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Hedwig
Member
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy 
I loved it thoroughly. I adore Hardy's beautiful style and his descriptions of people and landscapes that make you feel like you're right there in 19th century Wessex, and he has such a lovely way of painting vivid main and minor characters.
I loved it thoroughly. I adore Hardy's beautiful style and his descriptions of people and landscapes that make you feel like you're right there in 19th century Wessex, and he has such a lovely way of painting vivid main and minor characters.
beer good
Well-Known Member
Tove Jansson, Moominvalley In November
First time in a very long time that I've re-read the last two Moomin books, and they still hold up incredibly well; if anything, they work better now than they did back then. The series starts out as "just" well-written children's stories, then gradually get more adult - not in the sense that she adds more sex and violence, but simply in that the characters (both young and old) grow up and are forced to look at themselves, at how they see others, and their place in the world, all set against the backdrop of one of the most gorgeous descriptions of autumn and winter I've ever read. This last book doesn't even have the Moomins themselves in it except in spirit, instead it focuses on a bunch of minor characters who happen to wash up in the same house. Beautiful.
First time in a very long time that I've re-read the last two Moomin books, and they still hold up incredibly well; if anything, they work better now than they did back then. The series starts out as "just" well-written children's stories, then gradually get more adult - not in the sense that she adds more sex and violence, but simply in that the characters (both young and old) grow up and are forced to look at themselves, at how they see others, and their place in the world, all set against the backdrop of one of the most gorgeous descriptions of autumn and winter I've ever read. This last book doesn't even have the Moomins themselves in it except in spirit, instead it focuses on a bunch of minor characters who happen to wash up in the same house. Beautiful.
Hedwig
Member
James A. Michener, Tales of the South Pacific 
An episodic panorama of the South Pacific in World War II. The stories are all interconnected by reappearing characters and deal with a multitude of subjects - from the preparation of a major military strike on a certain island to colonial life to falling in love with native girls.
I found the style a little old-fashioned, and not all the episodes appealed to me in the same way, but a few were rather impressive, especially the final one.
An episodic panorama of the South Pacific in World War II. The stories are all interconnected by reappearing characters and deal with a multitude of subjects - from the preparation of a major military strike on a certain island to colonial life to falling in love with native girls.
I found the style a little old-fashioned, and not all the episodes appealed to me in the same way, but a few were rather impressive, especially the final one.
ricko
Member
The ox-bow incident
Walter Van Tilburg Clark writes a classic western in 1940 that challenges previous westerns by drifting away from the usual cliches. This is a novel that is the forerunner of my favorite westerns:'Shane'( 1949 ) and 'High Noon'( 1952 ). While Shane studied greed for land and High Noon studied cowardice, The Ox- Bow Incident analyzes many emotions, including regret, sorrow and remorse. It rivals 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for themes covered in one book. According to CliffsNotes, the reviewers loved this bellwether novel: “The Initial response of the critics to The Ox-Bow Incident was that here, at last, was the classic western cowboy novel: His motive for writing The Ox-bow Incident was largely personal. He wanted to recreate, for his own psychological satisfaction, a nineteenth-century American West in its true dimensions, and to see what kind of story would grow out of that”. This is the story of an incident that happened in 1885 Nevada.
Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O
Walter Van Tilburg Clark writes a classic western in 1940 that challenges previous westerns by drifting away from the usual cliches. This is a novel that is the forerunner of my favorite westerns:'Shane'( 1949 ) and 'High Noon'( 1952 ). While Shane studied greed for land and High Noon studied cowardice, The Ox- Bow Incident analyzes many emotions, including regret, sorrow and remorse. It rivals 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for themes covered in one book. According to CliffsNotes, the reviewers loved this bellwether novel: “The Initial response of the critics to The Ox-Bow Incident was that here, at last, was the classic western cowboy novel: His motive for writing The Ox-bow Incident was largely personal. He wanted to recreate, for his own psychological satisfaction, a nineteenth-century American West in its true dimensions, and to see what kind of story would grow out of that”. This is the story of an incident that happened in 1885 Nevada.
Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O
lauragreene
New Member
Scarlet's Web by Carla J Hanna
rajendersingh80
kickbox
THE CLIENT by JOHN GRISHAM AWESOME BOOK I HAVE EVER READ BEFORE
beer good
Well-Known Member
Svetlana Alexievich, War's Unwomanly Face. A history of WWII based on a perspective that almost never gets heard in official sources - that of the millions of Soviet women who took active part in the war, whether as pilots, medics, mechanics, soldiers, snipers, partisans... Based on hundreds of interviews with aging veterans (who frequently start their stories with "I promised my husband I wouldn't tell you this, but...") who've gone 40, 50, 60 years without getting to talk about their experiences. Absolutely shattering.
