Mathew's bookshelf: all

Mathew's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 02 Jan 2014 17:01:37 -0800 60 Mathew's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)]]> 18116
These thrilling adventures tell the story of Lyra and Will—two ordinary children on a perilous journey through shimmering haunted otherworlds. They will meet witches and armored bears, fallen angels and soul-eating specters. And in the end, the fate of both the living—and the dead—will rely on them.

Phillip Pullman’s spellbinding His Dark Materials trilogy has captivated readers for over twenty years and won acclaim at every turn. It will have you questioning everything you know about your world and wondering what really lies just out of reach.]]> 1088 Philip Pullman 0440238609 Mathew 5 Phillip Pullman has done just that, and a world more. This wonderful trilogy will lead you along a most unlikely path through some of the biggest questions of life - in philosophy, religion, history, science, and not least literature. That it does so as a masterful, child-accessible and wholly engaging story is a feat of imagination and storycraft easily on par with Madeleine L'Engle's classic A Wrinkle In Time and its sequels. The book has recently won an award for being
. I am inclined to agree.

The first book, The Golden Compass, features the adventures of 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua, a precocious hooligan in a world almost but not quite ours, and the eponymous mechanism around which much of the story's plot is based. By itself, it might seem like a bit of a flighty read - fun, engaging, imaginative, but a bit strange at times, slyly heretical, even gruesome, leaving one to wonder "What is this really about?" Some critics (mostly of the sort that would have books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn banned) have come to the shallow conclusion that the series is nothing but a vessel for diatribe against certain religions institutions, never named but nevertheless obvious in reference. While Pullman shows a certain wicked zeal himself in creating a world in which wicked zealotry is as obvious - and as taken for granted - as political corruption in our own, his purpose is far grander than any partisan attack on stale religion. Rest assured, dear reader, every scene in the book is building towards a conflict simultaneously metaphysical and worldly which is only fully revealed in the third book.

The Subtle Knife introduces Will, a boy of unquestionable grit who is destined to become Lyra's companion. Will hails from our world, but unexpectedly finds himself in a welter of parallel worlds, where he comes into possession of a knife. This knife has two edges; the first edge can cut any material in the world, while the reverse edge is "more subtle still", according to the knife's guardian. The knife quickly becomes the focus of a conflict that not only transcends worlds, but also intersects Will's troubled home life in a profoundly personal way. As new characters and new revelations enter the story, Will and Lyra come to realize that their struggles are part of something much, much larger.

The third volume, The Amber Spyglass, brings into view the literally cosmic scope of a battle that centers on Will, Lyra, and the strange objects in their possession. The volume builds to a literally universe-shaking climax, as pivotal events never fail to surprise and yet mesh perfectly with the grand flow of the story.

I will say no more, lest I spoil any of the surprises, except to reiterate that for once I agree wholeheartedly with the critics: this series, and in particular its masterful conclusion, is transcendent, magnificent, and astonishing.]]> 4.26 2000 His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)

His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)

author: Philip Pullman
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2007/05/01
date added: 2014/01/02
shelves:
review:
Could you imagine a story that weaves history, quantum physics, theology, cosmology, trepanning, shamanism, love and the seriousness of adolescence into a coherent narrative? I could not. Yet Phillip Pullman has done just that, and a world more. This wonderful trilogy will lead you along a most unlikely path through some of the biggest questions of life - in philosophy, religion, history, science, and not least literature. That it does so as a masterful, child-accessible and wholly engaging story is a feat of imagination and storycraft easily on par with Madeleine L'Engle's classic A Wrinkle In Time and its sequels. The book has recently won an award for being
. I am inclined to agree.

The first book, The Golden Compass, features the adventures of 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua, a precocious hooligan in a world almost but not quite ours, and the eponymous mechanism around which much of the story's plot is based. By itself, it might seem like a bit of a flighty read - fun, engaging, imaginative, but a bit strange at times, slyly heretical, even gruesome, leaving one to wonder "What is this really about?" Some critics (mostly of the sort that would have books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn banned) have come to the shallow conclusion that the series is nothing but a vessel for diatribe against certain religions institutions, never named but nevertheless obvious in reference. While Pullman shows a certain wicked zeal himself in creating a world in which wicked zealotry is as obvious - and as taken for granted - as political corruption in our own, his purpose is far grander than any partisan attack on stale religion. Rest assured, dear reader, every scene in the book is building towards a conflict simultaneously metaphysical and worldly which is only fully revealed in the third book.

The Subtle Knife introduces Will, a boy of unquestionable grit who is destined to become Lyra's companion. Will hails from our world, but unexpectedly finds himself in a welter of parallel worlds, where he comes into possession of a knife. This knife has two edges; the first edge can cut any material in the world, while the reverse edge is "more subtle still", according to the knife's guardian. The knife quickly becomes the focus of a conflict that not only transcends worlds, but also intersects Will's troubled home life in a profoundly personal way. As new characters and new revelations enter the story, Will and Lyra come to realize that their struggles are part of something much, much larger.

The third volume, The Amber Spyglass, brings into view the literally cosmic scope of a battle that centers on Will, Lyra, and the strange objects in their possession. The volume builds to a literally universe-shaking climax, as pivotal events never fail to surprise and yet mesh perfectly with the grand flow of the story.

I will say no more, lest I spoil any of the surprises, except to reiterate that for once I agree wholeheartedly with the critics: this series, and in particular its masterful conclusion, is transcendent, magnificent, and astonishing.
]]> The Shell Seekers 37095 The Shell Seekers, is now worth a small fortune, it is Penelope who must make the decisions that will determine whether her family can continue to survive as a family, or be split apart.]]> 544 Rosamunde Pilcher 051722285X Mathew 5
The Shell Seekers, like so many of Pilcher's stories, is set in England, told from the vantage of a menagerie of characters whose lives are bound together by various ties of kinship and obligation. At first, one is content to get to know the cast as their various stories unfold, but little by little the pieces - and the people - come together, and by the end one realizes how incredibly tight this novel is.

It's the sort of novel that restores faith in life, and in fiction.]]> 4.16 1987 The Shell Seekers

author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2013/12/31
shelves:
review:
Rosamund Pilcher is consistently marketed via book jackets covered with flowers. I'm not sure why. On the surface, Pilcher's stories are nostalgic and evocative of magical other places where good things always happen to good people; but her novels and characters are consistently rich, complicated, and subtle. I've not read another author who could draw the infuriating imperfections and dysfunctions of family so accurately, or so compassionately. It's easy to admire, then almost despise, and then love her characters for being so very human.

The Shell Seekers, like so many of Pilcher's stories, is set in England, told from the vantage of a menagerie of characters whose lives are bound together by various ties of kinship and obligation. At first, one is content to get to know the cast as their various stories unfold, but little by little the pieces - and the people - come together, and by the end one realizes how incredibly tight this novel is.

It's the sort of novel that restores faith in life, and in fiction.
]]> <![CDATA[Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time (Eminent Lives)]]> 8489 256 Karen Armstrong 0060598972 Mathew 5 4.12 2006

Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time (Eminent Lives)

author: Karen Armstrong
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/08/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[So You Want to Be a Wizard (Young Wizards, #1)]]> 116563 323 Diane Duane 0152047387 Mathew 4
The second book in this series, Deep Wizardry, is just as good. Ditto for the third, High Wizardry. Duane has an uncommonly good understanding of the sciences, from cosmology to topology to marine biology, and puts them to good use in her stories.]]> 3.84 1983 So You Want to Be a Wizard (Young Wizards, #1)

So You Want to Be a Wizard (Young Wizards, #1)

author: Diane Duane
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
This is a great book in one of the best fantasy-as-the-real-world series ever written. Particularly noteworthy for the author's conception of a magic that obeys laws just as precise, complex and difficult-to-understand as the laws of physics and the principles of mathematics.

The second book in this series, Deep Wizardry, is just as good. Ditto for the third, High Wizardry. Duane has an uncommonly good understanding of the sciences, from cosmology to topology to marine biology, and puts them to good use in her stories.
]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Night with Moon (Cats of Grand Central, #1)]]> 176521 464 Diane Duane 0446606332 Mathew 4 4.07 1997

The Book of Night with Moon (Cats of Grand Central, #1)

author: Diane Duane
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Wind in the Door (Time Quintet, #2)]]> 18130 Every time a star goes out, another Echthros has won a battle.

