The first half or so of Stranger is quite good. The idea of a human so foreign that he must learn all the aspects of language, culture, and history that …
- Feb. 13, 2010I am so glad that Catching Fire did not devolve into a mere romance novel after the ending of The Hunger Games. The love triangle is still there, of …
- Jan. 15, 2010I really wanted to like And Another Thing"¦. I have such fond memories of reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in college, and I have loved everything else …
- Jan. 10, 2010Early on in The Hunger Games I was disappointed by how similar it was to Battle Royale, a Japanese novel where children are put on an island and forced …
- Dec. 27, 2009The first thing that struck me while reading Blindness was the fact that the dialogue in the book is not separated by quotations, or new paragraphs. What this means is …
- Dec. 26, 2009I probably shouldn't have been, but I admit I was surprised when I realized (about 20 or 30 pages in) that Gee wasn't going to be an apologist for video …
- Dec. 17, 2009Clearly I must have enjoyed Beyond the Blue Event Horizon considering I read it in about four days. It's interesting, though, because for the first couple days it really didn't …
- Dec. 8, 2009I knew Olive Kitteridge was a pulitzer prize winner, so I was not surprised that I enjoyed reading the book. I was, however, immediately surprised that the first chapter didn't …
- Dec. 2, 2009I don't read a lot of nonfiction books, so when I received this as a gift over 18 months ago, I thought it sounded neat, but I had no driving …
- Nov. 26, 2009This is actually the second time I've read Dune, the first being several years ago in college. While I still enjoyed it, I remember enjoying it more the first …
- Oct. 31, 2009Grip of the Shadow Plague shows yet again that Mull is able to write an entertaining, exciting, and imaginative tale for children and adults alike. While it still may not …
- Oct. 14, 2009There are so many good things that can be said about East of Eden that it is hard to know where to start, so I'll start with something simple. This …
- Sept. 29, 2009It would be easy to look at the title of this book, and the subject material, and to brush it off as a dry, niche subject that would only be …
- Sept. 10, 2009The two aspects I enjoyed the most in Hyperion are completely absent in the second book. First of all, instead of a series of short stories that, when combined, reveal …
- Sept. 5, 2009Hyperion initially struck me as a dense, confusing book. Though this may sound like a complaint, it is actually a quality I appreciate in science fiction and fantasy books. Rather …
- Aug. 21, 2009America America is a beautifully written book that is full of insight, especially for someone who has just had a child and is often thinking about what being a father …
- Aug. 8, 2009There isn't much that can be said about Rise of the Evening Star that I didn't cover in my critique of Fablehaven. It is an exciting and fun book to …
- July 27, 2009I read the first two books in this series soon after receiving them as a gift, nearly 2 years ago, so there were some things I may have forgotten between …
- July 24, 2009Fablehaven was an interesting book to read having just completed The Children of Hurin. While I enjoyed both, the contrast between the epic scope and the sense of doom prevalent …
- June 27, 2009I've had Children of Hurin for over a year now, but was always afraid to actually read it. For some reason, I didn't think I would enjoy it as much …
- June 21, 2009Kokoro, according to the foreword by the translator, is best translated as "the heart of things". In many ways, this seems fitting for this book. From the beginning, when the …
- June 5, 2009Rick Riordan has done it again, with another wildly entertaining Percy Jackson book. Even 5 books into the series, nothing has been lost. It still has the same great style …
- May 22, 2009Somehow, I have never read To Kill a Mockingbird until now. Yet, so many of the characters (Atticus Finch and Boo Radley in particular) were familiar by name. This just …
- May 14, 2009The first thing I want to say about Gift of the Jews is that I am not a historian. I feel it is worth mentioning this because I am in …
- April 20, 2009