Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. My cousin Zillah recommended this book on her blog awhile ago, so I was really excited to read it. It was kinda-sorta interesting, and I have to admit that I liked some aspects of O'Brian's writing style. But I didn't like the barrage of naval and ship terms that were introduced for the first two hundred pages or so. O'Brian and ships = Melville and whales. Ugh. I know there was plot intermixed in there...somewhere. Sorry, Zillah. I usually like the books that you recommend. Perhaps the rest of the books in the series are more captivating...Lilith by George MacDonald. My friend Phin lent me her copy of this book, along with a disclaimer that most of the story was really "weird" until the very end. She was right. I really like George MacDonald as an author, but this is one of the darkest and strangest books that he's written. It was alright, but I don't know if I would recommend it to most people.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Admittedly, I liked many things about this book. I even began to recommend it to people before I had gotten very far. However, I was disappointed and mildly offended by some things near the ending, so I don't feel like I can wholeheartedly recommend this book. It's really unfortunate, since there is some very beautiful writing in there. Has anyone else read it? At first, I really liked the interesting book design. However, as I started to read more, I felt like the design was a little bit too contrived and gimmicky, almost forcing an aesthetic response on the reader. Hmm. I'm still deciding what I think of about that.The Gardner Heist by Ulrich Boser. I was very excited to read this new book since Boser announced that his book would reveal the two theives which snuck into the Gardner Museum about 20 years ago. However, this book wasn't as captivating and interesting; since there isn't a book's worth of information about the Gardner crime, Boser added a lot of filler material about art crime in general. That was boring to me, especially since I've read other books on art theft that contain the same information. The book was a disappointment. Even Boser's unveiling of the two theives was disappointing, since one thief is in jail and the other is dead.
So, onto new books. I'm especially interested in reading The Hemingses of Monticello (Annette Gordon-Reed) and How the States Got their Shapes (Mark Stein). Does anyone have any other good book recommendations?
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6 comments:
I read master and commander, which the ship terms are definitely hard to get past. The second book in the series is WAY better. They spend more time on land, and a love interest is introduced (which always livens things up). Tyson has read all twenty in the series and says that if you can get past the first one or two, you really fall in love with the characters. I guess I'll see, I'm still in the middle of the second one.
I just finished The Hours by Michael Cunningham and thought it brought up some really provocative ideas. I also liked how Cunningham mimics Virginia Wolf's writing style, and I found his imitation to be more accessible than Wolf herself. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone in my family or a ward reading group (although it's the type of book that I would totally love to discuss with a group) because it does have some edgy parts, but I am glad that I read it. I haven't seen the movie, though, so I came into it without any expectations.
I would also recommend Cry, the Beloved Country if you haven't read it. Aside from the fact that I consider this one of the most profound books that I've read, Alan Paton's prose is downright beautiful.
By the way, I read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell after reading your review from awhile back. It was a fun book.
E of EU, I'm glad to hear that things do get better in the O'Brian series. Maybe I will have to give the next book a shot sometime. When you finish the second book, you'll have to tell me what you think.
And thanks for the recommendations, Kiersten! Someone else recommended Cry, the Beloved Country to me awhile back. Thanks for reminding me to add that to my list. The Hours sounds interesting, too. (And I'm glad that you liked Jonathan Strange! That's such a fun book.)
I've been struggling to find a good book myself.
I've read six books in the last two weeks (seriously, out of either boredom or to avoid homework), and I honestly wouldn't recommend ANY of them to a soul.
If you find something excellent in your journey, let me know.
I just recenly finished Ext. Loud & Inc. Close and I really liked it! Maybe it was the style of the book, maybe it was the connection with New York and knowing friends whose parents died on 9/11,...but I liked the similarities between Oskar's life and his grandfather's life - how they were both severely affected by a terrible event (attack on the Twin Towers and the fire-bombing of Dresden). So many ripples spread from each person, to others around them, and their children, and then grandchildren, etc. I guess it was just a sad book about putting your life back together, but I enjoyed it for some reason...I seem to enjoy sad books, maybe because they make me contemplate certain issues and realize how good I have it.
I'm always reading a million books at a time - are you a member on Goodreads? Check it out, if you're not. My "to-read" list has like over 200 books on it - yikes!! Too many to read. Anything I've given 4-5 stars I'd recommend to you!
I can see why you liked ELaIC, Joolee. There really is some great stuff written in there. I just wish that I had loved everything. Maybe I'm too picky.
Maybe I should get on Goodreads. I've had a few friends invite me to join. It sounds like a great way to keep track of the books I want to read.
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