I read this book very quickly. Much more quickly than it deserved to be read. It's not due back to the library for another week or so, so I'm going to I read this book very quickly. Much more quickly than it deserved to be read. It's not due back to the library for another week or so, so I'm going to read it again. Slowly.
I devoured this book. I didn't know how much I wanted to read it until I finished it. It was exactly like having some sort of vitamin deficiency before I picked up this book. I had story anemia. Or something.
And here's a hard thing: I don't have anyone to whom I can recommend this book. I can think of many people who would like several parts of this book, but none of them are the same parts. Or the same people.
This collection of short stories, if one had to slap a label on them, is technically magical realism, but could also be classified as urban fantasy in places. Sort of. Or horror. Or absurdism. It's another one of those books I love the best: beautiful and weird. All these stories are beautiful. And all of them are very, very weird. The writing and style and subjects are all a bit like a cross between "China Mieville", "Neil Gaiman", and "Jonathan Safran Foer", if you can imagine such a thing. The whole book feels slightly foreign. It reads like it was very recently translated from a language that only exists in narrow places.
Highly recommended. If you're into this sort of thing. ...more
One of my favorites. The "adventures" of Bertie and his butler Jeeves in turn-of-the-century London. And sometimes America when Bertie's aunt is upsetOne of my favorites. The "adventures" of Bertie and his butler Jeeves in turn-of-the-century London. And sometimes America when Bertie's aunt is upset with him.
Very funny in a dry and harmless way. I find it gentle and intelligent reading.
Highly recomended. If you like that sort of thing....more
What a lovely, funny, informative little book. A small encyclopedia of plants from around the world with particularly interesting side effects. Like sWhat a lovely, funny, informative little book. A small encyclopedia of plants from around the world with particularly interesting side effects. Like severe hallucinations. Or death.
Also included in this book along with botanical name and description and information about each of these plants, is a great deal of humorous and informative trivia on the history or and cultural significance of the use of these plants.
I really enjoyed this. It's not for everyone. Some people would be bored, I'm sure; but this was right up my ally at a time when I could most appreciate it. So... "yay" book.
Recommended. If you're in to this sort of thing. ...more
I looked everywhere for it after I learned of its existance, and then waited for it to be shipped to me from parts unknown.
This book is a very fun looI looked everywhere for it after I learned of its existance, and then waited for it to be shipped to me from parts unknown.
This book is a very fun look at the sordid lives of the upper-est of upper-class folk in the early to mid 19th century.
I hope I didn't lose you with the last sentence.
It's really very well written. Some of the stories are quite shocking, and some of the explanations for why people did what they did are very revealing.
I suppose I could also call this a mystery, but the reader technically doesn't know that there will be a murder or a murderer until the very end of thI suppose I could also call this a mystery, but the reader technically doesn't know that there will be a murder or a murderer until the very end of the book. The reader instead is given the motive and the means underneath a great deal of history, wonder, philosophy and the wonderful memoirs of a gentleman of scholarly pursuits from Canada.
This book is delightful and hopeful and realistic as well as fantastic and dark and gentle. It's well written and one of my favorite novels.
Most people who take their scholarly appreciation of 19th century literature would stop speaking to me if I admitted openly that I prefer Wives and DaMost people who take their scholarly appreciation of 19th century literature would stop speaking to me if I admitted openly that I prefer Wives and Daughters BY FAR to the more overly appreciated Cranford, also written by Mrs Gaskell.
So I shan't mention it. Much.
This is a very long book, originally published as a serial in sections of about three chapters at a time. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Gaskell died right before finishing the last three chapters, so this novel was never completed. Technically. The place she created and the characters she invented to people it are so real and detailed, and the story so clear, that there is really no doubt of how it would have ended. The only thing missing are details.
It's an intense and, at times, almost tongue-in-cheek look at women living during the Regency period of the 19th century. But unlike some of her contemporaries, she managed to write realistically and about the middle class as well as the high-society. In other books, such as her stellar North and South, Mrs Gaskell managed to write the lower classes without either making them monsters or noble-for-nobles sake, unlike other authors of her time.
I love this book. I really do. Without all the class and feminist and literary deconstructing, it's basically a lovely story about a country town, centering around the family of the local doctor. There are a couple of love stories and a mystery and, oh, some really lovely language.
I highly recommend it. If you're in to that sort of thing....more
I loved this book. I can not believe no one before now brought it to my attention. While I was reading it, I realized that not only was this book one I loved this book. I can not believe no one before now brought it to my attention. While I was reading it, I realized that not only was this book one of my favorites, it had always been one of my favorites, I just hadn't realized it yet.
It's one of those books.
There's a plot in there somewhere (though such a poor one that I could not in good conscience give this book five stars because of it), but mostly it's beautiful, smart, and funny conversations and monologues about books and society and ideas. I really liked the book, but I understood that I LOVED it when one of the characters admits that he cataloged all the occurrences of rain in the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and added up all of the alcohol consumed in the collected works of Charles Dickens.
