| |
|
Tales of Power
Carlos Castaneda
Washington Square Press, 1991
To Carlos, with gratitude
+ Pulling the pieces together
+ Amazing writer and book
+ Hey you like Carlos or you don't!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Baudolino
Umberto Eco
Harvest Books, 2003
Intellectual AND entertaining
+ the fourth, another different UE novel
+ Medieval Gump
In this delightful and intriguing tale of adventure, Umberto Eco leads us through 12th-century Italy, France, Byzantium and lands much farther east. We move through history and myth, from the Holy and Roman Emperor Frederick to the realm of Prester John.
The protagonist of the story is an ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
The Sorrows of Young Werther (Penguin Classics)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Penguin Classics, 1989
The Tumultuous Seas of Emotion!
+ An amazing love story
+ Accurate portrayal of the love-sick mind
+ Plumbing the Depths of Insanity
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
The Name of the Rose: including the Author's Postscript
Umberto Eco
Harvest Books, 1994
Whodunit with Semiotics
+ good transaction
+ A worthwhile read
It has been said that The Name of the Rose was one of the most purchased, most displayed, and least read bestsellers. This notion expressed a belief that at least more people wanted to be perceived as sophisticated enough to read the book than wanted to make the effort of reading it.
On one ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Parzival (Penguin Classics)
Wolfram Von Eschenbach
Penguin Classics, 1980
Spiritually Uplifting
+ very readable
+ Wolfram von Eschenbach's "Parzifal"
+ I adore this translation.
+ A dark mirror into the medieval psyche.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Anansi Boys
Neil Gaiman
HarperTorch, 2006
Witty and Wonky
+ GREAT ENTERTAINMENT
+ Anansi Boys is a whole lot of fun, a departure for Gaiman
+ A Story Which (as all stories do) Belongs to Anansi
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Cold Mountain
Charles Frazier
Grove Press, 2006
Incredible beauty
+ GREAT BOOK
+ Room for forgiveness
Charles Frazier is a master story-teller and a master of the craft of writing. His sentences are pure honey. While the story might have been slow at times, the flow of his narrative is so smooth, it's an incredible pleasure to read his work. Unlike any other author whose work I have had the ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
V. (Perennial Classics)
Thomas Pynchon
Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1999
The Best of Pynchon
+ An excellent novel.
Pynchon's "V." is still, to my mind, one of the very best of the master's works. Yes, it's the first, and yes, "Gravity's Rainbow" blows much of it away with its monster expansiveness, its staggering detail, its Nabokovian command of language. Yet, for some reason, I like "V." above the later ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
The Magic Mountain
Thomas Mann
Vintage, 1996
Excellent
+ Magic Mountain Thrills Again
+ Parallel Existence
+ The Magic Mountain
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Empire of the Sun
J. G. Ballard
Simon & Schuster, 2005
Humanity, stripped to its core
+ Transcendent
+ Much better than the movie.
+ great Story
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Things Fall Apart: A Novel
Chinua Achebe
Anchor, 1994
More on Conrad the Alleged Racist!
+ It's not about white people!
+ Great!
+ Soon to be independant people
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Post Office
Charles Bukowski
Ecco, 2002
IT BEGAN AS A MISTAKE
+ Going Postal
+ Dead Letters
+ Sal Paradise in the Post Office
+ Bukowski's First
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Herzog (Penguin Classics)
Saul Bellow
Penguin Classics, 2003
Laugh, look, and reconsider
+ Tough, gritty, real: how to live in a world that tears you apart
+ Compassionate fool
+ Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow's classic novel "Herzog" is a complex novel of the mental life of a modern man
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
The Adventures of Augie March (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)
Saul Bellow
Penguin Classics, 1996
Well deserving Great American Tale [81][T]
+ Is Bellow The Real Salinger?
+ Found a favorite
+ Review of Penguin Classics' Augie March
+ Augie March
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Pulp
Charles Bukowski
Ecco, 2002
Another Bukowski Masterpiece!!
+ a beautifully bad masterpiece
+ Memento mori
I was completely taken by this novel. It's a film noir style detective story mixed with supernatural subplots. Although it's a little off-beat, it was very enjoyable, one that's hard to put down after you pick it up. Hell it's a Bukoswki, did I even really need to write anything else? Highly ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