Just before Meg Murry's little brother, Charles Wallace, falls deathly ill, he sees dragons in the vegetable garden. The dragons turn out to be Proginoskes, a cherubim composed out wings and eyes, wind and flame. It is up to Meg and Proginoskes, along with Meg's friend Calvin, to save Charles Wallace's life. To do so, they must travel deep within Charles Wallace to attempt to defeat the Echthroi—those who hate—and restore brilliant harmony and joy to the rhythm of creation, the song of the universe.]]> 236 Madeleine L'Engle 0440487617 Mathew 5 Time trilogy under book one, A Wrinkle in Time:
]]> 4.00 1973 A Wind in the Door (Time Quintet, #2)

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
See my review of the Time trilogy under book one, A Wrinkle in Time:

]]> <![CDATA[A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time Quintet, #3)]]> 77276 278 Madeleine L'Engle 0440401585 Mathew 5 Time trilogy under book one, A Wrinkle in Time:

Oh, and one other thing to note. The author has more recently added fourth and fifth books to the original trilogy. I haven't read them yet.]]> 4.09 1978 A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time Quintet, #3)

A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Time Quintet, #3)

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
See my review of the Time trilogy under book one, A Wrinkle in Time:

Oh, and one other thing to note. The author has more recently added fourth and fifth books to the original trilogy. I haven't read them yet.
]]> <![CDATA[A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1)]]> 18131
It was a dark and stormy night.

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure—one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet.]]> 211 Madeleine L'Engle 0440498058 Mathew 5 A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by 26 publishers before finally being accepted by a more-or-less mainstream literary fiction publishing house that had previously done neither fantasy nor children's literature. One can only guess that the publisher, whom Ms. L'Engle met at her friend's insistence, recognized a work of genius when he saw one.

Why so remarkable? Written at the dawn of the 1960s, this trilogy banished the entrenched notion that fantastic writing could only be flighty and fanciful (at best, epic drama set in another world, a la Tolkien's works, or Azimov's; at worst, swords-and-sorcery palaver and space-opera melodrama). It dealt a mortal, if not yet fatal, blow to the customary separation between hard science and fantasy, as well as between adult and children's literature. It challenged convention in other ways, not least by introducing a shy and bookish adolescent girl as the protagonist of a serious story in the sci-fi genre -- something that just wasn't done in 1962. And it reminded us that, whether your believe in God or not, spiritual concerns are among the most powerful drivers of fear and courage both in the real world and in our stories.

I can think of only one other series that managed so well to blend hard science, fantasy elements, theology, coming of age and exceptional storytelling, and that is the more recent trilogy by Phillip Pullman. But the two works are so very different it's almost a misleading comparison; you could like one and not the other.

The books of Ms. L'engle's trilogy treat a variety of different themes: good and evil, the importance of individuality, the power of love, and various scientific mysteries that become part of the fabric of a universal struggle between good and evil. For example, in the second book Ms. L'Engle uses the world of the mitochondrion -- fifty years after her writing, still a rather mysterious element of human cellular biology -- as a metaphor to suggest how the lowliest of entities could have the greatest importance on a cosmic stage. And lest you think that a fifty-year-old story with scientific elements must be terribly dated -- well, it's not. If you didn't know, you might have a hard time decided when exactly this story was written.

It's worth emphasizing that, while the good-and-evil theme and Ms. L'Engle's own Episcopalian background could be interpreted in a specifically Christian light, it's a mistake to compare the Time series to any explicit resurrection parable such as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The author's belief in the fundamental goodness of the world, forces that seek to destroy that goodness, and the power of love certainly resonates with certain religious themes, but neither her beliefs nor her story is overtly religious in tone or sentiment. The story is firmly planted in secular, logical-positivist soil, and what religious elements the story contains derive from a tradition of skepticism and open-mindedness. The overall flavor is one of mystery, myth, and a curious mingling of material and spiritual concerns.

Having said all that, I must also say that this is first and foremost a great children's story. The fact that intelligent adults will find much of interest in it means only that this is one of the few books you can't go wrong with at any age.]]> 4.04 1962 A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1)

A Wrinkle in Time (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet, #1)

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
This is the first book in a classic trilogy that is remarkable for many reasons. It is in effect a work of genre-bending slipstream, long before it was fashionable to write such stuff; indeed, A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by 26 publishers before finally being accepted by a more-or-less mainstream literary fiction publishing house that had previously done neither fantasy nor children's literature. One can only guess that the publisher, whom Ms. L'Engle met at her friend's insistence, recognized a work of genius when he saw one.

Why so remarkable? Written at the dawn of the 1960s, this trilogy banished the entrenched notion that fantastic writing could only be flighty and fanciful (at best, epic drama set in another world, a la Tolkien's works, or Azimov's; at worst, swords-and-sorcery palaver and space-opera melodrama). It dealt a mortal, if not yet fatal, blow to the customary separation between hard science and fantasy, as well as between adult and children's literature. It challenged convention in other ways, not least by introducing a shy and bookish adolescent girl as the protagonist of a serious story in the sci-fi genre -- something that just wasn't done in 1962. And it reminded us that, whether your believe in God or not, spiritual concerns are among the most powerful drivers of fear and courage both in the real world and in our stories.

I can think of only one other series that managed so well to blend hard science, fantasy elements, theology, coming of age and exceptional storytelling, and that is the more recent trilogy by Phillip Pullman. But the two works are so very different it's almost a misleading comparison; you could like one and not the other.

The books of Ms. L'engle's trilogy treat a variety of different themes: good and evil, the importance of individuality, the power of love, and various scientific mysteries that become part of the fabric of a universal struggle between good and evil. For example, in the second book Ms. L'Engle uses the world of the mitochondrion -- fifty years after her writing, still a rather mysterious element of human cellular biology -- as a metaphor to suggest how the lowliest of entities could have the greatest importance on a cosmic stage. And lest you think that a fifty-year-old story with scientific elements must be terribly dated -- well, it's not. If you didn't know, you might have a hard time decided when exactly this story was written.

It's worth emphasizing that, while the good-and-evil theme and Ms. L'Engle's own Episcopalian background could be interpreted in a specifically Christian light, it's a mistake to compare the Time series to any explicit resurrection parable such as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The author's belief in the fundamental goodness of the world, forces that seek to destroy that goodness, and the power of love certainly resonates with certain religious themes, but neither her beliefs nor her story is overtly religious in tone or sentiment. The story is firmly planted in secular, logical-positivist soil, and what religious elements the story contains derive from a tradition of skepticism and open-mindedness. The overall flavor is one of mystery, myth, and a curious mingling of material and spiritual concerns.

Having said all that, I must also say that this is first and foremost a great children's story. The fact that intelligent adults will find much of interest in it means only that this is one of the few books you can't go wrong with at any age.
]]> <![CDATA[Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet]]> 27310 290 Karen Armstrong 0062508865 Mathew 5
Karen Armstrong is one of the most lucid modern expositors of theology and religion. The fact that she considers herself atheist somehow lends her writing even more power. She is not alone among theologians who consider the contradictions and difficulties of faith to be the very essence of meaningful discourse on religion. But she may be alone in the incisive clarity with which she cuts through the fog of confusion that tends to obscure all things religious. And unlike so many scholars, she takes a broad look across the whole face of religion, looking for big themes that concern theists and atheists alike.

This book is important for several reasons. First, it is a fascinating read. In painting a very human portrait of the Prophet of the Islamic world, Armstrong sheds unexpected light on a religion much misunderstood and often reviled in the West. Second, it underscores Armstrong's larger concerns about unbridled bigotry of the Western world towards the Islamic. Whether or not you agree with her slant, you can't dismiss her concern for the violent rhetoric that increasingly pervades public discourse between Christendom and Islam. And it's hard to refute her argument that as much irrational hatred and vitriol streams from the supposedly rational Western world as from the Islamic.]]> 4.20 1991 Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet

author: Karen Armstrong
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
Unless you are a scholar of Islam, what you think you know about it is probably wrong - or at best, incomplete.

