Here are book reviews from past months (please note that some months are skipped as I...heh...haven't updated as I should have). So many books, so little time...
- Gemini: Book Eight in The House of Niccolo by Dorothy
Dunnett
- This is the last book in an amazing series by Dorothy Dunnett,
entitled The House of Niccolo. In this last book, we follow
Nicholas as he tries to makes amends to the country of Scotland, and to
the friends and family he betrayed. To be honest, I was a little
disappointed at the beginning of this book, because it seemed a bit slower
than the others, and Nicholas seemed less vibrant, as did the other
characters. But wow, does the ending make up for it! I'm not going to
spoil it, but may I just comment on Dunnett's craftsmanship as a writer!
It's remarkable. Only read this book if you've read the first seven. You
can't do justice to it without the others, regardless of the introductory
blurb at the beginning of the book. (Genre: Historical Fiction)
- Review: 4 out of 5 stars
- The Earth Will Shake: The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles,
Volume I by Robert Anton Wilson
- This is something that Lawrence recommended to me--actually, he gave
it to me as a Christmas gift, last year. I didn't get around to reading
it 'til about April. But you see, the last time he recommended an
Illuminatus book by Wilson, I had a rather hard time with it, and I didn't
know if I was mentally up to tackling something else like that. As you can
imagine, I was pleasantly surprised when I realized this particular book
was eminently easier to read. It's vastly more entertaining for that
particular reason. It's more of the same conspiracy stuff, but again,
mind-altering, if you pay attention to what Wilson's saying. (Genre:
Historical Fiction/Fantasy?)
- Review: 5/5
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- I am probably the billionth person on the planet to have an opinion about this book, but here's mine anyway. Like the first three, this is a fun and easy read. I would have loved this stuff in early high school. I rather like it now. It's fairly mindless, entertaining reading--which is not a bad thing, let me add. I'm all for fairly mindless, entertaining reading, especially when you've just struggled through Ulysses for the third time. Anyway, Harry, with the help of his faithful friends Hermione (they stress the pronunciation, by the way--"Her-my-own-knee") and Ron Weasley, faces the rigors and challenges of the (Warning! Spoilers ahead!) TriWizard Tournament and of course, You-Know-Who. It's evident, too, that Potter and friends are getting older, because there are some interesting hints at blossoming romance in this installment of the Harry Potter series. (Genre: Fantasy)
- Review: 4/5
- High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
- I bought and read this book before I saw the movie. The book, unsurprisingly, far surpasses the movie--which was fairly good itself, I think. For those of you who are products of the eighties, this book, musically, has got to be bottled nostalgia. For the rest of us (who were not teenagers in the eighties--maybe only grade school children, or even full-grown adults), this book is fantastic anyway. Girls, read it to get a better insight into the mind of Man. Guys, it'll make you laugh--or squirm. Lawrence mentioned that it was a bit too candid for his taste. I found it to be sharp, witty, vastly amusing, and able to instill in the reader, a keen sense of sympathy and even empathy for Rob, the protagonist of this particular novel. In other words, I loved it. This was Hornby's first novel, and let me tell you, I am positively chartreuse with envy. (Genre: Fiction/Literature)
- Review: 5/5
- About a Boy by Nick Hornby
- Okay, I usually won't review two books by the same author like this, but I wanted to include this one in case you run out and get High Fidelity and love it (which I can nearly promise my first-born you will) and then decide to run out and try another Hornby novel. Because that's exactly what I did. Don't. I mean, this second book isn't bad. But it isn't exactly fabulous either. Not the way High Fidelity is fabulous. Marcus is a 12-year-old son of a divorced-mother-on-the-brink, and Will Freeman a shallow-middle-aged-egoist. When their lives intersect, some interesting and even touching things happen. It's a good book. But I didn't feel that it drew me in the way HF did. The story felt a bit forced and even stilted. Too bad there aren't video rental stores for books--oh, wait, that's the library, isn't it? Go check it out, but don't buy it. (Genre: Fiction/Literature)
- Review: 3/5
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