Ok, I hate to say it, because this book sounded *fascinating* - Encoding music into DNA? Bioterrorism? How could it not be amazing?
Because it was BORIOk, I hate to say it, because this book sounded *fascinating* - Encoding music into DNA? Bioterrorism? How could it not be amazing?
Because it was BORING. This was one of the hardest books I have ever had to force myself to finish because it was just dull, dull, dull. Long, bland descriptions of music - both composing and listening - and maybe it was an attempt to try to translate the feelings music can evoke into words, but if so, it was an utter failure. It almost made me hate music!
And the parts that would have been interesting, the DNA pieces, nothing there was explored. The bioterrorism (didn't really) happen and the main character just sort of drifted around, 'on the run' with no real drama or action, remembering his life through the music he wrote/listened to and there was nothing there, no insight, no depth, nothing but sheer BOREDOM. Remembering how bored I was reading this makes me so mad, and that may be the only thing that gives it 2 stars instead of 1, because at least being enraged is better than BOREDOM. Which I have to capitalize every time I think of this book.
Which is a shame, because a novel based around a composer/amateur scientist encoding music into DNA in an attempt to leave a record for possible future/alien species and being considered a potential bioterrorist because of his genetic manipulations of viruses should have been one of the best books EVER. Even reading that description again makes me want THAT BOOK. To bad that's not the one Powers delivered.
I don't know if this book *deserves* five stars but it gets five stars from me because it's a book about books and it's all love and reading and the fI don't know if this book *deserves* five stars but it gets five stars from me because it's a book about books and it's all love and reading and the formation of accidental families and curmedgeons with soft centers and let's face it, those are all things that make the world a warm and fuzzy place. And in places reading the book was like being part of a fun book discussion, even though sadly nobody was listening when you argued back!...more
This book ... I can clearly see the ways in which it's actually a really good (if flawed) book. The problem is, none of those strengths outweighed the This book ... I can clearly see the ways in which it's actually a really good (if flawed) book. The problem is, none of those strengths outweighed the fact that reading this book was just painful. The imagery was detailed and horrible and grim and unrelenting. And while I think that is an effective technique considering the harsh subject matter, it made reading this rough. And that was the GOOD part of the novel!
Part 2 of my issues is less subjective and more critical, which is that I think it was very uneven in terms of the way the story was distributed. The POW camp was really hard to read, but it was the good part of the book, the interesting and compelling part. Outside of the camp just felt like so much filler, Dorrigo's romance with Amy felt forced and false and filler and everything about it was unpleasant in a very boring way. Meanwhile, while Dorrigo's story was elaborate and dense both in and out of camp, for the rest of the POW residents, their outside life was told only in terms of their current existence - in their stories and memories. That worked really well, and I think whole novel would have been better if Dorrigo's story had been told the same way (or potentially others out-of-camp story as well, I don't think that would have been as strong but it wouldn't have felt so unbalanced)
And the 'gotcha' reveals of the ending were TERRIBLE AND AWFUL, what is this, a 1980s soap opera with fake deaths and secret children? Those added NOTHING to the rest of the novel so I was left shaking my head and thinking 'really?'.
So this is yet ANOTHER Booker (shortlist) nominee from this season that I managed to finish but seriously question the jury's selection - this feels like a particularly bad year....more
This isn't a brilliant book, and I will go on my own personal record as saying it doesn't deserve the Booker prize, but that I'm not sure any of the s This isn't a brilliant book, and I will go on my own personal record as saying it doesn't deserve the Booker prize, but that I'm not sure any of the shortlisted titles do at this point.
It was a good book, and it was enjoyable, and if you didn't read the blurb/book, it was intriguing to find out what the true story was. But for the most part, once that mystery was resolved, there wasn't really a lot there. The family's fragmentation wasn't particularly interesting and I experienced a general frustration with all of the characters and no real sympathy. It wasn't particularly memorable and I left the novel feeling empty. 3.5 stars, and I'm rounding up because I did devour the first half, being unspoiled. But I think if anybody reads the blurb copy of the American version (the British version doesn't spoil it) it would be even more disappointing....more
I can't believe I waited this long to read this! I was somehow turned off because I'd read a few comments saying they found the book detached or sometI can't believe I waited this long to read this! I was somehow turned off because I'd read a few comments saying they found the book detached or something but ... so not my experience.
SO GOOD. Ok, I will say that the blog posts did not ring true as BLOG posts - as essays in a book, yes, as blog posts, no. But I forgive that and just took it as given.
