Most Recent Book(s) You've Finished + What You Thought Of It

Lately, I've read...

This Side of Paradise by F Scott Fitzgerald - I really liked it. It wasn't as good as The Great Gatsby, but I like his writing style quite a bit. It's about a man named Amory who attends college at Princeton, and about a series of failed romances he has that eventually leads him to complete disillusionment with women, and later life. I think it's partly auto-biographical.

Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut - It's a collection of his short stories. A couple of them, including the title story, are excellent. They're as good as Vonnegut's best works, and they give you that feeling that only he seems to be able to give you. However, a lot of them are simply squeezed out to fund the writing of his novels, as he admits to in the beginning of the collection. It's worth the read for a couple of the stories though.

Suttree by Cormac McCarthy - This isn't as bleak and violent as he normally is, but it is one of his strongest works, which is really saying something. This book has an almost comedic tone in parts, which is something I've never experienced in reading McCarthy. It is depressing though, as all of his writing tends to be. This is not a good book to read if you want to get into McCarthy, but if you've read a couple of his other books, it's perfect.

 

The Fall by Albert Camus - while the awkward narration style (talking to the reader, who is a character) is a little annoying, on a whole the book is great. It's a little trudging to get through the beginning but it's worth it.

 

Ernest Gaines- A Lesson Before Dying

A great book about a young black man in the 40's who's sentenced to death for a shootout in a liquor store, and a professor who comes and talks to him and they discuss numerous subjects. Without giving it away, their discussions delve into many of the issues at large during the time and is a great read.

 

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner - I struggled more with this than any book I've read since Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. In the first half, I had to read certain parts three or four times before I finally understood. I think it's because the first two parts of this book are written in stream of consciousness form, which isn't always the easiest to dig through. That being said, I really enjoyed it. It outlines the fall of a once prominent Southern family: the Compsons. The book deals with the disillusionment and resentment that the three male children of the family have towards their sister, who had pre-marital sex.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson - This was a really amusing book. I've found myself fascinated with 1960's and early 1970's drug culture in the Western United States for quite a long time, and this book did a better job capturing it than The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe. It follows Thompson, who goes under the alias Raoul Duke, and his attorney as they go on a drug fueled adventure across Las Vegas. During the course of a five or six day binge, they destroy two hotel rooms, attend a motorcycle race in the middle of the desert, meet a girl from Montana who paints portraits of Barbara Streisand and attend a four day seminar put on by law enforcement, aimed at cracking down on the drug culture. It's definitely worth the time, and is a fast read.

 

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson- My introduction to Cyber Punk was one fun ride. Funny, cool, and imaginative all at once. For example, the main characters name is Hiro Protaginist. I'm going to get Cryptonomican next.

Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolf- Its actually two boks in one volume, "Shadow of the Torturer" and "Claw of the Councillator". The whole four book series is called "The Book of the New Sun". Its psuedo-fantasy-Sci-Fi which takes place on "Urth". "Shadow" was very interesting and itroduces the culture of a strange society. Sometimes though it got a little confusing. "Claw" though, was even better. The story really picks up and a few wierd moments from the first book are cleared up while creating a whole set of new questions. THe other volume is called "Sword and Citadel". If you see any of these books I recomend them.

 

Zeno's Conscience - an early 20th century northern Italian man seeks psychoanalysis as a cure for his smoking and sickness. It was an incredible read - he was starkly sincere in everything he said.

 

I've just exposed myself to Stephen King's writing (The Shining and The Gunslinger). I found the Shining much more entertaining than the Gunslinger, but then again, I haven't read the other six books in The Dark Tower series...

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed both books, but the Shining was the better of the two, imo...anyway, here's my rating:

Shining: 9/10
The Gunslinger: 7/10

 

I finally got around to reading Kerouac's Big Sur, and I must say, it was quite different. His staunch attempts to create the woods around him, while he repetitively visits, create an atmosphere much different from his other works. He starts to ignore traditional writing styles, ignoring apostrophes, and replaces periods with hyphens to create the image of his thought process.. uninterrupted and steadfast.

A great read. Highly recommended. However, I do suggest On the road and The Dharma Bums prior, as a bunch of the characters come back.

God, I would kill to be a part of that group of friends. :redface:

 

Right now I am reading Mercedes Lackey books.
I am reading some online and a lot that have been in the house for ages.
I didn't know she was such a good writer so I passed them over for years.
Owl Flight, Owl sight and Owl Knight are the 3 I just finished.
Fantasy is a great escape and most days I need that for one reason or another.

 

Duras- The Lover..

A very interesting style of writing, switching between first and third person. She jumps around with time and description, dropping bits of information throughout the piece... a very interesting read, highly recommend it.

 

The Beautiful and Damned by F Scott Fitzgerald - This wasn't as good as his other books that I've read, but compared to many others it's still incredible. It deals with a guy named Anthony and his new wife, Gloria during the Jazz age and World War 1. Anthony and Gloria are waiting for his grandfather to die so that they can inhering his millions and live off of it for the rest of their lives. It's always interesting to read a book where the main characters are absolutely worthless, terrible people. Most of the time it's
difficult to get into a book like that, but Fitzgerald puts this together so well that I didn't mind at all.

