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Collins – The Hunger Games

27 Mar

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)

This has been a long time coming…

Forward:

My story with The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins began last spring.  I had put hours into developing a book club for friends of mine.  I raked through numerous accredited “Top” lists of the most important novels of the past century.  From there I culled the cumulative list down to no more than one novel by each author, novels that were no more than 300 pages (so as not to scare casual readers away), at the same time making sure that there was novel representation from each decade and most genres.  I ended up with 51 titles.

Books were chosen by the members, given a vote of three novels pulled from the list at random.  This [sort of] worked for the club’s first two novels. When I saw membership/interest starting to dwindle, I opened the floor for member recommendations Continue reading

Palahniuk – Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey

1 Feb

Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk (2007)

I fee like an jerkoff just writing this review.  Yes, it’s come time to review a Palahniuk novel…

**Aside: Remember Fight Club??  Remember 1oth grade when the movie came out on DVD and found its way into the hands of manboys across the nation excited by violence, an occasional boob (sorry, girls) and a sweet soundtrack (that may or may not have discovered Pixies and Massive Attack for you)?  Remember finding out a year and a half later that it was a book, reading it in a day and then talking to other people who had read the book and were fascinated that you read books too?  “Did you like the book better than the movie?”  “I dunno…both were pretty sweet.  You wanna go drink a beer at my parents’ house on lunch?”  I did like Fight Club (both the film and the novel) and still do, but Continue reading

Card – Ender’s Game

28 Nov

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1985)

I’m Ender Wiggin’ Out.

Despite this novel’s glaring failings, I did still enjoy it to a certain extent.  Will I be rushing to order the remaining Ender volumes on amazon?  No, but I wasn’t planning on it anyway.  I typically read science fiction in between more mentally taxing novels.  Ender’s Game is a novel that had been recommended to me a dozen times by a dozen friends of mine who know that I like science fiction.  Well, I finally read it, and now I can move on. Continue reading

Amis – The Rachel Papers

30 Oct

The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis (1973)

Hipster Highway.

This was the fourth novel that I read by Amis (I’ve since read Dead Babies) and the second that I have reviewed.  It’s a very quick and satisfying read.  The Rachel Papers also, more than any other Amis novel, makes me want to visit London.

Charles Highway is by far the most likable protagonist of the Amis works that I have read.  His witty repartee and unmistakably teenaged sexual neuroticism are all too familiar and terribly fun.  That being said, Continue reading

O’Hara – Appointment in Samarra

21 Oct

Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara (1934)

The decline and fall of Julian English.  Merry Christmas!

This was my first experience with John O’Hara and it was a good one.  This book came highly recommended to me by my father who read it some years ago.  I admittedly did not know what to expect based on the title.  I figured somebody made a dinner date in Iraq; sort of like when I picked up Catcher in the Rye as a teenager thinking it was going to be like Field of Dreams.  The cover of my edition (as seen above) shows the silhouette of a wasted looking dude slumped in the passenger seat of a Cadillac.  That is what I should have been expecting.

The story surrounds Continue reading

The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships & Other Adventures

16 Oct

by Dossie Easton, Janet W. Hardy (2009)

“For anyone who has ever dreamed of love, sex, and companionship beyond the limits of traditional monogamy, this groundbreaking guide navigates the infinite possibilities that open relationships can offer. Experienced ethical sluts Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy dispel myths and cover all the skills necessary to maintain a successful and responsible polyamorous lifestyle–from self-reflection and honest communication to practicing safe sex and raising a family. Individuals and their partners will learn how to discuss and honor boundaries, resolve conflicts, and to define relationships on their own terms. “

Sounds nice, right? Continue reading

Egan – A Visit From the Goon Squad

3 Oct

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2010)

Time is a goon…and so is this novel.

Whatever happened to the conventional novel as opposed to the contemporary novel-ty novel?  I’m all for creativity and trying for something new, but a chapter done in Powerpoint?  What’s next…Chapter 14 is displayed at night in the lit windows of a Manhattan skyscraper (hmm…maybe I’m on to something).  I am getting a little tired of contemporary literature that lets the story/characters take a back seat to Creative Writing 101 toying.

The novel is Continue reading

Hesse – Steppenwolf

28 Sep

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse (1927)

Der Steppenhipster

Our protagonist, Henry Haller, is introduced in a brief preface by Haller’s landlord’s nephew.  The preface is largely expository and not all that interesting.  This novel takes a good 100 pages before it really drags the reader in; that’s when I start finding more and more notes and dog-eared pages.  Haller is plagued with a “sickness of the times.”  At the end of the preface, the nephew tells us that the story is “an attempt to present the sickness itself in its actual manifestation.  [It] means, literally, a journey through hell, a sometimes fearful, sometimes courageous journey through the class of a world whose souls dwell in darkness, a journey undertaken with the determination to go through hell from one end to the other, to give battle to chaos, and to suffer torture to the full.”  I learned from Hesse’s 1961 forward to the novel that Continue reading

Greene – The Quiet American

1 Sep

The Quiet American by Graham Greene (1955)

Innocence

The term “innocence” continues to appear in The Quiet American and we learn very quickly that Fowler has his own definition.  “Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering around the world, meaning no harm.”  Innocence is also dangerous according to Fowler.  He considers Pyle to be the most dangerous man he knows.  Fowler knows that Pyle is intelligent (a Harvard boy), and has good intentions at heart, but he is entirely ignorant with regard to the local politics.  Continue reading

Amis – Dead Babies

24 Aug

Dead Babies by Martin Amis (1975)

Those books.

Martin Amis is a master of debauchery, depravity and douchebaggery.  Amis’ second novel, Dead Babies, is well-written, dark and hysterical at times.  That being said, his novels often contain characters that though wildly entertaining, elicit little or no sympathy from the reader.  Dead Babies is no exception.

Perhaps Lucy Littlejohn, the “golden-hearted whore” as we are told even before the novel starts, is deserving of sympathy.  She at least has a heart as evidenced by her Continue reading