I'm not sure I can even describe what I loved about this book, other than the heart of it, the energy. It managed to take a conceit I HATE (childhood sweethearts still in love even after not seeing/speaking to each other for a dozen years) and make it work. A gorgeous, detailed work....more
This was a unique and fascinating experience because there are so many books set in and around WW2, but this is the first I've read from this PoV - anThis was a unique and fascinating experience because there are so many books set in and around WW2, but this is the first I've read from this PoV - an unimportant Nazi soldier and his wife in Berlin, from a poor-but-profiting family. It's horrific in the casual cruelties, the matter-of-factness of how right it was that they deserved the better apartment and the stolen items, mixed with the deprivations experienced by everyone. And watching the soldier's transformation as he echos his father-in-law's opinions and then just - everything was just so cold, it was horrible and fascinating and you just kept wanting to shake people and tell them to wake up because their humanity WAS in there, it just was blurred. ...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this book - the interplay between the siblings and spouses was rich and, at times, heart-breaking. It was perfectly written and tI thoroughly enjoyed this book - the interplay between the siblings and spouses was rich and, at times, heart-breaking. It was perfectly written and the storylines were compelling. But it just missed something to make it jump to five stars for me - a few things felt wrapped up too quickly. And the prologue was a lovely little read but ultimately annoying because it never came back to itself....more
This book was just - it was beautiful. Haunting, gorgeous language, and one of those books that's just so well done you can't take it. It's compiled oThis book was just - it was beautiful. Haunting, gorgeous language, and one of those books that's just so well done you can't take it. It's compiled of a combination of Agnes's first person point of view and memories, her oral narration of her story, the less intense, distanced third person viewpoints of those around her, letters and official documents and it just - it's so well balanced and organically done.
I already said haunting, but that's the word that comes to mind again and again. It lingers with me, Agnes's mixture of superstition and heartbreaking sorrow interspersed with official documents organizing the mundane details of her execution, and the growing and shifting emotions of those dealing with her during her semi-incarceration. It's just beautifully told and heartbreaking. ...more
Ok, I read this book because it's the play-in for the Morning Tournament, which is the reason I kept reading the book after I could already tell I loaOk, I read this book because it's the play-in for the Morning Tournament, which is the reason I kept reading the book after I could already tell I loathed it.
Early on I was thinking, ok, this is a 3 star read, but the writer doesn't really understand how humor works, that it requires more than scenario and character setups that read like bad Saturday Night Live skits. But I thought the story itself could be redeemed from that.
It couldn't. It was just awful. The ... the sheer contempt that bleeds through this book is just ugly. The plot was, quite frankly, ridiculous and stupid and not well-thought out by the author. The characters were caricatures cut out of cardboard,all equally repulsive in different ways, sent into situations that didn't make sense ... which would have been ok, if it had been *funny* and managed to perform as satire. It didn't. Worse, the cardboard cutout characters weren't even internally consistent!
If I could give a book negative stars, I WOULD....more
I admit, I had a visceral reaction to Hill William that made me really dislike it. It was very short - maybe 200 pages - and probably about half the cI admit, I had a visceral reaction to Hill William that made me really dislike it. It was very short - maybe 200 pages - and probably about half the content just made me feel gross and slimy.
But I feel like the book completely failed even *beyond* the gut-reaction. It just didn't hang together - it was fragmented and inconsistent and very muddy regarding the PoV character and how much is recollection and how much is just skipping around temporally.
And at the end of it, there was just nothing there. Too many characters thrown into a blender and no connection with any of them and how it affects the narrator-in-now. Very disappointing, because the beginning made me really want to delve into the narrator's character. And then it really didn't.
4 stars? 5 stars? That last one is up for grabs and it ALMOST makes it! I really wanted it to!
Full disclosure. I did not expect to enjoy this novel at4 stars? 5 stars? That last one is up for grabs and it ALMOST makes it! I really wanted it to!
Full disclosure. I did not expect to enjoy this novel at ALL. Eat, Pray, Love for me was (and is) at the very TOP of my Books to Be Avoided because reading the self-indulgent navel-gazing of authors 'discovering' themselves because a publisher gave them a huge advance is just a huge NO for me.
FORTUNATELY, Gilbert's memoir aside, that's not this book! This book is fantastic. Spanning decades, going into amazing and interesting detail and asides on the nature of biology and evolution and family relationships, combined with swashbuckling adventure and exploration - it's just gorgeous.
The first chapters are devote to the rise to greatness of Henry Whittaker: thief, con artist, botanist, entrepreneur, sailor, explorer, barely-educated and self-taught scientist and scientific observer. Not a good man, but a great man, with all of the vim, vigor, and bigger-than-life explosions off the page. His rise from poverty to immense riches and power, and his building of relationships were just epic. And he marries a woman for her brains! And the true partnership of their relationship was just lovely. His story was great. (And although it was only 10% of the novel, it felt like a much weightier percentage, because of it's very greatness.
