Everyone knows the story of this book, which is fine enough, but what really stuck with me were the small, sophisticated touches Melville makes. I was expecting more of a straight-ahead seafaring yarn with philosophical and allegorical overtones, but no. First of all, the characterization of the narrator was stunning. We spend a lot of time with him in the opening chapters, before he boards the ship, but he remains largely a cipher. We pick up a few tantalizing hints about his personality, mostly regarding his violent, intermittent bouts of wanderlust and the domestic comedy he untertakes to live with Queequeg, but we never really learn anything about who he is, including, really, his name. Once he boards ship, he basically disappears from the action, though tantalizing details crop up here and there about his adventures after leaving (or, indeed, escaping) the Pequod. Meanwhile, soon after leaving port, he launches into an extended disquisition on all the particulars of whaling, heavily laced with philosophical overtones, to the point where forward progress of the story comes to a dead halt for a good chunk - a risky gambit in a purported adventure story. Other structural surprises include the frequent chapters of play-like dialogue and the radical difference between the different sections of the book: the bildungsroman-like, land-based opening; the extended exposition and whaling education in the middle; and the increasingly gloomy, portentious denouement. So, maybe not the Great American Novel, but definitely not what you'd expect....less
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June 19
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Ian
gave
to:
Unaccustomed Earth (Hardcover)
by Jhumpa Lahiri
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my rating:
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read in June, 2008
Ian said:
"A real disappointment after her first two books. Doing away with both the emotional gut-punches of displacement and desperation found in "Interpreter of Maladies" and the elegiac generational sweep of "The Namesake," Lahiri in &qu...more
A real disappointment after her first two books. Doing away with both the emotional gut-punches of displacement and desperation found in "Interpreter of Maladies" and the elegiac generational sweep of "The Namesake," Lahiri in "Unaccustomed Earth" zeroes in on the least interesting dimension of her usual subjects: the interior monologues of fully assimilated, second-generation Indian-Americans who are ungratefully dissatisfied with their lives of privilege. Her formerly melancholic insight and pungent descriptions have given way to stale, distant whiffs of unpleasantness that lack gravity and empathy. Nothing but an elegantly written snooze....less
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June 03
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Ian
gave
to:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel (Hardcover)
by Michael Chabon
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my rating:
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read in May, 2008
Ian said:
"The only thing hard-boiled in this detective yarn is the eggs (yuk yuk yuk). Fast-paced with a literary sense of character and resolution. It's no "Kavalier and Clay," but it's satisfying in its own way.
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May 13
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Ian
gave
to:
Kitchen (A Black cat book)
by Banana Yoshimoto
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my rating:
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recommended to Ian by:
Sara
read in May, 2008
Ian said:
"Brings a refreshing sense of openness to the perennial topics of love, sadness and death, and manages not to be romantic, melancholic or morbid in itself. A quick and worthwhile read.
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April 28
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Ian
gave
to:
Great Expectations (Everyman's Library)
by Charles Dickens
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my rating:
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read in April, 2008
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March 22
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Ian
gave
to:
Running with Scissors: A Memoir (Paperback)
by Augusten Burroughs
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my rating:
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recommended to Ian by:
Sara
read in March, 2008
Ian said:
"Entertaining but slight. The obligatory I-discovered-I-was-a-writer-all-along moment really brings things down.
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March 16
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Ian
gave
to:
I. (Hardcover)
by Stephen Dixon
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my rating:
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read in January, 2002
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Ian
gave
to:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Mark Twain
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read in January, 1999
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Ian
gave
to:
Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (Paperback)
by Art Spiegelman
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my rating:
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read in January, 1998
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