Karen Armstrong is one of the most lucid modern expositors of theology and religion. The fact that she considers herself atheist somehow lends her writing even more power. She is not alone among theologians who consider the contradictions and difficulties of faith to be the very essence of meaningful discourse on religion. But she may be alone in the incisive clarity with which she cuts through the fog of confusion that tends to obscure all things religious. And unlike so many scholars, she takes a broad look across the whole face of religion, looking for big themes that concern theists and atheists alike.

This book is important for several reasons. First, it is a fascinating read. In painting a very human portrait of the Prophet of the Islamic world, Armstrong sheds unexpected light on a religion much misunderstood and often reviled in the West. Second, it underscores Armstrong's larger concerns about unbridled bigotry of the Western world towards the Islamic. Whether or not you agree with her slant, you can't dismiss her concern for the violent rhetoric that increasingly pervades public discourse between Christendom and Islam. And it's hard to refute her argument that as much irrational hatred and vitriol streams from the supposedly rational Western world as from the Islamic.
]]> <![CDATA[Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day]]> 6609533
Reinhart begins with the simplest French bread, then moves on to familiar classics such as ciabatta, pizza dough, and soft sandwich loaves, and concludes with fresh specialty items like pretzels, crackers, croissants, and bagels. Each recipe is broken into "Do Ahead" and "On Baking Day" sections, making every step—from preparation through pulling pans from the oven—a breeze, whether you bought your loaf pan yesterday or decades ago. These doughs are engineered to work flawlessly for busy home most require only a straightforward mixing and overnight fermentation. The result is reliably superior flavor and texture on par with loaves from world-class artisan bakeries, all with little hands-on time.

America's favorite baking instructor and innovator Peter Reinhart offers time-saving techniques accompanied by full-color, step-by-step photos throughout so that in no time you'll be producing fresh batches of Sourdough Baguettes, 50% and 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaves, Soft and Crusty Cheese Bread, English Muffins, Cinnamon Buns, Panettone, Hoagie Rolls, Chocolate Cinnamon Babka, Fruit-Filled Thumbprint Rolls, Danish, and Best-Ever Biscuits.

Best of all, these high-caliber doughs improve with a longer stay in the fridge, so you can mix once, then portion, proof, and bake whenever you feel like enjoying a piping hot treat.]]> 217 Peter Reinhart 1580089984 Mathew 5
This is the first book I have found that lives up to its promise. More than that, the bread you get from these recipes is amazingly, incredibly, life-changingly good. It takes a few tries to get some of the details right, but every single loaf I baked (including the ones that didn't come out quite right) was delicious. You really can't go wrong, if you want delicious easy bread.]]> 4.25 2009 Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day

Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day

author: Peter Reinhart
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
A lot of cookbooks claim to have really easy recipes for delicious food. Almost invariably, they forget to mention the exotic ingredients, the side sauce you made elsewhere in the book, and the fact that their recipes were created and tested by professionals in a fully-equipped kitchen with assistants to do the washing-up.

This is the first book I have found that lives up to its promise. More than that, the bread you get from these recipes is amazingly, incredibly, life-changingly good. It takes a few tries to get some of the details right, but every single loaf I baked (including the ones that didn't come out quite right) was delicious. You really can't go wrong, if you want delicious easy bread.
]]> Three Days to Never 209688
When twelve-year-old Daphne Marrity takes a videotape labeled Pee-wee's Big Adventure from her grandmother's house, neither she nor her college-professor father, Frank Marrity, has any idea that the theft has drawn the attention of both the Israeli Secret Service and an ancient European cabal of occultists—or that within hours they'll be visited by her long-lost grandfather, who is also desperate to get that tape.

And when Daphne's teddy bear is stolen, a blind assassin nearly kills Frank, and a phantom begins to speak to her from a switched-off television set, Daphne and her father find themselves caught in the middle of a murderous power struggle that originated long ago in Israel and Germany but now crashes through Los Angeles and out to the Mojave Desert. To survive, they must quickly learn the rules of a dangerous magical chess game and use all their cleverness and courage—as well as their love and loyalty to each other—to escape a fate more profound than death.

A pulse-pounding epic adventure that blurs the lines between espionage and the supernatural; good and evil; past, present and future, Three Days to Never is an exhilarating masterwork of speculative suspense from the always remarkable imagination of the incomparable Tim Powers.]]> 420 Tim Powers 0380976536 Mathew 5
Three Days to Never is a page-turning romp invoking hard science (think special relativity, and Einstein as you've never imagined him), biblical occult, and quite a lot of history and theosophy very little embellished from fact. Powers delights in a space where intricate characters face intricate dilemmas in a reality so tantalizingly close to our own, you'd think just maybe it isn't made up.]]> 3.65 2006 Three Days to Never

author: Tim Powers
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
American author Tim Powers is not well known in many genres, perhaps because his stories often defy categorization. Their fascination with the occult tends to put them in a category of fantasy or science fiction, yet they are written with the style and skill of the best mainstream international thrillers, and often involve considerable historical research to enrich the story without it been terribly obvious how much work the author has done to mine the past for story elements. This is a hallmark of most Powers novels, something the author has called "doing card tricks in the dark".

Three Days to Never is a page-turning romp invoking hard science (think special relativity, and Einstein as you've never imagined him), biblical occult, and quite a lot of history and theosophy very little embellished from fact. Powers delights in a space where intricate characters face intricate dilemmas in a reality so tantalizingly close to our own, you'd think just maybe it isn't made up.
]]> September 116053 613 Rosamunde Pilcher 0340752459 Mathew 5 September, set -- like many of her stories -- among the rolling hills and moors of Scotland.

Along with the ensemble cast of complex, diverse and fallible characters we Pilcher fans have come to expect, there is one rather unexpected character: Noel Keeling, the very same disagreeable son of Penelope Keeling we knew and -- well, knew in Pilcher's best-seller The Shell Seekers. I shan't spoil the story, but let's just say that it adds an interesting twist.

Alright, a small spoiler: Noel turns out to be a good deal more interesting and complicated than you might have thought from his first appearance. Whatever reason Ms. Pilcher may have chosen for bringing a slightly older and wiser Noel into this novel (and I can think of several good ones) it serves not only to liven up the story, but to make one think quite a bit about the intersection of families and generations.

Just in case we might think we know her characters and her writing, September serves to remind us -- think again!
]]> 4.13 1990

author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
Yet another classic. A short review won't do justice to the rich story of September, set -- like many of her stories -- among the rolling hills and moors of Scotland.

Along with the ensemble cast of complex, diverse and fallible characters we Pilcher fans have come to expect, there is one rather unexpected character: Noel Keeling, the very same disagreeable son of Penelope Keeling we knew and -- well, knew in Pilcher's best-seller The Shell Seekers. I shan't spoil the story, but let's just say that it adds an interesting twist.

Alright, a small spoiler: Noel turns out to be a good deal more interesting and complicated than you might have thought from his first appearance. Whatever reason Ms. Pilcher may have chosen for bringing a slightly older and wiser Noel into this novel (and I can think of several good ones) it serves not only to liven up the story, but to make one think quite a bit about the intersection of families and generations.

Just in case we might think we know her characters and her writing, September serves to remind us -- think again!

]]> Coming Home 60471
In 1935, Judith Dunbar is left behind at a British boarding school when her mother and baby sister go off to join her father in Singapore. At Saint Ursula's, her friendship with Loveday Carey-Lewis sweeps her into the privileged, madcap world of the British aristocracy, teaching her about values, friendship, and wealth. But it will be the drama of war, as it wrenches Judith from those she cares about most, that will teach her about courage...and about love.

Teeming with marvelous, memorable characters in a novel that is a true masterpiece, Coming Home is a book to be savored, reread, and cherished forever.]]> 977 Rosamunde Pilcher 0340752475 Mathew 5 Coming Home is every bit as rich and complex as her previous best-sellers. If you liked The Shell Seekers or September, you may like this one even more. You certainly won't be disappointed.

While it's superficially accurate to say that Pilcher's novels are always of family drama, often against the backdrop of some larger historical drama -- both Coming Home and The Shell Seekers involve the Second World War, for example -- and certain themes always recur, nevertheless Coming Home is completely original, fresh and compelling. The story follows the life of a young English girl of more-or-less ordinary status from girlhood to womanhood as she becomes entangled with the strong personalities of a larger-than-life and very wealthy family.