Which isn't to say that the rest of the story isn't also good. Because Henry and Beatrix they have a daughter and it becomes HER story and her story is also wonderful. Alma is a wonderful character, from childhood on - intelligent, interesting, *different* from her time. The complicated and uncomfortable relationship she has with her adopted sister, on the other hand, never worked for me. The disconnect was clearly there but it simply wasn't *interesting* (and the secretly in love story was both obvious and frustratingly irrelevant, remove that whole storyline and the book becomes tighter and better.)
No, lets go beyond that - the 'romances', realized and unrealized, of Alma, Prudence, and their friend Retta, are what knocked the novel down. Most of them felt like, oh, I don't know, an Ode to the Historical Novel rather than actually working within the framework of the novel itself. (19th century! Let's introduce Madness! But not actually make it *really* relevant to the story itself.) Stop wandering off novel, and bring me back to the mosses.
Alma's relationships were the worst in terms of 'ugh, please, don't go there ... oh you did. Thanks' Fortunately, despite the fact that they DO happen and make me want scowl and stomp around and get back to the botany, already, they also pass and we go back into Botany! and Evolution! And synergy with Darwin and it's all great and glorious and I can happily forget about stupid marriages. And then I am satisfied....more
This was yet another HUGE, glorious, MNToB read that just sucked me in and didn't let me go. It was just fun - the language was glorious, the story waThis was yet another HUGE, glorious, MNToB read that just sucked me in and didn't let me go. It was just fun - the language was glorious, the story was intense, I just wanted to keep reading it forever. I don't think I have anything insightful or interesting to day - it wasn't a very meta novel, but it was a glorious BOOK. Theo's life was just - it was not fun for him to live, but it was brilliant to read. And BORIS. What a great, great, fictional character, I wish he never left the page.
There were CAPERS! I love capers, and those - man, give me more. Art thieves! (and I loved reading about the art) Crime syndicates! Furniture restoration, how was that so great? Sheer fun.
AND ALSO DON'T DO DRUGS, BORIS, IT MAKES ME NERVOUS....more
Another Morning News Tournament of Book read, and this one I'm super glad I picked up. I'll be seeking out more by Meyer.
The Son is the alternating naAnother Morning News Tournament of Book read, and this one I'm super glad I picked up. I'll be seeking out more by Meyer.
The Son is the alternating narration of 3 separate generations (Eli, his son, and his great-granddaughter) in Texas as ways of life keep changing, complete with racial tensions and doing a great job of evoking the worlds. It's a family saga and it's a commentary on the dying of people, and it's compelling and rewarding.
I thought The Son was a fantastic read, and raced through it. I've read commentary by others who found Eli's narrative much stronger than the other two primary narrators - that wasn't the case for me. Every time we switched perspectives, I got sucked into each point of view and wanted to keep reading their stories. Every shift was a combination of sadness and glee ... sorry to see one narrator leave, but wanting to find out what had happened in the new one.
But it's not a perfect novel, and that's where it cost a star for me. The issue I had was that The Son felt very unbalanced to me, not between narrators, but in all three cases between the bulk of their story and their finishes. We get immense detail for pages/years and then suddenly things sort of end, tying up not-quite-neatly but not really giving us a solid ground for how we switched between where the narrator was at the 'end' of their story and the beginning of the next. This is particularly pronounced with Eli, who we see through two additional lens, but the other stories also fade away rather than finish.
This very well could have been a strategic decision on Meyer's part - each story fading away to mirror the fading away of people, the next generation/group replacing them. If so, I admire and applaud it on a technical level. But on sheer reading, it took away my joy. I was just so caught up in this book, it was such a great story, and then I felt left hanging. And the sections with the cousins just felt really random, and didn't work with my idea of generations replacing one another, because his narration had absolutely zero energy!
But it's a fun book to read, big and meaty (although with a LOT of violence!!)...more
This book was remarkable and compelling and I couldn't stop reading it. The Onion is one of the most entertaining fictional characters ever, with his This book was remarkable and compelling and I couldn't stop reading it. The Onion is one of the most entertaining fictional characters ever, with his sense of self-preservation and his heart and genuine charm. On a detail level, the language shifts as the novel progresses (and Onion grows, learns to read, etc) are subtle but distinct. The meta of his internal battle reflected in the battle outside of him, the way he saw the flaws and the facts, the way he kept liking people in spite of himself. Wonderful, amazing, great book....more
How much I wanted to give this novel 3 stars. Because the characters - they popped off the page. The dialogue was witty and they were alive with energHow much I wanted to give this novel 3 stars. Because the characters - they popped off the page. The dialogue was witty and they were alive with energy. But they weren't served very well by the story itself, and I think the problem was that Laymon may have tried to do too much and thus failed to completely do anything.