I recommend this book for bibliophiles and writers, and other gently odd and intelligent people. Oh, and anyone else who thinks they might like this sort of thing....more
I think I like this book as well or better than any new thing I've read in the last three or four years. I'm a huge fan of short stories to begin withI think I like this book as well or better than any new thing I've read in the last three or four years. I'm a huge fan of short stories to begin with. I think it's an art form that too many people attempt and not enough of them are able to perfect. Or anything anywhere close to "perfect." O Henry, Mark Twain, Neil Gaiman, and Stephen King are just a few examples of the handful of authors in the history of literature that seem to be able to knock the Short Story right out of the park. And, as good (and I mean really, really good) as the short works written by those authors are, the Short Story is still a rare animal. So you can understand why I want to find and kiss Joe Hill right on his furry chin for writing this book.
The stories are delicious. The first one made me uncomfortable in ways I haven't felt since I read The Bogeyman when I was twelve, and yet was so well done I had to keep reading it. The second and third stories were so sweet and sad that I actually teared-up. The forth one was a very dark and weirdly funny (to me, at any rate) homage to Kafka and the monster movies of the 1950s. And on. And on.
I highly recommend this book. Not everything in this thing is made of gold, though. Don't mistake me. But what is wrong with this set of stories is outweighed by what is right. Go read this book. ...more
This is one of my favorite books. It's a quick-reference to the middle and upper classes in Regency and Victorian England. It's a great source of knowThis is one of my favorite books. It's a quick-reference to the middle and upper classes in Regency and Victorian England. It's a great source of knowledge to fill-in-the-blank when reading something by the Bronte sisters or other books from the period. It's rules for the card games and the common items on a menu and how to run a household and what the dances they're talking about actually looked like and that sort of thing.
I very much enjoyed reading it.
Recommended to any fan of 19th century literature,students of modern history, or trivia collectors....more
These are some of my favorite books ever, and all in one place. They're romantic, gentle, very human, funny, and full of things that don't exist any mThese are some of my favorite books ever, and all in one place. They're romantic, gentle, very human, funny, and full of things that don't exist any more but should. Like manners and education. Such is life....more
**spoiler alert** I liked this book very much. It's a hard-boiled noir detective novel, but set in an alternate universe that bears a great deal of re**spoiler alert** I liked this book very much. It's a hard-boiled noir detective novel, but set in an alternate universe that bears a great deal of resemblance to our own... except that Israel collapsed in 1948 and a large chunk of the Jewish people escaping Europe settled in Alaska after the United States government passed a bill opening up a portion of the land for that use.
So up in the ever-so-slightly globally-warmed tundra of Alaska, the story revolves around Detective Landsman trying to unravel the murder of a junkie in a flophouse who may or may not have been the Messiah, while there are political plotting and double-dealings and chess games (literally) going on around him. Woven into the story is a very interesting thread of the Jewish/Native Indian relations. The Indians were there first and are rather peeved that the Jewish settlers keep pushing into territories that do not belong to them, killing swaths of natives along the way out of pre-emptive self-defense.
Well written. A great deal of fun. All the noir genre stereotypes and clichés are in this book, but done with such panache and tenderness that you don't care whether a plot point is cliché or not. Plus, Chabon has finally written a fully-developed woman. So go him.
I recommend this book for anyone who likes detective mysteries, Jewish literature, or anything else that Michael Chabon has written. Or, really, anyone who likes to read. ...more
While Tennyson is not nor never was my favorite poet, for a good many years this was my favorite poem. It combines lyrical cadence with romantic languWhile Tennyson is not nor never was my favorite poet, for a good many years this was my favorite poem. It combines lyrical cadence with romantic language and beautifully colorful phrasing. The subject matter centers around one of the lesser-explored branches of the kudzu that is the Arthurian Mythos. It's very, very sad; though more in a wistful rather than a melancholy sense.
Awfully long, though.
Recommended for people who like this sort of thing. ...more
Mary Roach has crossed the country and the world to talk to people who work with our Earthly This is a wonderful, funny, gross book.
I loved this book.
Mary Roach has crossed the country and the world to talk to people who work with our Earthly remains: dead bodies. After death, some of our bodys go to work for science, some go to work in art shows, and some feed rosebushes professionally. And everything in between.
It's an impressively interesting book that uses humor, sincerity and a very heavy dose of respect.
Extremely useful and incredibly entertaining. I look on it as a reference for writing and as a reminder of historical context. It's also a repository Extremely useful and incredibly entertaining. I look on it as a reference for writing and as a reminder of historical context. It's also a repository of things we have almost forgotten. And it doesn't get much better than that....more
Excellent, caustic satire. It's a much smarter book than it has any right to be, and delightfully quotable. It manages to be cynical and playful all aExcellent, caustic satire. It's a much smarter book than it has any right to be, and delightfully quotable. It manages to be cynical and playful all at the same time. Wonderful stuff....more
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