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August 07
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Jamal
is currently reading:
The Barmaid's Brain: And Other Strange Tales From Science (Paperback)
by Jay Ingram
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Jamal
gave
to:
Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (Paperback)
by Ariel Levy
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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July 20
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Jamal
took the never-ending book quiz.
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July 16
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Jamal
gave
to:
Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories (Paperback)
by Thomas Mann
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Jamal
gave
to:
Watership Down (Hardcover)
by Richard Adams
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Jamal
gave
to:
The Eight (Mass Market Paperback)
by Katherine Neville
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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Jamal said:
"Three weeks ago I held a yard sale. To pass the time I picked up this book I'd never seen from a box of books none of which I'd ever read and none of which I remember buying.
Of the many surreal happenings of that day one of the most strange was ...more
Three weeks ago I held a yard sale. To pass the time I picked up this book I'd never seen from a box of books none of which I'd ever read and none of which I remember buying.
Of the many surreal happenings of that day one of the most strange was when, immediately after reading the first page, a well-groomed homeless man or a poorly groomed homed man rode past on a bike. He looked over and upon seeing The Eight lurched off his bike stumbled to my gate and, grasping it with all the force and desperation of a kindergartener being left by mommy, bellowed, "That book! Man! That book, man, is the biggest fucking mind trip it's the best book you'll ever read. That woman [the author] used to be an executive at Bank of America until those Southern fuckers came in and they fired EVERY woman in the company. God damn mother fuckers! But man, she's beautiful too man, like a triple threat. And let tell you something..." and here he became quiet and conspiratorial, "....it'll never NEVER be made into a movie. I won't tell you why. 2/3 into the book BAM! [he yelled] it's a fucking bomb on your brain! She just fucking drops that bomb on your brain and it'll NEVER be a fucking movie!"
How could I do anything but read this book after such an endorsement?
It's pretty typical of the genre. A collection of mostly tropes -- the mysterious and reclusive genius somehow at the heart of the mystery; the one no-one including his co-commiserators can trust has a hidden agenda that has to do directly with the heroine? No way! After he takes a personal interest in her, we find out he's tall, handsome, devilishly charismatic, seductive and, wait, can't be completely trusted? Didn't see that one coming! -- including the drunken socialite, the clueless petty bourgeoisie, the quirky but lovable math/ computer whiz, the evil and menacing foreign intelligence agent, the surprisingly Western and enlightened foreign man incredibly open, and the revelation that the Other is actually more welcoming than We...to name a few. Anyway, this collection are interwoven into a story that touches on Charlemagne, OPEC, Chess, the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon among other things and which is mostly entertaining if much too long.
The double narrative serves an obvious purpose but makes the book cumbersome and unnecessarily obtuse. When one story line enthralls, Neville switches to the other forcing the reader to reinvest; a tiring exercise. It's an unfortunate thing really, because both narratives on their own are interesting and could have been fun, if forgettable adventure books on their own. Should have been. Very much should have been.
2/3 of the way through, the heroines of both narratives go to Algeria and meet tall, dark, handsome and capable men who save them from vile agents of the bad guys. There's also an Erich Von Daniken moment which is probably what the lurcher was talking about. It was a mind bomb about as much as the turn in the new Indiana Jones movie.
I am ambivalent about this book. I'd be more enthusiastic if it had been about one story or even one more so than the other....less
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Jamal
gave
to:
The Blue Room (Crime Masterworks)
by Georges Simenon
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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Jamal said:
"The word elegance describes this book, I think. As Andree's blatant characterization as an obsessive, co-dependent slowly gives way to one of guile and manipulation the reader is, like Antoine, thrown into a position of helplessness. We don't know,...more
The word elegance describes this book, I think. As Andree's blatant characterization as an obsessive, co-dependent slowly gives way to one of guile and manipulation the reader is, like Antoine, thrown into a position of helplessness. We don't know, like the homme fatale whether her obsession was a ruse, a form of manipulation to force her will on the once hapless and increasingly lucid and narcissistic Antoine who, for his part is just as dastardly.
The unclear duality of both leading characters is unnerving, and brilliantly poignant but more importantly, I think, forces the detective to be both omnipotent narrator and uninformed investigator. This in turn creates an interesting situation whereby he is, very much like blind Justice propelled towards Truth by an innate, unknown force whilst remaining oblivious to it.
In that way he mirrors the reader's relationship to the story as we are completely in control of finding the conclusion and unbound by the narrative's chronology though, as a function of our technique, just as ignorant of it.
It's the height of douchery to say this but: Po mother effin Mo.
This is what crime novels are supposed to be....less
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July 14
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Jamal
gave
to:
Hocus Pocus (Paperback)
by Kurt Vonnegut
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in May, 2008, has a copy to sell/swap
Jamal said:
"I always have a hard time reviewing books I like. I suppose my academic training over the years, so focused on analysis and argumentation makes me prone to pessimism.
Way to spend $100,000!
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I always have a hard time reviewing books I like. I suppose my academic training over the years, so focused on analysis and argumentation makes me prone to pessimism.
Way to spend $100,000!
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The whole time I kept thinking about The Tin Drum. Same sort of serendipitous situations though that kid wasn't in Vietnam. Lot's of sex talk though.
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It is a hard thing to keep satire from becoming an insult and hard to make insults probative but Vonnegut's done it 1 more time and with a subtlety that by comparison makes Al Franken look like the Wayans Brothers.
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Laugh? Laugh. Laugh!...less
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June 26
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Jamal
gave
to:
How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers (Paperback)
by William Poundstone
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my rating:
Added to my books!
add my review
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read in May, 2008
Jamal said:
"Microsoft is not the world's smartest company and employs not the most creative thinkers. It's almost impossible for that to be the case given their hiring practices lionized in this book:
If employees of the company evaluate the applicants suita...more
Microsoft is not the world's smartest company and employs not the most creative thinkers. It's almost impossible for that to be the case given their hiring practices lionized in this book:
If employees of the company evaluate the applicants suitability for the job without an external rubric then a hired applicant will most likely be only as intelligent and/or creative as the general employee base. Non-creative people tend to have trouble finding value in creative thoughts and smarty-pants are only as smart as their specific knowledge allows.
Therefore for Microsoft to be the smartest and most creative company, their original set of employees would have to have been the most creative and smart people around. Steve Balmer and Bill Gates don't fit that *ahem* bill, Bridge be damned.
Smart and creative are vague words.
Paired with "company", they become more so.
Mount Fuji is a mountain.
Mount Fuji is a god.
I'd move one with dynamite, but the other with compassion.
Would the creative smarty-pants at MS hire me if I came back with that answer? I have no idea because Billy-boy here admits in the first few pages he has no idea exactly how MS hires.
Why was this book written?
Why weren't there more damn puzzles in this book?
Why weren't there more companies profiled?
Why did you mislead, Poundstone?
Why did I read this book?!...less
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