21 posts tagged “book review”
This book can not be explained in a short review. Stephenson creates a
world that is very complicated, has its own history, and creates a
language to go along with it. While some elements of the novel will be
very similar to what the reader is used to, some of the book can be very
confusing.
The story follows Erasamas, a young avout, as he is pulled out of his
math (a scientific monastery of sorts) with several of his companions to
solve a problem of the secular world. The beginning of the book is set
up to explain to you what a math is like before you get to the actual
plot. The pacing can be slow at times but lightening quick at others.
This is a very aggressive work by Stephenson and may be called his
masterpiece. Not that it is perfect, but Stephenson set out to write a
literary science fiction novel and he succeeded.
Readers of Stephenson know that he has a tendency to not end a book so
much as he stops writing it. In this book Stephenson did a good job of
wrapping things up on some degree and leaving a lot up to the
imaginations of his readers. A goal that he has been tweaking from day
one.
This book is hard to suggest to just anyone. People with very
scientific minds that love talking about and exploring theories and
science should really get into this book. The literary elite have
seemed to enjoy this book as well. This book is very deep and thought
provoking though. This isn't popular sci-fi. Personally, I loved it.
Natsuo Kirino, a well known author in Japan, releases her second English
translation with Real World. Real world follows four Japanese high
school girls as they assist a boy that has just committed matricide in
his escape.
The book is a really quick read and you actually care about the
characters and start to sympathize with the "Worm" character. You
almost understand why the girls are helping him. The characters are the
lifeblood of this novel and Kirino fleshes out what seem to be
stereotypical Japanese students into something a little more.
This is ultimately a book about consequences. Actions and inactions
have consequences. The characters, still young, learn this throughout
the novel the hard way. Well, at least the female characters do.
This isn't a great book, but it is a good book. I haven't read any of
Kirino's other works so I don't have anything to base it on. The book
does have an edge to it and can get very dark in places. I would
suggest this book for high school age and up do to darkness and sexual
content.
This book that recounts the disaster of the May, 10 1996 Everest disaster is excellent. Jon Krakauer was a member of a commercial expedition going to the top of the mountain. The group consisted of three guides and several recreational mountain climbers. Another group, very similar in makeup, was ascending at the same time. The two large groups made a series of small errors and lapses in judgement that ended in the death of five people, including three of the guides.
This was an amazing book that was written very well. Krakauer paints a picture of people that become single minded on their goal. I relate to this as when I was training for my Marathon I hurt my knee on the final twenty miler before the race. I ran the race anyway and even though my knee felt like someone was ramming an Ice pick into the side of it from about 10 miles on to the finish, I kept going. I didn't know what I was doing to my knee, I just knew that I had prepared long and hard for that day. I had also spent quite a bit of money to pay for the training, the race, and getting there. Nothing was going to stop me from getting to the finish line. So, I vaguely understand what these people were feeling as they kept climbing long after they should have stopped.
This book has some language and presents some very disturbing death scenes, so it may not be for everyone. It is a very good book and most will not be able to put it down. The very last line of the book is very haunting and really closes the book well. An amazing read.
A guy at work let me borrow this book because he knew that I would like it. I read it on breaks and lunches when I stayed at my desk. This book is very good. I had seen the movie and thought that it would ruin the book for me but it doesn't. The plots are quite different, go figure. I would recommend this book to just about anyone.
It isn't hard to see why people flocked to the message of Ron Paul after reading this book. It was an informative and a very educational book that I feel strengthened that little voice in my head that says, "America isn't taking the right path." Paul is unapologetic in his love for the constitution. While I am sure for every example that Paul has put forward about why the document should still be relevant there are probably those that have an example of how it won't work, I think that Paul's examples speak to people and he is at least a change from business as usual in Washington.
This books message is simple. The Government needs to scale itself back and leave people alone. Leave people alone conduction business in this country, leave the markets alone so that they can actually be free (something they are far from), and leave people in other countries alone to practice their own form of government. These are beleifs that I have had for a very long time and beliefs that neocons have criticized me for or pretended to have for themselves. This book destroys the myth that the Republican Party is conservative and, I think, correctly states that most conservatives/repulicans yearn for true constitutional government.