Stories of war, love and coming to age are not new -- but this story is nevertheless completely new, even to devotees of Pilcher's previous books.]]> 4.32 1995 Coming Home

author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/12/21
shelves:
review:
Another fine novel by the grand Dame of British fiction, Coming Home is every bit as rich and complex as her previous best-sellers. If you liked The Shell Seekers or September, you may like this one even more. You certainly won't be disappointed.

While it's superficially accurate to say that Pilcher's novels are always of family drama, often against the backdrop of some larger historical drama -- both Coming Home and The Shell Seekers involve the Second World War, for example -- and certain themes always recur, nevertheless Coming Home is completely original, fresh and compelling. The story follows the life of a young English girl of more-or-less ordinary status from girlhood to womanhood as she becomes entangled with the strong personalities of a larger-than-life and very wealthy family.

Stories of war, love and coming to age are not new -- but this story is nevertheless completely new, even to devotees of Pilcher's previous books.
]]> Nova 85863
The balance of galactic power in the 31st century revolves around Illyrion, the most precious energy source in the universe. The varied and exotic crew who sign up with Captain Lorq van Ray know their mission is dangerous, and they soon learn that they are involved in a deadly race with the charismatic but vicious leader of an opposing space federation. But they have no idea of Lorq's secret obsession: to gather Illyrion at the source by flying through the very heart of an imploding star.]]> 241 Samuel R. Delany 0375706704 Mathew 5 Nova overflows with the author's own brilliance and optimism, and if his belief in utopia seems a bit naive, it's not without nuance, and one can't help but be swept up in its glorious vision.]]> 3.83 1968 Nova

author: Samuel R. Delany
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1968
rating: 5
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date added: 2011/10/05
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There are a lot of reasons to read this book - it's a great story, for starters. Delaney himself is a fascinating character, and his stories give a window into the turbulent scene of free-wheeling radicals crossing every boundary imaginable (move over, Jack Kerouac). Nova overflows with the author's own brilliance and optimism, and if his belief in utopia seems a bit naive, it's not without nuance, and one can't help but be swept up in its glorious vision.
]]> <![CDATA[The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia]]> 13651 387 Ursula K. Le Guin Mathew 5
The Dispossesed remains a classic - a rightful winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, it is one of the most profound and insightful explorations of the meaning of society to be found in the pages of modern fiction, not just science fiction. As ever, Ms. le Guin is fascinated with the tension between dualities - anarchy and government, utopia and dystopia, selfishness and altruism, violence and non-violence, power and powerlessness. Although one may detect a whiff of the academic in her treatment of these themes, still that whiff does not overpower the savor of her spare storytelling.

As much as I loved the brash galaxy-spanning stories of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, they never ventured very far beyond the tested formulas of space opera, however thick their intellectual veneer. I don't reread these stories now. But I keep rereading le Guin, and every time I find something new to think about.]]> 4.24 1974 The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/05
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review:
Ursula le Guin was among the serious writers in the 60s who took Science Fiction from the pages of pulp fiction, infused it with the passion and sensibility of contemporary concerns with feminism, racism, and democracy, and elevated it to something that thinking people began to take seriously.

The Dispossesed remains a classic - a rightful winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, it is one of the most profound and insightful explorations of the meaning of society to be found in the pages of modern fiction, not just science fiction. As ever, Ms. le Guin is fascinated with the tension between dualities - anarchy and government, utopia and dystopia, selfishness and altruism, violence and non-violence, power and powerlessness. Although one may detect a whiff of the academic in her treatment of these themes, still that whiff does not overpower the savor of her spare storytelling.

As much as I loved the brash galaxy-spanning stories of Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, they never ventured very far beyond the tested formulas of space opera, however thick their intellectual veneer. I don't reread these stories now. But I keep rereading le Guin, and every time I find something new to think about.
]]> Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle, #4) 13661
Once, when they were young, they helped each other at a time of darkness and danger and shared an adventure like no other. Now they must join forces again, to help another in need -- the physically and emotionally scarred child whose own destiny has yet to be revealed.]]> 281 Ursula K. Le Guin 1416509631 Mathew 4 4.03 1990 Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle, #4)

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2011/07/07
date added: 2011/10/05
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew]]> 68024 173 Ursula K. Le Guin 0933377460 Mathew 0 currently-reading 4.20 1998

Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/04/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Salterton Trilogy: Tempest-Tost / Leaven of Malice / A Mixture of Frailties]]> 48266
There's the Salterton Little Theatre Company, in which professional director Valentine Rich is tormented by the amateurish efforts of his actors. The families Vambrace and Bridgetower almost go to war over a fake notice of engagement in the local paper. And a family fortune is lavished on an aspiring singer because there is no male heir to claim it.

Tracing the lives and incidents of a small community in the middle of the last century, "The Salterton Trilogy" peels off the public veneer of geniality and respectability to reveal the private passions churning beneath.]]> 808 Robertson Davies 014015910X Mathew 4 4.37 1986 The Salterton Trilogy: Tempest-Tost / Leaven of Malice / A Mixture of Frailties

The Salterton Trilogy: Tempest-Tost / Leaven of Malice / A Mixture of Frailties

author: Robertson Davies
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2011/04/19
date added: 2011/04/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Four Ways to Forgiveness (Hainish Cycle, #7)]]> 92605
In this stunning collection of four intimately interconnected novellas, Ursula K. Le Guin returns to the great themes that have made her one of America's most honored and respected authors.]]> 304 Ursula K. Le Guin 006076029X Mathew 3 4.21 1994 Four Ways to Forgiveness (Hainish Cycle, #7)

Four Ways to Forgiveness (Hainish Cycle, #7)

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1994
rating: 3
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date added: 2010/07/13
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]]> The Wind's Twelve Quarters 77289
Ursula Le Guin, author of The Earthsea Trilogy, has a special way of blending stirring adventure with fantasy that has made comparison with such masters as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien inevitable.

Now, in The Wind's Twelve Quarters, seventeen of her favorite stories reaffirm Ursula Le Guin as one of America's outstanding writers.

CONTENTS:

Foreword
Semley's Necklace
April in Paris
The Masters
Darkness Box
The Word of Unbinding
The Rule of Names
Winter's King
The Good Trip
Nine Lives
Things
A Trip to the Head
Vaster than Empires and More Slow
The Stars Below
The Field of Vision
Direction of the Road
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
The Day Before the Revolution]]> 277 Ursula K. Le Guin 055302907X Mathew 4 4.09 1975 The Wind's Twelve Quarters

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1975
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/07/13
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]]> The Telling 59921
Intrigued by their beliefs, Sutty joins them on a sacred pilgrimage into the mountains...and into the dangerous terrain of her own heart, mind, and soul.]]> 231 Ursula K. Le Guin 0441011233 Mathew 4 3.97 2000 The Telling

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/07/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Other Wind (Earthsea Cycle, #6)]]> 13658
Alder seeks advice from Ged, once Archmage. Ged tells him to go to Tenar, Tehanu, and the young king at Havnor. They are joined by amber-eyed Irian, a fierce dragon able to assume the shape of a woman.

The threat can be confronted only in the Immanent Grove on Roke, the holiest place in the world and there the king, hero, sage, wizard, and dragon make a last stand.

Le Guin combines her magical fantasy with a profoundly human, earthly, humble touch.]]> 211 Ursula K. Le Guin 044101125X Mathew 0 to-read 4.16 2001 The Other Wind (Earthsea Cycle, #6)

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2010/07/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Tales from Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #5)]]> 13659
The Finder
Darkrose and Diamond
The Bones of the Earth
On the High Marsh
Dragonfly]]> 280 Ursula K. Le Guin 0441011241 Mathew 0 to-read 4.07 2001 Tales from Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #5)

Tales from Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #5)

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2010/07/13
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]]> The Lathe of Heaven 59924
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.

