Book Reviews

Superclass is Super-Classless

2011-03-01T18:13:15Z

Superclass in lots of ways is not a classy book. It's written in a homely, aw-shucks sort of way -- although it starts to fade by the time book hits its stride, there are a bunch of people (judging from Amazon, at least) who were seriously turned off by the tone of it all. David Rothkopf is a friendly guy -- but he's wined and dined with the rulers of the world, or people who think they are at least, and he wants to tell you all about it.

The Sad Tale Of The Bad News Bear

2011-02-08T21:07:49Z

"He was not hunting people, he was hunting peace. But it's a funny way to get it, whacking people".

Steve Herrero, bear expert, on the protagonist of “The Black Grizzly Of Whiskey Creek”

I dunno. Seems reasonable, sometimes.

A mystery co-worker, aware of my penchant for things ursine, saw fit to plonk this book on my "Staff Picks" shelf. It's a title which has evaded an interested but cash-strapped me in the past, so I thought it appropriate that I should intercept and actually read it this time around.

The Goddess of Large Ideas

2010-11-18T18:51:01Z

Where Arundhati Roy is concerned, I would be lying if I suggested I wasn't already favorably biased towards her before picking up her novel, The God of Small Things. She is a well known voice of political and social change, an advocate of peace and harmony, and a friend to a good deal of very influential and intellectual individuals. Roy's renown aside, I delved into this novel with great delight, having heard only good commentary surrounding it.

Extremely Engaging and Incredibly Insightful

2010-11-14T03:13:27Z

I was reminded to read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close when I heard my friend Rob reading it in a café—he was laughing out loud so much it was distracting. He read me a passage from it, which I have since realized is impossible to avoid while reading this book. You simply must share it, or else burst with the oddness and hilarity and humility of trying to keep it all inside.

A Profound Respect for Art

2010-08-20T23:30:25Z

I can easily admit that this has been the single most difficult beginning to anything I have ever written. After having finished the graphic novel entitled "Maus", I spent several minutes in reverence over what I have read to be the most honest and humanizing biography concerning the holocaust. I do not intend to cheapen the gravity of the topic with this statement, yet neither did Art Spiegelman intend to cheapen it is gravity with the production of his work. It is a literary gem the same magnitude as a fist-sized diamond.

The Man with his Mind Made Up about The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

2010-08-17T17:03:32Z

As the first installment in one of the most sought after series in our little shop, this book has a reputation that precedes it. I was told by various sources that Larsson's control was near immaculate throughout the story and, having heard this, I began from a very skeptical point of view. Almost immediately upon picking up the book, I was immersed in a story that had such realism I was hard pressed to put it down until the small hours of the morning.

For A Good Time of Epic Proportions Look Up Villa Incognito

2010-08-04T16:21:18Z

Tom Robbins strikes again with a wit as sharp as the piercing cry of a small girl rolling over the lip of a rollercoaster's biggest drop. This roving tale of youth, liberalism, rebellion and circus acts is set against the backdrop of South Eastern Asia. With yet another masterpiece added to his repertoire, Robbins brings to life the story of Madam Ko with a vivacious vulgarity that paints a most surreptitiously beautiful scene of transformation and transcendence. A true addition to the tradition of Gonzo storytelling.

José Saramago is Dead.

2010-07-05T20:51:53Z

Portuguese Nobel-laureate José Saramago died on June 18, 2010. Most recently known because of the movie adaptation of his novel Blindness (which I found atrociously bad), Saramago’s work featured elements of the fantastic, such as in Blindness when an entire country is struck with ‘white blindness’. Although dead, Saramago left behind a large corpus of excellent work.

Almost nobody really likes Harry Stephen Keeler

2010-05-24T19:44:29Z

Harry Stephen Keeler is one of the best worst writers you’ve never heard of. Confused? Let me explain. Keeler wrote prolifically, mostly Roman Noir and Science Fiction, in the early to mid 20th Century, during the pulp era.

The novels featured odd titles (I Killed Lincoln at 10:13!, The Case of the Barking Clock, The Man with the Magic Eardrums, Find the Clock) and his catalogue has a disturbing number of skull related MaGuffins (for example in The Skull of the Waltzing Clown, or The Riddle of the Travelling Skull). Sounds great, right?

A Review of Jeff Linday's Darkly Dreaming Dexter

2010-04-30T19:59:24Z

The Dexter books have become popular, due in part to the Showcase television show. When books are made into a TV series, as a reader, I often want to read the book before the movie. So I did.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter is the first book in the series by Jeff Lindsay, and the very first Dexter episode is based loosely on said book (further episodes spin their own plots). Oddly, the television medium works for Dexter. The book overdoes it a bit, like it's trying to set too many things in motion.