4 Stars: I really liked it. Very humorous, entertaining story about what would happen if the anti-Christ was accidentally raised by the "wrong" family and turned out to be a pretty nice kid. Lots of fun. I especially liked the depiction of one of the four horsemen (famine) that's supposed to bring in Armageddon as the instigator of diet/health crazes.
4 Stars: I really liked it. I read this for a book club a while back and really enjoyed it but was surprised by the suggestion of the other readers that Mark Twain was clearly an abolitionist- if anything I thought that the story supported the argument that many slave holders at the time had- that blacks were inherently bad. Really well written and I enjoyed it as one of the first stories introducing the use of forensics to solve a mystery. Read it and let me know what you think.
3 Stars: I liked it. A lot of sweet and funny anecdotes of a family with twelve children, mostly stories concerning the father. The book is nothing like the movie with the same name starring Steve Martin. It takes place around 1910+ so it has some fun historical significance; have you ever heard of a victrola? It took me forever to read the 150 something pages because it's very easy to read a couple of pages and put it down for a while. There isn't a whole lot of plot to keep it moving- just some nice little stories. Very sweet.
4 Stars: I really liked it. Really entertaining and easy to read history of science. You'll definitely feel better educated after reading this and it's a book you'll want to keep around as a reference.
3 Stars: I liked it but it needed to be censored. Wow! This was an intriguing story right from the start. Very disturbing characters and description of the circus train lifestyle. It was clever and well written and fully developed but I could only give it three stars because of the foul language and multiple explicitly sexual situations that had to be skipped over. I'm surprised that they haven't made a movie of it yet, it definitely could make for a good movie- hopefully some of that raunchy stuff could be cut. I found the author's note interesting how she describes the research she did for the book and how many of the animal and "freak" situations in the story had actually taken place in real circuses in the beginning of the 20th century.
Really fascinating nonfiction, especially if you're into psychology. I really liked all the different studies cited and especially the analysis of how police officers have an optimum performance heart rate and that if it gets too far above that rate it can be deadly. So never, ever, ever engage a cop on a high speed chase (not that any of you would)
4 Stars. This was a great, easy, entertaining read. If you love Steve Martin (who doesn't?) you'll love this book. I really liked how I could hear his voice as I read. I think Jon Stone put it perfectly: "This is a great little memoir that gives us a peak into the craft of stand-up from, arguably, the most prolific, main-stream comedians of my generation... And we didn't even really know him for his stand-up. This book will have you watching his old routines from Johnny Carson on YouTube."
4 Stars. I really enjoyed this historical fiction that follows a modern day PhD student who goes to Venice to finish her thesis on a Venetian courtesan. An intriguing mystery, an entertaining, if not obvious, love interest involving the main character, Claire. Watch out for a chapter somewhere near the beginning as it describes how the courtesan learns her craft. It started getting way too graphic so I skipped to the next chapter and didn't feel like I missed any important info in the storyline and didn't have a problem with any of the scenes in the rest of the book. I'm looking forward to reading her next book.
Now, for my very favorite of the bunch. If you only read one of the books from this list this is the one it should be:
5 Stars: I loved it. The author's style is very poetic and gives insights into war that you probably would never know unless you've experienced it. The author's own fate makes the book even more powerful.
Her description of the evacuation of Paris when the Germans had won the city:
"Panic obliterated everything that wasn't animal instinct, involuntary physical reaction. Grab the most valuable things you own in the world and then...! And, on that night, only people- the living and the breathing, the crying and the loving- were precious."
"Rare was the person who cared about their possessions; everyone wrapped their arms tightly round their wife or child and nothing else mattered; the rest could go up in flames."
I loved the characters, although there were many, she was able to give them all very distinct and complex personalities.
I got the impression that no one really understood what was really happening in the concentration camps. It seems that it was taken for granted that the war was just an extenuation of World War I, and that being occupied by the Nazis was just a kind of payback for France occupying Germany previously. The author portrays the German soldiers as being just like the French soldiers, with maybe a little more determination and strength of will, but just young men who missed their wives and mothers, just people. They seemed polite and friendly, especially with the French children, giving them candy and treats. Perhaps the majority of the Nazi soldiers didn't even really know what was going on.
I really wanted more. It didn't seem like an ending, it seems that the author may have intended to write more but didn't have the chance. So terribly tragic that she didn't get to see the end of the war.
I'm on good reads too. I stuck one of those books on hold that appealed to me (the bill bryson one). I tried Blink and didn't love it. the rest I've never heard of - so how do you come to choose them - recommendation or just simple plucking them off a shelf and they look interesting?
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