The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity's self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre.]]> 176 Ursula K. Le Guin 0060512741 Mathew 3 4.12 1971 The Lathe of Heaven

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1971
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Farthest Shore (Earthsea Cycle, #3)]]> 13667 259 Ursula K. Le Guin 141650964X Mathew 4 4.13 1972

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1972
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)]]> 13642
Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.]]> 183 Ursula K. Le Guin Mathew 4 4.02 1968 A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)

A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1968
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle, #2)]]> 13662
Then a wizard, Ged Sparrowhawk, comes to steal the Tombs�� greatest hidden treasure, the Ring of Erreth-Akbe. Tenar’s duty is to protect the Ring, but Ged possesses the light of magic and tales of a world that Tenar has never known. Will Tenar risk everything to escape from the darkness that has become her domain?]]> 180 Ursula K. Le Guin 0689845367 Mathew 3 4.12 1971 The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle, #2)

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1971
rating: 3
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date added: 2010/07/13
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]]> The Left Hand of Darkness 18423 The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.]]> 304 Ursula K. Le Guin Mathew 4 4.11 1969

author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1969
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[A Short History of Nearly Everything]]> 21 544 Bill Bryson 076790818X Mathew 4 4.21 2003

author: Bill Bryson
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2010/02/18
date added: 2010/07/13
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This is one of the best natural science / natural history type books I have read in a very long time. Full of humorous (and sometimes horrifying) stories of how what passes as mainstream scientific understanding came to be.
]]> Foucault’s Pendulum 17841
On a lark, the editors begin randomly feeding esoteric bits of knowledge into an incredible computer capable of inventing connections between all their entries. What they believe they are creating is a long, lazy game - until the game starts taking over...

Here is an incredible journey of thought and history, memory and fantasy, a tour de force as enthralling as anything Umberto Eco—or indeed anyone—has ever devised.]]> 623 Umberto Eco 015603297X Mathew 3 3.92 1988 Foucault’s Pendulum

author: Umberto Eco
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1988
rating: 3
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date added: 2010/03/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bean Trees (Greer Family, #1)]]> 30868 232 Barbara Kingsolver 0812474945 Mathew 3 4.00 1988

author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1988
rating: 3
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date added: 2010/02/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1)]]> 99208 The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a "comic extravaganza." Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it's true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief.

The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to the desert to find his beloved canyons and rivers threatened by industrial development. On a rafting trip down the Colorado River, Hayduke joins forces with feminist saboteur Bonnie Abbzug, wilderness guide Seldom Seen Smith, and billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., and together they wander off to wage war on the big yellow machines, on dam builders and road builders and strip miners. As they do, his characters voice Abbey's concerns about wilderness preservation ("Hell of a place to lose a cow," Smith thinks to himself while roaming through the canyonlands of southern Utah. "Hell of a place to lose your heart. Hell of a place... to lose. Period").

Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime, the motley gang puts fear into the hearts of their enemies, laughing all the while. It's comic, yes, and required reading for anyone who has come to love the desert.]]> 421 Edward Abbey 0061129763 Mathew 3 4.09 1975 The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1)

The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1)

author: Edward Abbey
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1975
rating: 3
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date added: 2010/02/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven / River Notes: The Dance of Herons]]> 16882 144 Barry Lopez 0380711109 Mathew 4 4.14 1979

Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven / River Notes: The Dance of Herons

author: Barry Lopez
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1979
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/02/19
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]]> Snow Falling on Cedars 77142 460 David Guterson 067976402X Mathew 4 3.86 1994

author: David Guterson
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1994
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/02/19
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]]> The Intuitionist 16271 Librarian note: Click here for alternate cover edition
Two warring factions in the Department of Elevator Inspectors in a bustling metropolis vie for dominance: the Empiricists, who go by the book and rigorously check every structural and mechanical detail, and the Intuitionists, whose observational methods involve meditation and instinct.

Lila Mae Watson, the city’s first black female inspector and a devout Intuitionist with the highest accuracy rate in the department, is at the center of the turmoil. An elevator in a new municipal building has crashed on Lila Mae’s watch, fanning the flames of the Empiticist-Intuitionist feud and compelling Lila Mae to go underground to investigate. As she endeavors to clear her name, she becomes entangled in a web of intrigue that leads her to a secret that will change her life forever.

A dead-serious and seriously funny feat of the imagination, The Intuitionist conjures a parallel universe in which latent ironies in matters of morality, politics, and race come to light, and stands as the celebrated debut of an important American writer.]]> 255 Colson Whitehead Mathew 3 3.64 1999 The Intuitionist

author: Colson Whitehead
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1999
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother]]> 29209
Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother.

The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion--and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain.

In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned.

At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all-black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college--and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University.

Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self-realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.]]> 291 James McBride 1573225789 Mathew 4 4.13 1995 The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother

author: James McBride
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1995
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/02/19
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]]> Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas, #1) 14995
Something evil has come to the desert town that Odd and Stormy call home. It comes in the form of a mysterious man with a macabre appetite, a filing cabinet full of information on the world's worst killers, and strange, hyena-like shadows following him wherever he goes. Odd is worried. He knows things, sees things - about the living, the dead, and the soon-to-be dead. Things that he has to act on. Now he's terrified for Stormy, himself and Pico Mundo. Because he knows that on Wednesday August 15, a savage, blood-soaked whirlwind of violence and murder will devastate the town...

Today is August 14.
And Odd is far from sure he can stop the coming storm...]]> 446 Dean Koontz 0553384287 Mathew 3 3.98 2003 Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas, #1)

author: Dean Koontz
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2003
rating: 3
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date added: 2010/02/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Celestine Prophecy (Celestine Prophecy, #1)]]> 13103
The Celestine Prophecy contains secrets that are currently changing our world. Drawing on the ancient wisdom found in a Peruvian manuscript, it tells you how to make connections between the events happening in your own life right now...and lets you see what is going to happen to you in the years to come.

The story it tells is a gripping one of adventure and discovery, but it is also a guidebook that has the power to crystalize your perceptions of why you are where you are in life...and to direct your steps with a new energy and optimism as you head into tomorrow.

A book that comes along just once in a lifetime to change lives forever.]]> 247 James Redfield Mathew 2 3.72 1993 The Celestine Prophecy (Celestine Prophecy, #1)

The Celestine Prophecy (Celestine Prophecy, #1)

author: James Redfield
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1993
rating: 2
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date added: 2010/02/19
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review:
As literature, this book deserves one star (maybe less). You sort of understand why no publisher would touch the first edition, which was self-published. But in its hokey way, it's an interesting piece of speculation.
]]> <![CDATA[Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand]]> 85861 The story of a truly galactic civilization with over 6,000 inhabited worlds.

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues--technology, globalization, gender, sexuality, and multiculturalism--have only become more pressing with the passage of time.

The novel's topic is information itself: What are the repercussions, once it has been made public, that two individuals have been found to be each other's perfect erotic object out to "point nine-nine-nine and several nines percent more"? What will it do to the individuals involved, to the city they inhabit, to their geosector, to their entire world society, especially when one is an illiterate worker, the sole survivor of a world destroyed by "cultural fugue," and the other is--you!]]> 356 Samuel R. Delany 0819567140 Mathew 0 to-read 3.86 1984 Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand

author: Samuel R. Delany
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2010/02/19
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]]> The Einstein Intersection 145354 A nonhuman race reimagines human mythology.

The Einstein Intersection won the Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of 1967. The surface story tells of the problems a member of an alien race, Lo Lobey, has assimilating the mythology of earth, where his kind have settled among the leftover artifacts of humanity. The deeper tale concerns, however, the way those who are "different" must deal with the dominant cultural ideology. The tale follows Lobey's mythic quest for his lost love, Friza. In luminous and hallucinated language, it explores what new myths might emerge from the detritus of the human world as those who are "different" try to seize history and the day.]]> 136 Samuel R. Delany 0819563366 Mathew 0 to-read 3.57 1967 The Einstein Intersection

author: Samuel R. Delany
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia]]> 85893 312 Samuel R. Delany 081956298X Mathew 3 3.75 1976

Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia

author: Samuel R. Delany
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1976
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Numbers in the Dark and Other Stories]]> 30728 288 Italo Calvino 0679743537 Mathew 4 3.98 1993

author: Italo Calvino
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1993
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler]]> 374233 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration��"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish writer Bazakbal. Given the choice between the two, he goes for the Pole, as does the Other Reader, Ludmilla. But this copy turns out to be by yet another writer, as does the next, and the next.