753C
Active Member
The Art of Racing in The Rain - Garth Stein
Touching story of a man, woman and child told through the sights and thoughts of their faithful dog. Good story with lots of interesting tidbits about formula 1 racing and lots of humor. A little heartrending at the end...
Troy : The Lord of The Silver Boy - David Gemmell +
This was a goodreads recommendation, I think based on my like of Bernard Cornwell's stories. I liked this one a lot. Ancient Greek warfare, intrigue, heroes, villains, naval battles. This one had it all and it is well written and fast paced. Great characters all through the story.
Touching story of a man, woman and child told through the sights and thoughts of their faithful dog. Good story with lots of interesting tidbits about formula 1 racing and lots of humor. A little heartrending at the end...
Troy : The Lord of The Silver Boy - David Gemmell
+This was a goodreads recommendation, I think based on my like of Bernard Cornwell's stories. I liked this one a lot. Ancient Greek warfare, intrigue, heroes, villains, naval battles. This one had it all and it is well written and fast paced. Great characters all through the story.
pontalba
Well-Known Member
Vengeance by Benjamin Black 4/5
Banville does it again, bringing Quirk the Irish coroner back again to solve, or not, another case in 1950's Dublin. Saturated in ambiance Quirk wends his way through a, to say the least, dysfunctional family. I'm not giving anything away revealing that, yes, it's a suicide, but what a fascinating path it follows.
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny 4/5
Another great entry in this French/Canadian mystery series. Penny's characters only become deeper and more complex as she goes along.
Cat Bearing Gifts by Shirley Rousseau Murphy 5/5
Yes. It's a "cozy" mystery. Yes. It's a series about a talking cat. Joe Grey has my heart, he is a tough talking grey cat that solves murders, anonymously helping the local Sheriff, stalking the bad guys and he gets his man.
Cold in the Light by Charles Gramlich 5/5
An interesting, a bit militaristic, science fiction story that proposes we, as in humans, are not the only intelligent species that have inhabited our planet. How and why these beings have not been here lately is part of the crux of the story. Intrigue, dirty politics and the conflict of good and evil within ourselves and the other species all comes into play in this heart pounding thriller.
Banville does it again, bringing Quirk the Irish coroner back again to solve, or not, another case in 1950's Dublin. Saturated in ambiance Quirk wends his way through a, to say the least, dysfunctional family. I'm not giving anything away revealing that, yes, it's a suicide, but what a fascinating path it follows.
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny 4/5
Another great entry in this French/Canadian mystery series. Penny's characters only become deeper and more complex as she goes along.
Cat Bearing Gifts by Shirley Rousseau Murphy 5/5
Yes. It's a "cozy" mystery. Yes. It's a series about a talking cat. Joe Grey has my heart, he is a tough talking grey cat that solves murders, anonymously helping the local Sheriff, stalking the bad guys and he gets his man.
Cold in the Light by Charles Gramlich 5/5
An interesting, a bit militaristic, science fiction story that proposes we, as in humans, are not the only intelligent species that have inhabited our planet. How and why these beings have not been here lately is part of the crux of the story. Intrigue, dirty politics and the conflict of good and evil within ourselves and the other species all comes into play in this heart pounding thriller.
Gabrielle Ray
kickbox
The Great Gatsby
I've finished 'The Great Gatsby', by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
It was good, and short. I must abmit that I didn't see why it's considered such a classic, though. As I've said (or rather, typed), it's good, but not that good.
I've finished 'The Great Gatsby', by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
It was good, and short. I must abmit that I didn't see why it's considered such a classic, though. As I've said (or rather, typed), it's good, but not that good.
BeerWench13
Active Member
I've finished 'The Great Gatsby', by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
It was good, and short. I must abmit that I didn't see why it's considered such a classic, though. As I've said (or rather, typed), it's good, but not that good.
I absolutely despise that book. I had to read it thrice, once in middle school, once in high school and once my freshman year of college. If I ever even see that book somehow appear on my shelves, I'm burning it!
Hedwig
Member
I hated Gatsby when I first tried to read the book, but I gave it a second chance a year or two ago and really liked it that time.
I finished "From Here to Eternity" yesterday. A bit lengthy in parts, but altogether a very good close-up insight into the lives of enlisted men and noncom officers at a Hawaiian army base in 1941. Sometimes brutal, sometimes depressing, but it gripped me more and more the deeper I got into the story. My rating would be 3.5 stars.