It was an amazing book, but at the same time scary. Paul shows the reader examples of how the constitution is blatently ignored. While all three branches have gotten out of control, the executive branch has been on a century long power grab. The economy was discussed and Paul presents his reasoning about what is wrong with it. While you may not agree with the gold standard theory, you will be hard pressed to disagree with his opinion of the federal reserve.
This book is highly recommended to anyone looking for change. Ron Paul isn't delusional and doesn't think his ideas can be implemented overnight or even in one term, but he does think we need to correct our path and start heading in those directions.
Battlefield Earth- Wow, was this book long. It was interesting in parts and boring in others. It was way better than the movie and so different that the cover makes absolutely no sense. It follows post apocolyptic hunter/gatherer Johnny "Good-boy" Tyler as he opposes psychlon oppression. The second half of the book about the intergalactic bank no longer being solvent was especially relavent. Who would have known. This book could have easily been two and probably should have. It is much too long to really enjoy. Toward the end (last 500 pages or so), I was reading it for the sole purpous of finishing it and moving on to something else.
How to Survive a Robot Uprising- This book was more non-fiction than I would have thought. Sure it has some pretty funny lines, but it is very educational on the state of current robotics and technology that will inhabit future robots. Given recent new about man-hunting robots, this book is kinda scary. It isn't a hands down survival guide the way that the Zombie survival guide was, but it was fairly good. It is on the short side, but it was feeling kinda stretched by that point anyways. I would recommend it go on your shelf by The Zombie Survial Guide.
This volume of Sandman didn't disappoint. It was a great story with interesting characters and an interesting concept. It isn't my favorite volume, but it is still very good.
I am not sure how I feel about this book. It doesn't really go anywhere or really say anything. Some people do bad things and others do good things. There are no names, there are no locations, and there is no indication of what happened to put the characters in the situation that they are in. The book has the tendency to put images in your mind that you don't want there. It is a quick read. I am not sure how I would even classify this book. It almost seems like a synopsis of a book rather than a book itself.
I really liked this volume of Sandman. The threads from the earlier stories that get pulled in are great fun. The stories in this collection are exceptional. My favorites would include the capturing of the muse and Mid Summer Nights Dream.
This is a great group of individual stories. They build on the Hellboy mystery established in the first two volumes while providing great fun.
This was a very good read and is a fine example of why people love Sandman and Neil Gaiman. Gaiman has a love for mythologies and it shows very well in this book. I kept getting flash forwards of American Gods while reading this.
Two crime families struggle for control of Gotham. Harvey Dent is going after the Roman with Jim Gordon and the Batman. People keep turning up dead on holidays with the custom murder weapon and decorations for the appropriate holiday. This book has a lot of the elements of The Dark Knight movie. It is cleared that the inspiration for the movie was this graphic novel, even if this story centers on Holiday and only features the Joker and the movie is a Joker movie. I believe in Harvey Dent.
Ashli has been getting these Babymouse books from the library. They are really cute and fun. I should sue the Holms because it is clear to me that Babymouse is just an anomorphic representation of Ashli.
Really good book that mixes the genres of mystery and science fiction. This book takes place in the far future and the Earth is at its limits. Man now lives in a completely enclosed eco system, in caves of steel you might say. Due to population, jobs are scarce and robots are feared for taking what little jobs there are. Centuries ago people migrated to space, but due to eradication of disease and hence no immunities, migration was stopped. Some "spacers" came back and live in a city right outside of New York, and one them was murdered. Elijah, a New York plain clothes police detective, is partnered with R. Daneel, a robot from space town, to solve this murder.
This book explores racism and classism as well as popultion management and robotics. It is a quick and easy read. I have never sought out who-dun-its, so I can't really say how it measures up there. Asimov doesn't disappoint.
This was pretty good. Hellboy is mainly an action adventure comic full of wit and sarcasm with a touch of x-files thrown in for suspense. I really like the artistic stylings of this book. The story isn't ground breaking but is very entertaining. You just can't help but cheer for Hellboy.
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