Wedding Daze

Wedding Daze was a 99c rental on iTunes.  I rarely feel ripped off after watching a 99c movie, but this one was close.  Lousy, lousy, lousy.  Only upside is that it made workout time pass.

Five Skies, Ron Carlson

I was somewhat disappointed by Five Skies, as I sometimes am when a really excellent short story writer turns his hand to longer formats.  Carlson's story isn't constructed to have the same interest all the way through, so what would have made a very good novella becomes just a so-so novel. 

The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is one of those books that does better in audiobook format than I think it would do on paper.  The mystery aspect keeps the listener's attention and there are several clever & creative aspects from the beginning that draw you in (that the principal character is talking from after her death is the main one). 

Like other Sebold I have read, the structure doesn't hold up well, and the book turns sappy & predictable for the last half.

I Thought My Father Was God, edited by Paul Auster

I Thought My Father Was God was a relatively forgettable book.  I found the stories quite uneven and Auster's voice sometimes grated on my nerves.  I got the feeling that the pool of entries wasn't always deep enough - that he was searching for barely acceptable behavior based on the organization of the chapters.  I wonder if the audiobook format undermined the book, but since they are individual stories, I kind of doubt it.

Underworld, Don Delillo

Underworld was called the runner up to the best novel of the century by the New York Times.  I must say that I don't agree.  I recently read a quote (also in the Times) that sums up this book pretty well : "Books can be long, books can be boring, but they shouldn't be both". 

There were passages that were very well done, and at times I felt I was watching contemporary culture descriptions similar to those in the Rabbit series by Updike.  Overall however, a few good descriptions & insights to modern times doesn't make up for characters that are forgettable or flat, nor for a lack of storyline. 

I will give Delillo another try - I have Falling Man on my shelves, but this book wasn't convincing.

La Double vie de Véronique, Krzysztof Kieslowski

The haunting music, strange story line and mysterious atmosphere work to create strong emotions in La Double vie de Véronique by Kieslowski.  I saw Blue when I was a teenager and don't remember much, but our recent DVD cataloging exercise showed me how many films we have by this director, and many of them look really interesting, so I suspect we'll slowly work our way through them.

I give this movie a B. 

Transsiberian, Brad Anderson

Another 99c rental on iTunes, I found Transsiberian a moderately entertaining movie.  I suspect had I put more attention into it I wouldn't have cared much for it, but as I was doing other things while watching it, it worked fine.  Woody Harrelson seemed less arrogant and better able to stay in a small role than I'd ever seen him.  I found the actress good and I'd be interested to see more movies by Anderson.

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Like everyone, I know the story from countless movies and adaptations, but I had never read the original.  When Audible put this up for free I thought I'd try it, in part because I've found myself appreciating the classics more and more -- no matter what I thought of them in high school.  I didn't have a good memory of Dickens, but this story was better than almost all modern adaptations, and I found the writing (well, listening) very enjoyable.  Will put Dickens on that very long to-read-again-someday list...

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Schaffer

This was a great choice for an audiobook, and the multiple narrators saying who they were and who was writing to whom was really helpful, especially as I tend to dip in and out of audiobooks in 15 minute increments. 

The structure of using letters to tell this story was fun & the story itself held my interest.  Characters were uneven in the development and credibility, and I wonder if Juliette came across as more sympathetic in print than her reader in the book conveyed by her tone.  I didn't think the book was a masterpiece, but it was very enjoyable as a story & the audio format worked really well for once. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson

To be honest, crime mystery bestsellers are not really my genre, so this review should be read in that context.  I also had just finished a real masterpiece (East of Eden, John Steinbeck) and Larsson's writing had a hard time standing up to that standard. 

The writing was the weak point of this story, although there are moments when the writing is unobtrusive and there is the occasional clever turn of phrase, the heavy and direct style sometimes became annoying.

The best point of this book was the characters -- clearly Larsson has given them a lot of thought, and humanity.  While all are a bit exaggerated, the main characters are developed individuals.  The central character is almost certainly a largely autobiographical character of the author, but he has a few flashes of insight into this person that keep things from getting too dull.  The small interactions & references to his daughter & first wife are an example of this. 

The story itself was pretty much a standard crime mystery, with a bit of corporate and personal greed/vendetta woven in for a second storyline.  I don't think the second storyline worked that well, in particular after the deroulement of the main story had ended.  The second story wasn't interesting enough or charged with enough drama to warrant an additional 100 pages, but the book was such a fast read that getting through it wasnt a problem. 

I'd give a B- and will probably go ahead and read the rest of the series -- but mainly because they're already on my bookshelf & my husband is reading them at the same time.  

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi

I listened to this over about 2 weeks - found some of the description of the Tehran ambiance through the revolution until the author's immigration to be a very good point of view of understanding what that was like to live through, in particular for an educated woman.  Some of the sections of the book were a bit self-indulgent and stories that seemed to have no purpose.  The author comes off as very full of herself and her intellect in multiple sections, yet never communicated any real brilliance to me. 

As an audio recording it was well done - good narrator, decent pace (pace of the book in parts is quite slow however). 

It made me want to listen to other memoirs in audiobook - the format seems well adapted to this kind of material.  I wouldn't seek out more work by Nafisi, but she did give some reading ideas for the future.

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

I picked up this book thinking I was going to struggle through it -- I had not enjoyed reading Of Mice & Men & The Pearl in high school, and I doubted I'd like this too much. Was I ever wrong.

I found the writing style amazing, the story and characters sharp and clever and completely timeless, the pace quick and interesting. I'd easily put it as the best book I've read this year, and into my "best books ever" pile as well.

Truly a pleasure to read, and gave ...more I picked up this book thinking I was going to struggle through it -- I had not enjoyed reading Of Mice & Men & The Pearl in high school, and I doubted I'd like this too much. Was I ever wrong.

I found the writing style amazing, the story and characters sharp and clever and completely timeless, the pace quick and interesting. I'd easily put it as the best book I've read this year, and into my "best books ever" pile as well.

Truly a pleasure to read, and gave me more courage to go back to other classics & of course to read more Steinbeck too. 

 

Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder

I liked that this book gave a good overview of philosophy, and found the explanations of most of the philosophy easy to digest & simple, but the structure of the book was so gimmicky that for me it didn't work well, and in particular after 2/3 I just wanted it to be over. I finished it out of stubbornness - I rarely leave books unfinished, but this one tempted me to.

Rarely have I read a book that I didn't enjoy reading that I got so much out of. As a novel for me it doesn't work at...more I liked that this book gave a good overview of philosophy, and found the explanations of most of the philosophy easy to digest & simple, but the structure of the book was so gimmicky that for me it didn't work well, and in particular after 2/3 I just wanted it to be over. I finished it out of stubbornness - I rarely leave books unfinished, but this one tempted me to.

Rarely have I read a book that I didn't enjoy reading that I got so much out of. As a novel for me it doesn't work at all, as far as the writing style goes I wasn't very impressed (and found it quite uneven) but for just the philosophy angle & cleverness of a new approach, I'm more forgiving. 

Broken Open, Elizabeth Lesser

I listened to Broken Open over the past week or so.  I don't even remember buying it, but it was a good find for this time in my life.  I don't know if there was any particular part that stuck out for me, but the overall message that we have a lot to learn from the tough times in life was an important thing for me to hear right now.  I didn't care much for the author's tone and I thought her stories were weak and self-indulgent next to some of the stories of other people (or things she could have included) but I still got something out of the book.  I wouldn't recommend the book or the audiorecording unless it was to someone else going through challenging times, however.