This just isn’t fun anymore. I’ve been reading a lot but I find that writing reviews or thinking about reviewing is taking all the fun out of it. I may come back, but if I do it’ll probably be a different kind of blog. I’m leaving the site up and open.
I still enjoy reading everyone else’s reviews, even though I lurk and read rather than comment most of the time. So I’ll be around, just not here.
It’s been fun. Thanks to everyone who has read and commented!
Title: The Lost Symbol
Author: Dan Brown
Pages: 528
Rating: 2/5
The Lost Symbol follows symbologist (is that a word?) Robert Langdon to DC, where he’s fallen into the trap of a freakishly tattooed psycho who seems to think that the Freemason’s have hidden some ancient mysteries, which is the key to unlocking man’s full hidden potential. The key to this mystery is a pyramid with codes, symbols, and maps hidden on it. Langdon teams up with the CIA and his friends sister – a scientist doing cutting-edge research in the field of Noetics (don’t ask, just google) – to save Langdon’s friend and maybe possibly keep the ancient mystery out of the hands of the weird tattooed guy. (They keep changing their mind on what they’re going to do so I lost track.) Add in some cliche family drama, and plenty of idealistic spiritual hippie-dippy talk, and you have Brown’s latest book.
I finished this book over a week ago, but I’ve been procrastinating on a review. My feelings on this book changed several times while I read it and after. I’ve decided that it was a disappointment.
It was difficult to get into the story, but it was pretty good when the plot really took off and things started to come together in the middle of the book. But eventually it got boring again and the ending was very anti-climatic and it really ruined the whole book for me.
The whole premise of it – a lost treasure inside DC, which is of course full of creepy facts and ancient secrets hidden in its architecture – sounds like National Treasurer. The whole secretive, spiritual concept of the book – that men are divine, gods, or have God inside them – is pretty interesting, but the story built around that wasn’t that interesting at all.
Brown’s strong point has always been that he can tell interesting stories, even though his writing is not so great. The story always distracted me enough from the poor writing, but since the story flopped I definitely took notice of his writing skills in this one. He goes way too heavy with the foreshadowing. It’s almost laughable.
I wanted to like this but I really didn’t. It’s probably worth reading but definitely not worth buying.
Title: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Authors: Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
Pages: 352
Rating: 4/5
(From Amazon) Forget your image of an economist as a crusty professor worried about fluctuating interest rates: Levitt focuses his attention on more intimate real-world issues, like whether reading to your baby will make her a better student. Recognition by fellow economists as one of the best young minds in his field led to a profile in the New York Times, written by Dubner, and that original article serves as a broad outline for an expanded look at Levitt’s search for the hidden incentives behind all sorts of behavior. There isn’t really a grand theory of everything here, except perhaps the suggestion that self-styled experts have a vested interest in promoting conventional wisdom even when it’s wrong. Instead, Dubner and Levitt deconstruct everything from the organizational structure of drug-dealing gangs to baby-naming patterns. While some chapters might seem frivolous, others touch on more serious issues, including a detailed look at Levitt’s controversial linkage between the legalization of abortion and a reduced crime rate two decades later. Underlying all these research subjects is a belief that complex phenomena can be understood if we find the right perspective.
Freakonomics isn’t economics in a traditional sense. To me, it seems more like sociology and plenty of data and statistics.
A large part of this book addresses the nature vs. nurture debate. What makes a good parent or a good student? What effect does a name have on ones outcome? It also talks about the testing gap between blacks and whites, which I found to be the most interesting and important discussion in Freakonomics. If random facts is your thing, there’s plenty of that too, including the history of the KKK and an explanation on how crack gangs operate.
I really enjoyed this book. It’s written in such a way that it keeps your attention and never goes over the readers head.
Title: The Girl Who Played With Fire
Author: Steig Larsson
Pages: 512
Rating: 4.5/5
(From Amazon) A few weeks before Dag Svensson, a freelance journalist, plans to publish a story that exposes important people involved in Sweden’s sex trafficking business based on research conducted by his girlfriend, Mia Johansson, a criminologist and gender studies scholar, the couple are shot to death in their Stockholm apartment. Salander, who has a history of violent tendencies, becomes the prime suspect after the police find her fingerprints on the murder weapon. While Blomkvist strives to clear Salander of the crime, some far-fetched twists help ensure her survival.
Much like in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a very large part of The Girl Who Played With Fire is character development and side stories that involve the lives of the main characters – not necessarily the main mystery. Normally this might have annoyed or bored me, but I find all the characters in this series to be completely fascinating, especially Lisbeth. I really enjoyed following her character in the beginning before the story really got started, and learning more about her life.
The Girl Who Played With Fire also serves as a critique of Swedish society and its treatment of women because it discusses human trafficking and the sex trade. I was shocked by the treatment of women in this book and how little punishment rapists and violent criminals received in the Swedish justice system. But Larsson also talks about responsibility, guilt, and innocence. Lisbeth constantly repeats that no one is innocent, there are just varying degrees of guilt (not a direct quote). Is a criminal truly completely to blame for his actions? In both books there is a character who is raised and trained to be a killer and criminal, so shouldn’t the circumstances also be blamed?
The only reason why I gave this book a 4.5/5 was because I wasn’t really ‘wowed’ by the plot twists. Maybe it was just that it was a little predictable, or maybe it was just my mood when I read it, but when the big mysterious fact that was meant to shock the audience was revealed near the end of the book, I wasn’t exactly shocked or overwhelmed. That being said, The Girl Who Played with Fire is still a great book with great characters and a pretty good plot. I’m really excited for the next, and final book, which comes out this fall.
