Happy to finally have one Dickensian book under my belt, but I'm going to need to splash around in the shallow end for aSo when do they start singing?
Happy to finally have one Dickensian book under my belt, but I'm going to need to splash around in the shallow end for a while before I go back for more...
When you keep seeing a cover in people's hands and on social media, you make a mental note. When your brother tells you how much he loved reading it, When you keep seeing a cover in people's hands and on social media, you make a mental note. When your brother tells you how much he loved reading it, you get your hands on a copy.
I really fell for this book, mostly for the way it paints what conflict does to the innocent of a war-torn region. As I read about Marie-Laure and Werner, I thought about my nieces and nephews...or the children of my friends. I thought about how much life they have in them and how innocent they are to the ways of the world. Any one of them could be Werner or Marie-Laure if crisis took hold of my part of the world, and that's a terrible thought.
Likewise, I had to love the way this story was about a treasure but also NOT about a treasure. Considering I read it back-to-back with "The Maltese Falcon", it's safe to say that it's been a month of MacGuffins for me, and I'm just fine with that. You can have the Holy Grail at the centre of your book for all I care: just surround it with touching prose and we're square.
Now, pardon me while I go buy myself some Jules Verne......more
This little piece of pulp fiction is just "pretty good" - which is to say that it's nothing to really put on the top of the 'to-read' piFunny story...
This little piece of pulp fiction is just "pretty good" - which is to say that it's nothing to really put on the top of the 'to-read' pile. However, I decided to make it my literary companion for my trip to San Francisco, the city where the story is set. That gave the experience of reading it a little extra kick. Catching mentions of streets and neighbourhoods I was wandering around...sometimes even coming across those passages while I was sitting in said neighbourhoods. It brought the book to life in a way that even my memories of the film didn't and elevated it above just "pretty good".
...of course, it was impossible to read any of Sam Spade's lines without doing a bad Bogart impression in my head, which I wouldn't wish on anybody.
Oh, and chalking one up for a great adaptation of a book? It's kinda sad getting to the end of this tale and not getting "the stuff that dreams are made of"...more
"There is no immortality that is not built on friendship and work done with care"
Over the last few years(Delayed this review somewhat due to travels)
"There is no immortality that is not built on friendship and work done with care"
Over the last few years, I've increasingly become a person who believes in both collaborative efforts, and tactile items. So a story that hinges on physical copies of the written word, and frame it with a collective effort to unbox a mystery is absolutely in my wheelhouse. I felt like I knew these characters - the sort that want to solve a puzzle, the sort that want to leave an indelible mark on the world. What's more, the idea of leaving a coded message for just one person...instead of a mission statement to all who might happen to find it.
However, as fun as this book was to read, it arrived at the wrong time for me. It was flanked by other more intriguing titles, and for that it pales in comparison. Also, the reason I chose to read it didn't quite play out. Like my selection of "The Maltese Falcon", I pulled it for a road trip to Northern Cali as a San Francisco-set novel. Unbeknownst to me, the book more or less abandons its locale after the first act is out. Neither one of these qualms are the books faukt, but that's why I'm left thinking 'good-not-great'.
...oh, and I feel like somewhat of a traitor having read this novel on my eReader....more
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