 

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

It was absolutely amazing to me. I wasn't a big fan of romance before I read this, but with the touch of fantasy that it had along with it with vampires and the werewolves, I was completely drawn into the "forbidden romance" of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. The entire series is entrancing, and it gave me inspiration to write again. If possible, I recommend everyone and anyone who is a fan of vampire books and a touch of romance to read this, because it will just absolutely shock you.

 

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway - This was an excellent book, and without a doubt, the best war novel I've ever read. I usually don't go out of my way to read stories about war, but this was so elegantly written and the main character was so well done, that I felt like I was truly inside of his mind and seeing the same things that he was. I can't recommend this enough.

 

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. It was intriguing and original; definitely one of the best books I have read this year. What really got to me was the ending and how it was handled with such delicacy; certainly a unique ending compared many other novels (don't want to give too much away). Extensive research went for this book, and it certainly was not a waste.

8.9/10

 

The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy - This is the second book in McCarthy's border trilogy, the first being All the Pretty Horses. The Crossing is darker than it's predecessor, and much longer. I can't say I liked this as much as All the Pretty Horses. In fact, I would say it's the weakest novel I've ever read by McCarthy, but it was still very well written. If you're looking to get into Cormac McCarthy, this book is definitely not the place to start.

 

Come Back, Dr. Caligari by Donald Barthelme - This is a collection of short stories that I found I really enjoyed. Some of them were nearly impossible to understand, but others were some of the funniest writing I've ever read in my life. This man is a truly gifted writer.

 

Johnny got his Gun - Dalton Turmbo

What a fantastic novel!
It is simply amazing, one of my favorite novels of all time.

It's cold, uncompromising and brutal vision of war, and the aftermath for the stories protagonist Joe Bonham could alone make your blood run cold.
Trapped within his own mind, fighting off his own fears, and the ever present threat of insanity, along with the almost peaceful memories of his life combine to make this novel one of the most powerful, shocking, and troubling of all time. As the ill-fated Joe struggles to find out, and later comprehend what has happened to him, some of my own fears of being totally isolated from the rest of the world came out which made this hold and even greater meaning in my life.

Goerge Bush should have read this novel before Iraq.
Hell... everyone should read this book.

"SOS... Kill me!"

 

Journey to the End of the Night by Celine - other than the occasional poorly translated expletive, it wasn't "awkward" like some translations I've read. Either way, this book is rather like Zeno's Conscience, so I'm glad I read them one after the other. That's the only book I can really compare it to - it's rather gritty, though you have to take into account when it was written sometimes. The blurb on the back saying the "...inescapable conclusion..." was rather misleading for me as I expected something entirely different, though I figured that might happen. Oh well. It was a good book, and it did have some interesting insights; if you've read and liked this book, pick up Zeno's Conscience. That's all I can say.

 

The Love of the Last Tycoon by F Scott Fitzgerald - Fitzgerald died while writing this book, so it cuts off abruptly. I was enjoying it up until it ended. His notes explain what he was going to have happen, so it was good to not be left hanging, but I feel cheated out of the ending. It would have been a good ending had he written it. A couple of quick sentences don't do it a justice at all.

 

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut - Lately I've been reading a lot of Vonnegut's earlier works. I found that I enjoyed this even more than The Sirens of Titan. It's the story of an American on trial in Israel for war crimes. He worked for the Nazi's putting out propaganda, but was an American spy at the same time. I highly recommend it to any Vonnegut fan.

 

Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut - This is the second night in a row I've sat on my couch for four or five hours and read an entire Kurt Vonnegut novel. I believe this was his second to last novel, published sometime in the early 1990's. It's definitely one of my favorite books of his, right up there with Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse-Five and God Bless Your Mr. Rosewater. This book is about a college professor who fought in Vietnam. It's written in Vonnegut's usual style, with a slight twist: It's much more fragmented than his writing usually is. I liked it though. To any Vonnegut fan, this is a must-read.

 

I finished Nefertiit by Michelle Moran. It was really interesting, especially using her younger sister Mutnodjmet as the narrator. Very similar to The Other Boleyn Girl but is also original and recreates Ancient Egypt superbly.

 

Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy - This was the third and final book in the Border Trilogy. It was better than the second book, The Crossing, especially in the second half. This was about John Grady Cole, a ranch hand, who falls in love with a prostitute in Mexico. Then, because he wants to take her away from that life to marry her, the men who claim to own the prostitute retaliate, and it goes down hill for Cole from there. Definitely don't read this first if you're looking to get into McCarthy. But, if you're a die-hard fan, you'll probably enjoy it.

 

On the Road by Jack Kerouac - This was a very well written book that makes me want to jump into some car, it doesn't matter who it belongs to, just that it runs, and take off across America and experience whatever it is that I find. It makes me want to get drunk in random places, meet new people, and drift from city to city, seeing everything that this country has to offer. There aren't that many books that I can say have left me wanting so much. This, along with Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs and Howl by Allen Ginsberg are considered the three biggest works of beat literature. Now that I've read all three of them, I can say, without a doubt, that On the Road is the best of them all. This is a book that everyone should read at some point in their life. Like books such as The Catcher in the Rye, it offers a valuable insight into what it's like to be young in a confusing world.

 

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy - This is his third book ever, and the first one to really get any sort of critical acclaim. That being said, I wasn't a huge fan of it. I think that McCarthy's best period of writing came immediately after this, starting with Suttree, and finishing with All the Pretty Horses. Child of God is a brutally violent tale that's probably not appropriate to explain on here. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but the most die-hard fans of McCarthy.