Voitaray's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 09 Mar 2015 00:46:04 -0700 60 Voitaray's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America]]> 259028 447 Erik Larson 0375725601 Voitaray 3 3.97 2003 The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
author: Erik Larson
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2009/05/01
date added: 2015/03/09
shelves:
review:
It was fascinating to learn about the epic undertaking required to create the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The parallel story of a serial killer operating at the same point in history made a nice contrast to the fair's architectural striving, and a lascivious break from the fair's set-backs/triumphs.
]]> Island of Lost Girls 2134097
From the author of the acclaimed Promise Not to Tell comes a chilling and mesmerizing tale of shattered innocence, guilt, and ultimate redemption.]]> 255 Jennifer McMahon 0061445886 Voitaray 1 3.50 2008 Island of Lost Girls
author: Jennifer McMahon
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 2009/03/01
date added: 2009/06/05
shelves:
review:
One star is a stretch. Nuf said.
]]> Never Let Me Go 6334 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Voitaray 3 3.85 2005 Never Let Me Go
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2008/09/01
date added: 2009/06/05
shelves:
review:
Read this book. I loved it. Beautifully written. Surprising.
]]> <![CDATA[An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir (Back Bay Books)]]> 275475 304 Lillian Hellman 0316352853 Voitaray 0 3.92 1969 An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir (Back Bay Books)
author: Lillian Hellman
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at: 2009/02/01
date added: 2009/06/05
shelves:
review:
I ran into the movie of The Children's Hour on tv one night so watched it again. I thought, that's right, Lillian Hellman . . highly regarded writer of an earlier time. I should learn more about her and her writing. Hence, an Unfinished Woman was secured and eagerly fired up on the old tape player. In a tired and arrogant voice Hellman lets us know that she was a big deal in her day. Stultifyingly dull right up to the last tape when in brain-cramp agony it became the unfinished book.
]]> Grand Avenue 80697 Joy Fielding unlocks the secrets hidden within even the closest relationships in a powerful and mesmerizing novel that explores the meaning of unconditional love.]]> 560 Joy Fielding 0743407083 Voitaray 0 3.85 2001 Grand Avenue
author: Joy Fielding
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2009/05/01
date added: 2009/06/05
shelves:
review:
NO. NO. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NOOOOOOOOOOO! Zero. Okay, I listen to recorded books most of the day while I paint. Apparently your average CD player is not up to the task. I'm burning out one after another. So, sometimes I have to get tapes. Usually there's not much of a selection at the library so I'll just grab anything I'm not familiar with. Enter Joy Fielding, Grand Avenue. This did not present as a likely fave but, good God Almightly, I was not prepared for anything so poorly conceived and written. Could not get past the first side of the first tape.
]]> The Kite Runner 77203 371 Khaled Hosseini 159463193X Voitaray 4 4.34 2003 The Kite Runner
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Voitaray
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2009/05/01
date added: 2009/06/05
shelves:
review:
This is a painfully excellent story about weakness, cowardice and privilege. Craven souls are haunted.
]]> The Dew Breaker 31116 256 Edwidge Danticat 1400034299 Voitaray 3 3.82 2004 The Dew Breaker
author: Edwidge Danticat
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/05/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Reluctant Fundamentalist 88815
Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite valuation firm. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore.

But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his relationship with Erica shifting. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.

"Extreme times call for extreme reactions, extreme writing. Hamid has done something extraordinary with this novel." —Washington Post

"One of those achingly assured novels that makes you happy to be a reader." —Junot Diaz

"Brief, charming, and quietly furious . . . a resounding success." —Village Voice

A Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
A New York Times Notable Book]]> 184 Mohsin Hamid 0151013047 Voitaray 4 3.69 2007 The Reluctant Fundamentalist
author: Mohsin Hamid
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/05/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Black List 4686223 208 Timothy Greenfield-Sanders 1416594191 Voitaray 2 3.75 2008 The Black List
author: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2009/05/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Scoundrel Time 858316
In 1952, Hellman joined the ranks of intellectuals and artists called before Congress to testify about political subversion. Terrified yet defiant, Hellman refused to incriminate herself or others, and managed to avoid trial. Nonetheless the experience brought devastating controversy and loss. First published in 1972, her retelling of the time features a remarkable cast of characters, including her lover, novelist Dashiell Hammett, a slew of famous friends and colleagues, and a pack of "scoundrels" -- ruthless, ambitious politicians and the people who complied with their demands.]]> 155 Lillian Hellman 0316352942 Voitaray 2 3.91 1972 Scoundrel Time
author: Lillian Hellman
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1972
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2009/05/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Waiting 235773 Waiting, PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author Ha Jin draws on his intimate knowledge of contemporary China to create a novel of unexpected richness and feeling. This is the story of Lin Kong, a man living in two worlds, struggling with the conflicting claims of two utterly different women as he moves through the political minefields of a society designed to regulate his every move and stifle the promptings of his innermost heart.

For more than seventeen years, this devoted and ambitious doctor has been in love with an educated, clever, modern woman, Manna Wu. But back in the traditional world of his home village lives the wife his family chose for him when he was young—a humble and touchingly loyal woman, whom he visits in order to ask, again and again, for a divorce. In a culture in which the ancient ties of tradition and family still hold sway and where adultery discovered by the Party can ruin lives forever, Lin's passionate love is stretched ever more taut by the passing years. Every summer, his compliant wife agrees to a divorce but then backs out. This time, Lin promises, will be different.

Tracing these lives through their summer of decision and beyond, Ha Jin vividly conjures the texture of daily life in a place where the demands of human longing must contend with the weight of centuries of custom. Waiting charms and startles us with its depiction of a China that remains hidden to Western eyes even as it moves us with its piercing vision of the universal complications of love.]]> 310 Ha Jin 0375706410 Voitaray 3 3.54 1999 Waiting
author: Ha Jin
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/05/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Things They Carried 133518
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three.

Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.]]> 246 Tim O'Brien 0767902890 Voitaray 5 4.14 1990 The Things They Carried
author: Tim O'Brien
name: Voitaray
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/04/30
shelves:
review:

]]> The Corrections 3805 After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man - or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
Stretching from the Midwest at midcentury to the Wall Street and Eastern Europe of today, "The Corrections" brings an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental healthcare, and globalised greed. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious, deeply humane, it confirms Jonathan Franzen as one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.]]> 653 Jonathan Franzen 1841156736 Voitaray 3 3.83 2001 The Corrections
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2009/04/01
date added: 2009/04/30
shelves:
review:
I was really looking forward to this book--probably why I was somewhat underwhelmed. Franzen is a fine writer though, and The Corrections is a valuable experience.
]]> A Thousand Splendid Suns 128029
With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a portrait of a wounded country and a story of family and friendship, of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond, and an indestructible love.]]> 372 Khaled Hosseini 1594489505 Voitaray 4 4.44 2007 A Thousand Splendid Suns
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Voitaray
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Empire Falls 187020
Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles� soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything� includes Miles himself. In Empire Falls Richard Russo delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace]]> 483 Richard Russo 0375726403 Voitaray 3 3.94 2001 Empire Falls
author: Richard Russo
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/04/21
shelves:
review:

]]> How to Be Alone 854625 The Corrections, a collection of essays that reveal Jonathan Franzen to be one of our sharpest, toughest, and most entertaining social critics.
While the essays in this collection range in subject matter from the sex-advice industry to the way a supermax prison works, each one wrestles with the essential themes of Franzen's writing: the erosion of civil life and private dignity; and the hidden persistence of loneliness in postmodern, imperial America.
Reprinted here for the first time is Franzen's controversial l996 investigation of the fate of the American novel in what became known as "the Harper's essay," as well as his award-winning narrative of his father's struggle with Alzheimer's disease, and a rueful account of his brief tenure as an Oprah Winfrey author.]]> 288 Jonathan Franzen 0007147252 Voitaray 2
While it wasn't published until 2002, most of these essays are from the 1990's. I found myself surprised at how very much has changed in the past decade. The terminology used to discuss computer components, the internet, telephones etc. is already archaic. The topics on which Franzen opines seem almost quaint compared to post 9/11 worries, the reality of global climate change and this repression induced recession. But if you need to research life styles of the 1990's this book will refresh your memory and sense of humor. ]]> 3.35 2002 How to Be Alone
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2009/03/01
date added: 2009/04/21
shelves:
review:
I got this book bec I couldn't find a sound recording of The Corrections at my library, and was ignorant regarding Jonathan Franzen.