The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches—stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition—with explorations of how and why we choose to read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter's Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. "What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space."]]> 260 Italo Calvino Mathew 0 to-read 4.06 1979 If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

author: Italo Calvino
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Six Memos for the Next Millennium]]> 9812 128 Italo Calvino 0099730510 Mathew 3 4.25 1988

author: Italo Calvino
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1988
rating: 3
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]]> Holy Fire 359390
In an era when life expectancies stretch 100 years or more and adhering to healthy habits is the only way to earn better medical treatments, ancient "post humans" dominate society with their ubiquitous wealth and power. By embracing the safe and secure, 94-year-old Mia Ziemann has lived a long and quiet life. Too quiet, as she comes to realize, for Mia has lost the creative drive and ability to love--the holy fire--of the young. But when a radical new procedure makes Mia young again, she has the chance to break free of society's cloying grasp.]]> 368 Bruce Sterling 055357549X Mathew 4 3.72 1996

author: Bruce Sterling
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1996
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[A Live Coal in the Sea (Camilla, #2)]]> 260740 336 Madeleine L'Engle 0060652861 Mathew 4 3.84 1996

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1996
rating: 4
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]]> A Severed Wasp 2816 388 Madeleine L'Engle 0374517835 Mathew 4 3.96 1982

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1982
rating: 4
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]]> The Small Rain 251947 Madeleine L'Engle's classic young adult books include A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Certain Women. The Small Rain, an adult novel, focuses on Katherine Forrester, the daughter of distinguished musical artists, whose career as a concert pianist evolves through loves and losses. Katherine is a child growing up in a refined, yet bohemian, artistic ambience--theatrical as well as musical . . . . [Her] adolescence is lonely and difficult, but as Katherine advances to young womanhood, her heart as well as her talent is promisingly engaged (Publishers Weekly).
]]> 384 Madeleine L'Engle 0374519129 Mathew 4 3.91 1945 The Small Rain

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1945
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[An Acceptable Time (Time Quintet, #5)]]> 24761 Why has a time gate opened and dropped Polly into a world that existed three thousand years ago? Will she find her way back to the present before the time gate closes—and leaves her to face a group of people who believe in human sacrifice?

]]> 368 Madeleine L'Engle 0440208149 Mathew 0 to-read 3.81 1989 An Acceptable Time (Time Quintet, #5)

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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date added: 2010/02/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Many Waters (Time Quintet, #4)]]> 151370 Progress. Please Keep Out

But it's too late for regrets. There's a strange-and very small-person approaching, with a miniature mammoth in tow. . . .

At last it's Sandy and Dennys's turn for an adventure-an adventure that turns serious when they discover that "many waters" are coming to flood the desert. The twins must find a way back home soon, or they will drown. But how will they get back to their own time? Can they?

"From the Trade Paperback edition."]]> 359 Madeleine L'Engle 0312368577 Mathew 0 to-read 3.96 1986 Many Waters (Time Quintet, #4)

author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis]]> 27307
As the foundation stone of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, The Book of Genesis unfolds some of the most arresting stories of world literature—the Creation; Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; the sacrifice of Isaac. Yet the meaning of Genesis remains enigmatic. In this fascinating volume, Karen Armstrong, author of the highly acclaimed bestseller A History of God, brilliantly illuminates the mysteries and profundities of this mystifying work.

“A lyrical chronicle of one woman's wrestling with Genesis that can serve as a guide to others . . . As notable for its scholarship as it is for its honesty and vulnerability.”�� Publishers Weekly

“Armstrong can simplify complex ideas, but she is never simplistic.”�� The New York Times Book Review]]> 195 Karen Armstrong 0345406044 Mathew 0 to-read 3.85 1996 In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis

In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis

author: Karen Armstrong
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Buddha 27304 240 Karen Armstrong 0143034367 Mathew 0 to-read 3.91 2001 Buddha

author: Karen Armstrong
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/02/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness]]> 27308
“A story about becoming human, being recognized, finally recognizing oneself��. It fills the reader with hope.�� The Washington Post Book World

In 1962, at age seventeen, Karen Armstrong entered a convent, eager to meet God. After seven brutally unhappy years as a nun, she left her order to pursue English literature at Oxford. But convent life had profoundly altered her, and coping with the outside world and her expiring faith proved to be excruciating. Her deep solitude and a terrifying illness–diagnosed only years later as epilepsy—marked her forever as an outsider. In her own mind she was a complete failure: as a nun, as an academic, and as a normal woman capable of intimacy. Her future seemed very much in question until she stumbled into comparative theology. What she found, in learning, thinking, and writing about other religions, was the ecstasy and transcendence she had never felt as a nun.]]> 306 Karen Armstrong 0385721277 Mathew 4 3.92 2004 The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness

The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness

author: Karen Armstrong
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/02/19
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Santa Olivia (Santa Olivia, #1)]]> 5931169
Loup Garron was born and raised in Santa Olivia, an isolated, disenfranchised town next to a US military base inside a DMZ buffer zone between Texas and Mexico. A fugitive "Wolf-Man" who had a love affair with a local woman, Loup's father was one of a group of men genetically-manipulated and used by the US government as a weapon. The "Wolf-Men" were engineered to have superhuman strength, speed, sensory capability, stamina, and a total lack of fear, and Loup, named for and sharing her father's wolf-like qualities, is marked as an outsider.

After her mother dies, Loup goes to live among the misfit orphans at the parish church, where they seethe from the injustices visited upon the locals by the soldiers. Eventually, the orphans find an outlet for their frustrations: They form a vigilante group to support Loup Garron who, costumed as their patron saint, Santa Olivia, uses her special abilities to avenge the town.

Aware that she could lose her freedom, and possibly her life, Loup is determined to fight to redress the wrongs her community has suffered. And like the reincarnation of their patron saint, she will bring hope to all of Santa Olivia.]]> 341 Jacqueline Carey 044619817X Mathew 3 3.84 2009 Santa Olivia (Santa Olivia, #1)

author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang, #1)]]> 44930
Nothing could have prepared Miss Temple for where her pursuit of Roger Bascombe would take her—or for the shocking things she would find behind the closed doors of forbidding Harschmort Manor: men and women in provocative disguise, acts of licentiousness and violence, heroism and awakening. But she will also find two allies: Cardinal Chang, a brutal assassin with the heart of a poet, and a royal doctor named Svenson, at once fumbling and heroic—both of whom, like her, lost someone at Harschmort Manor. As the unlikely trio search for answers—hurtling them from elegant brothels to gaslit alleyways to shocking moments of self-discovery-- they are confronted by puzzles within puzzles. And the closer they get to the truth, the more their lives are in danger. For the conspiracy they face—an astonishing alchemy of science, perverted religion, and lust for power—is so terrifying as to be beyond belief.]]> 760 Gordon Dahlquist 0385340354 Mathew 4 3.53 2006 The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang, #1)

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang, #1)

author: Gordon Dahlquist
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Outliers: The Story of Success]]> 3228917 Learn what sets high achievers apart �� from Bill Gates to the Beatles �� in this #1 bestseller from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).

In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.]]> 309 Malcolm Gladwell 0316017922 Mathew 4 4.19 2008 Outliers: The Story of Success

author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Expiration Date (Fault Lines, #2)]]> 209691 384 Tim Powers 0765317524 Mathew 3 3.87 1995

author: Tim Powers
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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]]> Declare 190554 608 Tim Powers 0380798360 Mathew 4 4.03 2000 Declare

author: Tim Powers
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:

]]> An Ocean Apart 182170 546 Robin Pilcher 0751523895 Mathew 3 3.80 1999

author: Robin Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:

]]> Voices in Summer 116040 224 Rosamunde Pilcher 0751505714 Mathew 4 3.94 1984

author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:

]]> Sleeping Tiger 116043 ]]> 288 Rosamunde Pilcher 0312961251 Mathew 3 3.55 1967

author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1967
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:

]]> The Day of the Storm 116049
On the last day of her mother's life, Rebecca learns she has a family in Cornwall, and sets out to find the grandfather and cousin she has never known. But only the enigmatic Joss Gardner, the outsider who seems to be the apple of her grandfather's eye, can help her understand the dark currents that lie behind her family's loving reception.]]> 272 Rosamunde Pilcher 0312961308 Mathew 4 3.71 1975 The Day of the Storm

author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Flowers in the Rain and Other Stories]]> 116047 304 Rosamunde Pilcher 0340567996 Mathew 3 3.87 1991

author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:

]]> The Children's Hospital 53169 615 Chris Adrian 1932416609 Mathew 2 3.58 2006

author: Chris Adrian
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2010/02/18
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review:
I have a feeling my rating will go up as I read this. So far it's been enjoyable, but difficult to get into. I hold the possibly old-fashioned belief that every sentence in a novel should have a purpose known to the author (even if nobody else), and it's hard for me to believe that every sentence in this novel meets that criterion. The characters' personal stories are engaging, but digressive, to the point that reading the novel becomes two-thirds work and one-third pleasure.
]]> The Fires of Spring 431203 THE ATLANTIC
David Harper was an orphan, loney and impoverished. But his longing to embrace the world that abandoned him was stronger than the harsh realities. And even though he's a con man and petty thief at a carnival, he still dreams. For it was there that David learned about love and about women--all of whom taught him the riches of himself.
Here is a rich segment of American life--a magic blend of longing and wisdom, saltiness, simplicity, and compassion.]]> 480 James A. Michener 0449214702 Mathew 4
It's the story of a young man who grows up essentially an orphan, not too long after the turn of (19th) century. You could call it a coming-of-age novel, and it is, but that doesn't really begin to capture the energy and vitality of the characters.