Ramadan started yesterday, and so far it’s going well. But then again, I’ve had a three (sort of) day weekend – I only worked for a few hours last night. So I’ve had it easy. Life is going to be hellish starting tomorrow when I’ve got to start working again. Working 6-8 days before a full day off is really starting to wear me down.
This past week I completed and reviewed one book:
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
I attempted to read another, but it ended up being unbearable so I posted my first ‘unfinished’ review:
The Quickie by James Patterson
I also made a trip to the bookstore this past week. Since I’m not going back to school this semester, I figured I might as well force myself to pick up some non-fiction and learn something.
Friday = payday = trip to Borders
Title: The Art of Racing in the Rain
Author: Garth Stein
Pages: 336
Rating: 5/5
I think this just might be the best book I’ve read all year. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and more importantly, it made me think.
The Art of Racing in the Rain tells the story of a family from the perspective of their dog, Enzo. His master, Denny, is a semi-professional race car driver, who falls in love and starts a family. Enzo shares his observations and his thoughts on the family. More than anything, he wants to be a human – to have a tongue that works and a pair of thumbs, if for no other reason than to warn Denny’s wife, Eve, of what he smells growing inside of her brain. But he can’t, and it’s too late for her, so Enzo is left to helplessly observe the aftermath of her death and his crumbling family.
Its impossible not to love Enzo. He’s insightful and spiritual with the soul of a human and a wisdom well beyond his years. The author has a beautifully touching way of describing life and death from Enzo’s perspective. I was moved to tears twice while reading this book and even at the end I could smile through my tears. Despite the sadness it does actually have a happy ending.
I can’t recommend this book enough. Not only is it the best book I’ve read all year, but it’s one of the best books I’ve read, period. It’s such a fast read and now I even find myself wondering if my dog is thinking similar things about me. I doubt it!
I was given this book randomly by a customer at my job and figured I’d give it a try. I had always been curious what all the fuss was about when it came to authors like James Patterson. If this is America’s best crime/thriller writer, then we’re in trouble. This is one of the worst books I’ve read to date.
Let me tell you why.
The plot is basically this – a detective from the NYPD cheats on her husband because she suspects he’s cheating too. But after her boy toy hops out of bed and goes to get them some food, her husband shows up and kills him and dumps the body. So does she keep her mouth shut or tell everyone what she knows?
It’s predictable. The plot twists and cheap thrills can be seen from a mile away and only serve to make me roll my eyes. The chapters are, on average, a page or two long. It’s choppy and over dramatic. It makes me kind of sad that things like this are considered best sellers, much less actually get published. It’s a waste of time and money.
Unfortunately, it seems to be popular and a lot of customers buy it. For the life of me, I can’t see why. I guess if you’re into that sort of thing, you’d like it. Otherwise, don’t even bother.
I have so little free time lately. I’m working full time now, and I think my lack of free time is mostly due to the fact that my hours are odd. It’s not a regular 9-5 job and the commute is so long, so most of my morning and evening hours, before and after work, are eaten up by getting ready and going to or coming from work. By the time I’m home, showered, and fed, I have a million other things that need to be done and reading is last on the list of priorities, even though it’s first on the list of things I would like to be doing.
That being said, I love my new job in comparison to my last job. I still work at my old job one night a week to keep the employee discount and because I’m a chicken who can’t put her two weeks notice in. The one bad thing about my new job is that there are two women there who are terrible enablers when it comes to buying books. We talk each other into buying books so that we can borrow them from each other. We sell newer releases, and it’s so hard to not buy them after looking at them for 8 hours. Most recently was my purchase of The Girl Who Played with Fire, which I wasn’t planning on getting until it came out in paperback. But it’s great to finally have people to talk about books with.
Only one review to report for this past week:
Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Author: Stieg Larsson
Pages: 590
Rating: 5/5
I’ve been complaining for a long time that it’s become difficult to find a book that’s so good, it’s difficult to put down. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is one of those books.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo deals with two intertwined plot lines. There’s a murder mystery, along with a story of political and financial intrigue and revenge. After being convicted of libel for breaking a story on an industrial big shot, financial journalist Blomkvist is lured into the countryside to write a biography on the Vanger family and its financial empire. He’s also asked to solve the 40-year-old mystery of the disappearance of 16-year-old Harriet Vanger. He discovers a dysfunctional family and unearths unspeakable crimes with the help of a strange social outcast, Lisbeth Salander, who also happens to be a genius computer hacker and private investigator.
I like how the book speaks about how women are treated – both in general, and in Sweden. Some of the statistics given in the book are absolutely shocking. The original Swedish title of the book was Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, which translates to Men Who Hate Women, which reveals a lot about the underlying message.
I loved Lisbeth Salander from the beginning. Probably because I can relate to her in some small ways. Her character evolves and changes drastically. Almost unbelievably so. On the other hand, I really didn’t like Blomkvist very much. He seemed to be a little too perfect. He never acknowledges any faults, and he’s too much of a lady’s man, bedding anything that moves. I hated Erika Berger, his boss and occasional lover, even more. The dislikable characters don’t ruin the story, though.
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to discuss the mystery without giving something important away, but it definitely is suspenseful and well thought out.
I can’t wait to get my hands on The Girl Who Played with Fire and see the movie version of this book.