While it wasn't published until 2002, most of these essays are from the 1990's. I found myself surprised at how very much has changed in the past decade. The terminology used to discuss computer components, the internet, telephones etc. is already archaic. The topics on which Franzen opines seem almost quaint compared to post 9/11 worries, the reality of global climate change and this repression induced recession. But if you need to research life styles of the 1990's this book will refresh your memory and sense of humor.
]]> The Darling 26920 The Darling is the story of Hannah Musgrave, a political radical and member of the Weather Underground.

Hannah flees America for West Africa, where she and her Liberian husband become friends of the notorious warlord and ex-president, Charles Taylor. Hannah's encounter with Taylor ultimately triggers a series of events whose momentum catches Hannah's family in its grip and forces her to make a heartrending choice.]]> 391 Russell Banks 0060957352 Voitaray 2 3.81 2004 The Darling
author: Russell Banks
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2009/04/10
shelves:
review:
This story seemed quite compelling for a while. Then the title character does something that seems nonsensical. Well, okay, we all do uncharacteristic things now and then. But there comes another, and yet another head-shaking action from the protagonist. The story spans 20 years and 2 continents with some intriguing descriptions of life in Africa. However, for each major life decision to be a radical change seemed contrived to make the twists and intrigue possible.
]]> The Rabbit Factory 629949 352 Larry Brown Voitaray 4 3.58 2003 The Rabbit Factory
author: Larry Brown
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2007/08/31
date added: 2009/04/10
shelves:
review:
I love a book that is profound but plain-spoken. The speech patterns Larry Brown has his characters employ are rich, honest and funny. He lets us, convincingly, into his characters' heads so we experience their internal thought processes/streams of consciousness. These are surprisingly similar to the dialogues I have in my own head--(upon recognition, very funny). And I always love a story that seems, almost accidentally, to come around full circle.
]]> Fay 888492 There's a highway patrolman who gives her a lift, with a detour to his own place. There are truck drivers who pick her up, no questions asked. There's a crop duster with money for a night or two on the town. There's a strip-joint bouncer who deals on the side. And in the end, there are five dead bodies stacked in Fay's wake.

Fay is a novel that could only have been written by Larry Brown, whom the Boston Globe called "one of our finest writers -- honest, courageous, unflinching."

]]> 489 Larry Brown 0743205383 Voitaray 4 4.01 2000 Fay
author: Larry Brown
name: Voitaray
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2007/10/01
date added: 2009/04/10
shelves:
review:
I am learning something about how to write by studying Larry Brown's characters and their manner of speaking. His internal dialogues are also most excellent and entertaining. As with The Rabbit Factory, I love how the story comes around full circle in a quietly profound way.
]]> The Confessions of Nat Turner 577283 453 William Styron 0679736638 Voitaray 4 3.96 1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner
author: William Styron
name: Voitaray
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 1998/07/31
date added: 2009/04/10
shelves:
review:
Parts of this true story have stuck with me for 10+ years. William Styron took me right into the days of American slavery and the hideous human hatred that made it possible. To begin to imagine the characters' fear, agony and hope for just a few minutes is difficult. To try to understand the vast scope of human suffering absorbed by African Americans is mind-boggling and humbling. To realize what a short time ago these practices were commonplace is shocking. And how the Negro race has managed to keep from turning on the rest of us, I do not know.
]]> Middlesex 2187 Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.]]> 529 Jeffrey Eugenides 0312422156 Voitaray 3 4.03 2002 Middlesex
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Voitaray
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2009/04/10
date added: 2009/04/10
shelves:
review:
There was a lot to like about this book, but I had a few problems with it too. Cal runs away suddenly knowing what and who he is. The internal fermentation of that knowledge was sketchy. I liked the immigrant part of the story but it almost dwarfed the rest. The ending seemed like a place to stop, instead of a way to know. Eugenides can turn a phrase though: "waterfall of a beard"; (something moved) "in that Ouija way"; "shakes your hand while pissing in your pocket"; (expression in eyes) concealing identity while leaving shame exposed"; ""Zambonied the bar" (with a guy who barfed) . . many more.
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