As well as a good read, it's a pretty insightful portrait of an America that no longer exists. And that is probably for the best, yet the portait is fascinating all the same.]]> 3.83 1949 The Fires of Spring

author: James A. Michener
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at: 1998/05/01
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
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One of Michener's early novels, and for all it's flaws it's really astonishingly good. You don't really find stories like this any more.

It's the story of a young man who grows up essentially an orphan, not too long after the turn of (19th) century. You could call it a coming-of-age novel, and it is, but that doesn't really begin to capture the energy and vitality of the characters.

As well as a good read, it's a pretty insightful portrait of an America that no longer exists. And that is probably for the best, yet the portait is fascinating all the same.
]]> The Zahir 1427 The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover.

Was Esther kidnapped, murdered, or did she simply escape a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn’t have any answers, but he has plenty of questions of his own. Then one day Mikhail finds the narrator and promises to reunite him with his wife. In his attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.]]> 336 Paulo Coelho 0060832819 Mathew 2 The Alchemist, this novel's quality is rocky at best. Coelho has great ideas, but the greatest idea is only as good as the writing, and the writing here - the plot, the characters, the diction, the dialog, and almost anything else you'd care to name - is downright amateurish. Coelho has written that all of his novels were written more or less in the same way: in great bursts of creative energy in the early hours of the morning, after endless procrastination, with minimal rework. I can't quite believe that this kind of process produced The Alchemist, yet perhaps it did. Ray Bradbury made a similar claim about his most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451, namely that it was written virtually in a single draft, over a period of mere weeks, virtually nonstop; Isaac Asimov wrote most of his novels and stories at a steady pace of 3000 words a day, with scarcely any rework. So who can say what an author can or cannot do. Yet while Azimov and Bradbury wrote consistently excellent work for their genre, Coelho has in my opinion written only one great novel, and a few good ones. He consistently writes about the kind of soul journey and mystery that is frankly difficult to capture in any sort of writing, and I give him credit for that. So perhaps the up and down quality of his work is simply a reflection of the subject matter. But I can't help feel that a little more discipline and work on his part would have resulted in vastly better writing. Judging from his own commentary, Coelho seems to feel that his books sell so well there is simply no need for him to write any better. That's a pity, because in the end we're not really interested in his popularity. We're interested in his writing. Or at least, we were.]]> 3.61 2005 The Zahir

author: Paulo Coelho
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2007/12/01
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
review:
Like so unfortunately many of Coelho's books after The Alchemist, this novel's quality is rocky at best. Coelho has great ideas, but the greatest idea is only as good as the writing, and the writing here - the plot, the characters, the diction, the dialog, and almost anything else you'd care to name - is downright amateurish. Coelho has written that all of his novels were written more or less in the same way: in great bursts of creative energy in the early hours of the morning, after endless procrastination, with minimal rework. I can't quite believe that this kind of process produced The Alchemist, yet perhaps it did. Ray Bradbury made a similar claim about his most famous novel, Fahrenheit 451, namely that it was written virtually in a single draft, over a period of mere weeks, virtually nonstop; Isaac Asimov wrote most of his novels and stories at a steady pace of 3000 words a day, with scarcely any rework. So who can say what an author can or cannot do. Yet while Azimov and Bradbury wrote consistently excellent work for their genre, Coelho has in my opinion written only one great novel, and a few good ones. He consistently writes about the kind of soul journey and mystery that is frankly difficult to capture in any sort of writing, and I give him credit for that. So perhaps the up and down quality of his work is simply a reflection of the subject matter. But I can't help feel that a little more discipline and work on his part would have resulted in vastly better writing. Judging from his own commentary, Coelho seems to feel that his books sell so well there is simply no need for him to write any better. That's a pity, because in the end we're not really interested in his popularity. We're interested in his writing. Or at least, we were.
]]> The Flanders Panel 11031 295 Arturo Pérez-Reverte 0156029588 Mathew 3 3.82 1990

author: Arturo Pérez-Reverte
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2008/07/01
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
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While I enjoyed some of the book, in the end I was disappointed. The plot is so excessively clever there is not much room for genuine character development, and so the whole story ends up taking on a fairly disconnected and surrealistic tone - kind of like wandering through the Louvre after hours until you are exhausted and want to leave, but you can't. You never really get to know the characters well enough to care about their passions, or believe that the story is much more than an elaborately boring chess game.
]]> Birdsong 6259 483 Sebastian Faulks 0679776818 Mathew 5
Read it. You won't regret it.]]> 4.11 1993

author: Sebastian Faulks
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
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review:
This is one of the best books of the last twenty years, and maybe the best modern novel of World War One ever written.

Read it. You won't regret it.
]]> The Way the Crow Flies 7199 848 Ann-Marie MacDonald 0060586370 Mathew 4 Ann-Marie MacDonald's, but to me she has the mark of a great author: she produces a narrative that keeps you riveted on its own merits, and then fulfills the promise of that narrative.]]> 4.11 2003 The Way the Crow Flies

author: Ann-Marie MacDonald
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2004/01/01
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
review:
This complex story weaves the wonder and also terror of childhood together with threads of the Cold War, the failures of government, and too many mysteries and tragedies of the modern era to count. It's a tragic story, but ultimately uplifting - and not in a cheap way that makes the tragedy all better. Real tragedy is never really better; it leaves wounds that may heal, in time, but can never be forgotten or undone. Real people deal with such tragedy well, or poorly, but it is never easy. I haven't read anything else of Ann-Marie MacDonald's, but to me she has the mark of a great author: she produces a narrative that keeps you riveted on its own merits, and then fulfills the promise of that narrative.
]]> <![CDATA[By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept]]> 1428 The Alchemist, comes a poignant, richly poetic story that reflects the depth of love and life.

Rarely does adolescent love reach its full potential, but what happens when two young lovers reunite after eleven years? Time has transformed Pilar into a strong and independent woman, while her devoted childhood friend has grown into a handsome and charismatic spiritual leader. She has learned well how to bury her feelings... and he has turned to religion as a refuge from his raging inner conflicts.

Now they are together once again, embarking on a journey fraught with difficulties, as long-buried demons of blame and resentment resurface after more than a decade. But in a small village in the French Pyrenees, by the waters of the River Piedra, a most special relationship will be reexamined in the dazzling light of some of life’s biggest questions.]]> 180 Paulo Coelho 0061122092 Mathew 2 The Zahir this one is lousy writing wrapped round an interesting idea. Without the fan base of The Alchemist, I honestly doubt this book would have reached a hundred thousand. It's mediocre at best.]]> 3.63 1994 By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

author: Paulo Coelho
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1994
rating: 2
read at: 2005/01/01
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
review:
Like many other books of his, including The Zahir this one is lousy writing wrapped round an interesting idea. Without the fan base of The Alchemist, I honestly doubt this book would have reached a hundred thousand. It's mediocre at best.
]]> The Alchemist 865 197 Paulo Coelho 0061122416 Mathew 5 The Little Prince. Like so many others, I found it positively magical and resonant with meaning in my own experience.]]> 3.85 1988

author: Paulo Coelho
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 1998/01/01
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
review:
For all the controversy around the author, and my own feelings about the (mixed) quality of his work, I still think that the Alchemist is one of the best all-around stories I have ever read. It is finely crafted, carefully written, and one of the most brilliant works in the mystical/spiritual oeuvre that I have read - almost on a par with The Little Prince. Like so many others, I found it positively magical and resonant with meaning in my own experience.
]]> Soul Mountain 45961 Soul Mountain.