I finished "From Here to Eternity" yesterday. A bit lengthy in parts, but altogether a very good close-up insight into the lives of enlisted men and noncom officers at a Hawaiian army base in 1941. Sometimes brutal, sometimes depressing, but it gripped me more and more the deeper I got into the story. My rating would be 3.5 stars.
ricko
Member
Uncle tom's cabin
On 1/10/1776 Thomas Paine published a 48 page pamphlet titled 'Common Sense', which was an argument for freedom from British rule. In 1851 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin as an argument for the freedom of all slaves in the United States. Both books ignited a fire, pro and con, for liberty in the United States. Stowe’s book sold over 300,000 copies in the first year. The previous year the United States passed the legislative act of 1850 prohibiting aiding and abetting escaping slaves! President Millard Fillmore and Congress passed that law as a compromise between the North and the South to avoid hostilities. What were they thinking? Luckily, many Northerners didn’t heed the law, especially the Quakers. Stowe met President Lincoln at the White House in 1862 and he called her “ the little woman who started this great war.” According to Stowe the characters are drawn from real life. The incidents described in the book are real. That’s egregious information, because this book was ( and still is ) an emotional time bomb in disguise. She was asked many times whether the narrative was a true one and her general answer was “ The separate incidents that compose the narrative are, to a very great extent, authentic, occurring, many of them, either under her own observation, or that of her personal friends. She or her friends have observed characters the counterpart of almost all that are here introduced; and many of the sayings are word for word as heard herself, or reported to her.” This is the most significant book that I've ever read. If you read only one classic this year, make it this one.
Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O
On 1/10/1776 Thomas Paine published a 48 page pamphlet titled 'Common Sense', which was an argument for freedom from British rule. In 1851 Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin as an argument for the freedom of all slaves in the United States. Both books ignited a fire, pro and con, for liberty in the United States. Stowe’s book sold over 300,000 copies in the first year. The previous year the United States passed the legislative act of 1850 prohibiting aiding and abetting escaping slaves! President Millard Fillmore and Congress passed that law as a compromise between the North and the South to avoid hostilities. What were they thinking? Luckily, many Northerners didn’t heed the law, especially the Quakers. Stowe met President Lincoln at the White House in 1862 and he called her “ the little woman who started this great war.” According to Stowe the characters are drawn from real life. The incidents described in the book are real. That’s egregious information, because this book was ( and still is ) an emotional time bomb in disguise. She was asked many times whether the narrative was a true one and her general answer was “ The separate incidents that compose the narrative are, to a very great extent, authentic, occurring, many of them, either under her own observation, or that of her personal friends. She or her friends have observed characters the counterpart of almost all that are here introduced; and many of the sayings are word for word as heard herself, or reported to her.” This is the most significant book that I've ever read. If you read only one classic this year, make it this one.
Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O
pontalba
Well-Known Member
The Man Who Never Returned by Peter Quinn
The four star rating I've given The Man Who Never Returned is actually an average of first and last halves of the book. The beginning was slow, and frankly a bit torturous, but finally, finally!, the second half took off like a rocket.
Judge Joe Crater's (unsolved to this day) case is one of the most famous missing person case, at least in New York, and probably the country. It ranks up there with Amelia Earhart's, which was only a few years later than the Judges.
Quinn gives us a "retired" detective who is akin to the proverbial 'dog with a bone', and a (for him) 25 year old case. The Judge's disappearance was in 1930, and the book takes place in 1955. Cold case, yeah? The twists and alleyways we are taken on are fascinating. The New York scenes of the 1930 and 1955 eras are well presented. We have the complete ambiance of the times and travel the gritty streets and the broad Avenues meeting everyone from detectives to hookers with some assassins thrown in, just for fun.
I'll definitely read more of Peter Quinn's work.
Recommended.
The four star rating I've given The Man Who Never Returned is actually an average of first and last halves of the book. The beginning was slow, and frankly a bit torturous, but finally, finally!, the second half took off like a rocket.
Judge Joe Crater's (unsolved to this day) case is one of the most famous missing person case, at least in New York, and probably the country. It ranks up there with Amelia Earhart's, which was only a few years later than the Judges.
Quinn gives us a "retired" detective who is akin to the proverbial 'dog with a bone', and a (for him) 25 year old case. The Judge's disappearance was in 1930, and the book takes place in 1955. Cold case, yeah? The twists and alleyways we are taken on are fascinating. The New York scenes of the 1930 and 1955 eras are well presented. We have the complete ambiance of the times and travel the gritty streets and the broad Avenues meeting everyone from detectives to hookers with some assassins thrown in, just for fun.
I'll definitely read more of Peter Quinn's work.
Recommended.
ricko
Member
To Eclair:The choice of China Mieville's diction is highly suspect in this weird fantasy novel written in 2010. I think good vocabulary is not necessarily good when one doesn't understand what you are talking about. His loquacious style of penning real and made-up words require a college lexicon! It almost seems that he wrote this book for the late William F. Buckley, Jr. Yet, somehow, I understood what he was saying without looking the words up. He has Charles Dickens's ability to make a fake word seem real. And why does he constantly use double words through out the novel such as, that that! I don't know know!! Anyway, I had my say say.
Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O
Book Reviews And Comments By Rick O