In brief: Long Division starts off as a work of satire and that part succeeds brilliantly, even though it's not carried throughout. The beginning was fantastic. But then it tries to contain elements of a book within a book (with the characters in the book mysteriously having some of the same names as the original characters, but living 30 years earlier) AND it contains time travel (and corresponding paradoxes) within that book. And it doesn't gel, I have to take too much on faith. I can't get behind a book where the characters from 1984 go to the future and meet someone who exists in 2013 in BOTH narratives (except mysteriously missing in one) AND have it be the same character/personality. It's just - it's messy, it doesn't work for me narratively.
I think I see where the story is going - it's a commentary, in part, on how City (the main character) would have been in 84 versus now and how quickly things change and yet fundamentally there are still issues - there's some brilliant work with that in the way of racial attitudes. The *messages* of the novel are brilliant and the characters a joy to read. But the framework failed it....more
Oh man. Loved (and loathed) this book. It was do good, but so diabolical. It absolutely sucked me in from the beginning, and made me feel I had a goodOh man. Loved (and loathed) this book. It was do good, but so diabolical. It absolutely sucked me in from the beginning, and made me feel I had a good grasp on the cast of characters and then, boom, flipped it entirely on the head. Unreliable narrators doesn't even really cover it, just complete skewering of expectations because ... When I think unreliable, I think purposefully misleading in order to garner sympathy. This goes beyond that, on every (appalling and yet compelling) level. But the best thing is how it messed with my understanding and expectations of the non-narrator characters. Just - yes.
Enthralling, disturbing, *interesting* and fast-paced book.
(and I am super glad I will never meet that family in real life!)...more
This was one of those books that starts off with great promise. I'm drawn in immediately, the characers are fascinating, the story makes me want to knThis was one of those books that starts off with great promise. I'm drawn in immediately, the characers are fascinating, the story makes me want to know more. Where are they? Why? What really happened? The first 1/3 of the novel reads like dystopian fiction, weaving reality and self-imposed myth in an amazing and layered way. We are talking five star read, here!
And then CRASH.
Everything interesting about the novel crumbles and it becomes overwrought, dull, and, I have to say it, boring.
Marta's character was more interesting in her unrealized lie version, that of a photographer coming to shoot pictures of herons. Because the women revealed by the diary - obsessive and melodramatically romantic in a nauseating way, combined a with a really gross kind of racism and objectifying - was just stomach churning.
And it kept going on. And on. And on.
Truthfully, it probably wasn't that many pages. But it felt like forever and then when it was finally over ... the rest of the book crumbled alongside it. The characters no longer made sense. Neither the warped kind of sense of their invented reality NOR sense in a real world sort of way.
So then things happen (and I use that in the loosest sense of the phrase possibly, because really not much does) - some additional history is revealed and people move to the city and various realities become crushed and nobody is happy and then the book is over. And you realize that nobody's motivations REALLY made sense (not the motivations of the 5 last humans* and not that of Marta, with her really stupid quest to find her husband's last place and not her husband's either.)
*And then I really, really wish that the story had stopped before Marta arrived or had ACTUALLY been about 5 people rebuilding their reality in the fate of an apocalypse or hey, the reintroduction into society had actually taken place in a way I can interact with.
And wow, I originally scored this 3 stars and just writing this review made me drop it a point, because of potential unrealized. And also because of the donkey, because REALLY....more
I enjoyed this book a lot - great characters and worldbuilding, and the faux-documentary treatment was interesting and compelling. There was a little I enjoyed this book a lot - great characters and worldbuilding, and the faux-documentary treatment was interesting and compelling. There was a little bit too much of the 'what would happen next would change all that' style endings, since so much of it was bound up in the ending and it made things drag a bit. I wanted to *find out* what the ultimate end was to the point that it made me impatient with the now. But the story moved fast enough that it wasn't a real issue.
The ending, however, was flat and what cost the fifth star for me. It just wasn't that interesting and the vague 'you can fill in what you really think occurred on the street that night' feel didn't work, since there were enough details to make you pretty sure you knew. Sure, somebody could have been lying but eh, it just didn't work. And Nelson's eventual fate and personality fell flat.
But overall, interesting and worth reading....more
I loved the ship-bits, particularly the smugglers. And the wombat! And the gloriously hypocritical narrators of the expedition. The - not flashbacks, I loved the ship-bits, particularly the smugglers. And the wombat! And the gloriously hypocritical narrators of the expedition. The - not flashbacks, but older pieces - those sections were more uneven in tone. And trying to reconcile the two periods was something that worked slightly better in theory than practice. But overall, a really good read. (plus, the smugglers! Their poor ship, though ;((()
*Doing this as a simul-read with my mom! We read a lot of the same books, but never at the same time, so this should be fun :)...more
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