Bold, lyrical, and prodigious, Soul Mountain probes the human soul with an uncommon directness and candor and delights in the freedom of the imagination to expand the notion of the individual self.]]> 510 Gao Xingjian 0060936231 Mathew 4 One Hundred Years of Solitude.]]> 3.60 1990 Soul Mountain

author: Gao Xingjian
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2002/01/01
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
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This book is an exceptionally challenging read, but in my opinion exceptionally worth the effort. I would not call it flawless; it is in many respects experimental, and imperfect. (Caveat: these may be flaws of the translation; I have heard that this particular translation was rushed to capitalize on the author's receipt of the Nobel Prize back in 2000 or whenever it was). The book is a fascinating, essentially autobiographical portrait of modern China, and while it's clear that the author is not exactly typical of his generation, it's equally clear that contemporary China is at once more and less familiar that we might suppose. The author dives deep beneath the surface of political and social stereotypes, revealing marvellously rich and complicated personal crises of love and identity that resonate with the country's turbulent past and present development. He also manages to focus his narrative into an exploration of the very meaning of identity, constantly playing a tension between first person and second person narratives. Though reaching the novel's conclusion feels a bit like climbing its eponymous mountain, the summit gives a stunning view, comparable in brilliance to the conclusion of Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.
]]> On Green Dolphin Street 7479
Faulks' heroine is Mary Van der Linden, a pretty, reserved Englishwoman whose husband, Charlie, is posted to the British embassy in Washington. One night at a cocktail party Mary meets Frank Renzo, a reporter who has covered stories from the fall of Dienbienphu to the Emmett Till murder trial in Mississippi. Slowly, reluctantly, they fall in love. Their ensuing affair, in all its desperate elation, plays out against a backdrop that ranges from the jazz clubs of Greenwich Village to the smoke-filled rooms of the Kennedy campaign. A romance in the grand tradition that is also a neon-lit portrait of America at its apogee, On Green Dolphin Street is Sebastian Faulks at the peak of his powers.]]> 368 Sebastian Faulks 0375704566 Mathew 5 3.59 2001

author: Sebastian Faulks
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2005/01/01
date added: 2008/09/28
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I am a big fan of Sebastian Faulks, and I think this may be his finest effort to date. Like all his novels, this one is first and foremost an old-fashioned love story. As in Birdsong, this novel seamlessly weaves the personal and very intimate story of an accidental affair into a larger milieu of fairly grand (but always understated) significance. Indeed, it's impossible to imagine this story occuring in any other time, or any other way. The story alternates between Washington, DC and New York City in 1960s, and Faulks evokes the background political and social drama of the period, creating a perfect backdrop for the inner drama of his characters. Whether because I knew the physical setting so well (having lived in both cities), or because I came to know the characters so well, once begun I couldn't put the book down. Faulks tells this story masterfully.
]]> <![CDATA[Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life]]> 45776 192 Leonard Mlodinow 0446692514 Mathew 4 4.04 2005

Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life

author: Leonard Mlodinow
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
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]]> For Kings and Planets 88296 The Palace Thief and Emperor of the Air, comes this stunning novel about the relationship between two very different men. Orno Tarcher travels from a small town in Missouri to New York City to attend Columbia University, where he begins a new life feeling unsophisticated and insecure. He soon strikes up a friendship with Marshall Emerson, a seductive and brilliant New Yorker whose sophistication dazzles Orno. As time passes, Marshall is revealed to be bent on destruction, and Orno's involvment with Marshall's worldly sister further complicates their friendship.

Carefully crafted and skillfully informed by the works of Fitzgerald and Waugh, For Kings and Planets is a remarkable novel. A New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and Minneapolis StarTribune bestseller, and a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1998.]]> 352 Ethan Canin 0312241259 Mathew 4 3.75 1998 For Kings and Planets

author: Ethan Canin
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
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]]> The Blind Assassin 78433 The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience.

It opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The Blind Assassin proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it is destined to become a classic.]]> 637 Margaret Atwood Mathew 4 3.96 2000 The Blind Assassin

author: Margaret Atwood
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)]]> 37442 When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

]]> 406 Gregory Maguire 0060987103 Mathew 4 3.52 1995 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)

author: Gregory Maguire
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
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]]> Cold Mountain 10920 Cold Mountain is a novel about a soldier’s perilous journey back to his beloved near the Civil War's end. At once a love story & a harrowing account of one man’s long walk home, Cold Mountain introduces a new talent in American literature.

Based on local history & family stories passed down by Frazier’s great-great-grandfather, Cold Mountain is the tale of a wounded Confederate soldier, Inman, who walks away from the ravages of the war & back home to his prewar sweetheart, Ada. His odyssey thru the devastated landscape of the soon-to-be-defeated South interweaves with Ada’s struggle to revive her father’s farm, with the help of an intrepid young drifter named Ruby. As their long-separated lives begin to converge at the close of the war, Inman & Ada confront the vastly transformed world they’ve been delivered.

Frazier reveals insight into human relations with the land & the dangers of solitude. He also shares with the great 19th century novelists a keen observation of a society undergoing change. Cold Mountain recreates a world gone by that speaks to our time.]]> 449 Charles Frazier 0802142842 Mathew 4 3.89 1997

author: Charles Frazier
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer]]> 827 The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence.]]> 499 Neal Stephenson 0553380966 Mathew 4 4.17 1995 The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

author: Neal Stephenson
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #1)]]> 337100 533 Stephen R. Donaldson 0399152326 Mathew 4 3.77 2004

The Runes of the Earth (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #1)

author: Stephen R. Donaldson
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/09/28
shelves:
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]]> Winter Solstice 116054 Winter Solstice Rosamunde Pilcher brings her readers into the lives of five very different people....

Elfrida Phipps, once of London's stage, moved to the English village of Dibton in hopes of making a new life for herself. Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life -- shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name -- still she finds herself lonely.

Oscar Blundell gave up his life as a musician in order to marry Gloria. They have a beautiful daughter, Francesca, and it is only because of their little girl that Oscar views his sacrificed career as worthwhile.

Carrie returns from Australia at the end of an ill-fated affair with a married man to find her mother and aunt sharing a home and squabbling endlessly. With Christmas approaching, Carrie agrees to look after her aunt's awkward and quiet teenage daughter, Lucy, so that her mother might enjoy a romantic fling in America.

Sam Howard is trying to pull his life back together after his wife has left him for another. He is without home and without roots, all he has is his job. Business takes him to northern Scotland, where he falls in love with the lush, craggy landscape and set his sights on a house.

It is the strange rippling effects of a tragedy that will bring these five characters together in a large, neglected estate house near the Scottish fishing town of Creagan.

It is in this house, on the shortest day of the year, that the lives of five people will come together and be forever changed. Rosamunde Pilcher's long-awaited return to the page will warm the hearts of readers both old and new. Winter Solstice is a novel of love, loyalty and rebirth.]]> 720 Rosamunde Pilcher 0340752483 Mathew 4 4.16 2000

author: Rosamunde Pilcher
name: Mathew
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/09/28
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]]> Charlotte Gray 133937 Birdsong comes Charlotte Gray, the remarkable story of a young Scottish woman who becomes caught up in the effort to liberate Occupied France from the Nazis while pursuing a perilous mission of her own.

In blacked-out, wartime London, Charlotte Gray develops a dangerous passion for a battle-weary RAF pilot, and when he fails to return from a daring flight into France she is determined to find him. In the service of the Resistance, she travels to the village of Lavaurette, dyeing her hair and changing her name to conceal her identity. Here she will come face-to-face with the harrowing truth of what took place during Europe's darkest years, and will confront a terrifying secret that threatens to cast its shadow over the remainder of her days. Vividly rendered, tremendously moving, and with a narrative sweep and power reminiscent of his novel Birdsong, Charlotte Gray confirms Sebastian Faulks as one of the finest novelists working today.]]> 401 Sebastian Faulks 0375704558 Mathew 4 3.83 1998

author: Sebastian Faulks
name: Mathew
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1998
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/09/28
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