iluvgeddy05 Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 This thread is meant for us to list books we've just finished and rate them (duh, right?) Recaps and reasons why aren't necessary but certainly welcome. We could do a letter grade, a'la Entertainment Weekly (A-F) Go for it! I'm mid-book at the moment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince Sphinc-Tor Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. Recommended by GR...I think Very good, 8/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeddyRulz Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 QUOTE (Prince Sphinc-Tor @ May 26 2009, 07:52 PM) Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. Recommended by GR...I think Very good, 8/10 Nope, wasn't me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeddyRulz Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 I'll be honest: it's been awhile since I've actually finished something. The last book I read was so good, nothing else I pick up suffices. It was "A Civil Action" by Jonathan Harr, and I give it an "A." A non-fiction story of a real-life court case. (The movie version was inaccurate, by the way. I don't know why they totally changed things - sometimes even going with the exact opposite of what really happened!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen of Megadon Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages A why? I'm a word nerd In high school my friend and I used to read the dictionary, I was an English Major w/Literature concentration in college, same friend and I play word games by email, we send each other the "word of the day" this book appealed to me a great deal...and was just a fun read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 QUOTE (Prince Sphinc-Tor @ May 26 2009, 07:52 PM) Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. Recommended by GR...I think Very good, 8/10 What's it about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ May 26 2009, 09:14 PM) QUOTE (Prince Sphinc-Tor @ May 26 2009, 07:52 PM) Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. Recommended by GR...I think Very good, 8/10 Nope, wasn't me. I think it was Jack, if I recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 (edited) The Sunflower - Simon Wiesenthal 9/10 Great premise for a discussion of morality (should an interned jew grant forgiveness as the last request of a dying Nazi?), framed around a riveting autobiographical short story. And the follow-up essays are brief and to the point. Long Road Home Memoirs of a Boy Soldier 6/10 Great premise for an autobiography. The details of this boy's experience as a pre-teen soldier are worth the read. The prose is terrible, and the scenes got redundant pretty quickly. Edited May 27, 2009 by goose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince Sphinc-Tor Posted May 27, 2009 Share Posted May 27, 2009 (edited) QUOTE (goose @ May 27 2009, 12:41 AM) QUOTE (GeddyRulz @ May 26 2009, 09:14 PM) QUOTE (Prince Sphinc-Tor @ May 26 2009, 07:52 PM) Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. Recommended by GR...I think Very good, 8/10 Nope, wasn't me. I think it was Jack, if I recall. Yes it was!!!!! Thanks Jack, (and goose) and sorry I didn't get it right the first time. Mayflower is about the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Mass., and how they affected the colonization of New England, and the native population between 1620, and about 1675 when the wars with the natives finally ended. It's a more detailed account (more than you school teachers told you) of why the pilgrims left England, how they acquired the Mayflower, sailed to the "New World", how half died shortly after arriving, and how they managed to survive with the help of local natives. There is detail of the natives perspective, intertribal politics and anglo-native politics, why some tribes sided with the English, why some didn't and the struggles within each to decide how to handle eventual English encroachment. It eventually becomes a pretty detailed narrative on the King Philip war which just about wiped out the local natives and could have ended English colonization in the New World. It moves quickly and is well written. Edited May 27, 2009 by Prince Sphinc-Tor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iluvgeddy05 Posted May 27, 2009 Author Share Posted May 27, 2009 Here Today, Gone to Maui by Carol Snow. (chic-lit book) Grade: B Pros: Good story, mysterious but light, funny. Chic-lit but not all about romance or sex, mostly about a character. Cons: Facts didn't seem to add up in the end. Parts of the story, the narrator addressed the reader saying things like "you probably guessed that". Didn't feel triumphant in the end, but I guess that's OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Limelight* Posted May 31, 2009 Share Posted May 31, 2009 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 20/10. When i was told by my Literature teacher what it may be about and what it may include, i was kind of skeptical as to whether or not I may enjoy it (espically since the other book assigned before this one was pride and prejudice and i couldn't get past page 100 in that one.) But as I read it more and more i fell in love with the story. Great book, highly highly recommened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanadu93 Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - 10/10 Yes, it is wordy, but in the end it's worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mustard Death Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski 8.5/10 Pros: Ridiculous, great story. Excellently developed characters and incredibly varied reading experiences one after the other. Cons: Absolutely and totally convoluted, and sometimes pretty tough to read. But done that way on purpose, so it's not much of a complaint seeing as how I gave it such a high rating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turn Me On Dead Man Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. 10/10 I loved it, but it's very difficult to dissect. I'm a fan of the movie, as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymous belch Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Believe it or not, I finished reading The Spirit of Shaolin by David Carradine yesterday. anyway....it was a nice read, but i'm a fan of the kung fu series so what else would i say. if you're a fan of his i recommened it. it isn't a deep book, but there are some nice quotes to be found. 8/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWater Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 I just finished: "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why" by Amanda Ripley. 10/10 because it is very interesting and... it can help you survive plane crashes and fires and stuff like that... hey, that's cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Aubrey Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 (edited) QUOTE (TheWater @ Jun 5 2009, 06:43 AM) I just finished: "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why" by Amanda Ripley. 10/10 because it is very interesting and... it can help you survive plane crashes and fires and stuff like that... hey, that's cool! Are you fascinated by survival stories? So am I! I've seen that book but I've never read it. If you're interested in reading an amazing survival story then check out Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea (that's a link, so click it) by Steven Callahan. I'm also into survivalism itself. I have a survival kit for myself, the wife, and the dog just in case of storm, civil unrest, or what-have-you and I have even been on a survival camping trip and am in the middle planning another one, I'm just waiting for my friends to get time off from work. My motto is: "You can't predict but you can prepare". Edited June 5, 2009 by Jack Aubrey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowdog Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 The Third Option by Vince Flynn 8/10-Nice action/espionage fiction from the new Tom Clancy. Mitch Rapp is the new Jack Ryan, except Mitch is much more lethal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iluvgeddy05 Posted June 8, 2009 Author Share Posted June 8, 2009 The Great Man, by Kate Christensen. 10/10 GREAT writing, excellent character development. Not face-paced, a nice rainy day story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadwing2112 Posted June 9, 2009 Share Posted June 9, 2009 The most recent book I read was Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Civil Disobedience was included also. B+ I really admire this guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted June 14, 2009 Share Posted June 14, 2009 I just finished reading "Tietam Brown". As I mentioned in the "What are You Reading?" thread, it's a coming of age story, told in the vein of John Irving's "Prayer for Owen Meany". It was sold to me as "Young Adult" (YA) literature, but that classification makes me think that it's something you might read in high school. I think people that age would enjoy it, but a lot of the content is pretty graphic. There's lots of humor, but it's of a dark sort. A lot of it's very grim, but told in a touching way. Lots of irreverant poking at authority figures, which I enjoy. So, how would I rate it? 8/10. I recommend it for anyone that can stomach their comic-tragedy being peppered with a little graphic sex and violence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iluvgeddy05 Posted June 15, 2009 Author Share Posted June 15, 2009 Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited Just as the title says. However, I'v read about 50 pages of the book and am not going to read any more. The story is extraordinary, but the way it's written is annoying! Both twins are writing memoir style, in the present (anything written in present tense that happened in real life in the PAST is hard for me to not be bothered by it). Also, within the chapters, it changes from which twin is talking practically every third paragraph. Guess I am being a book/writing snob... 4.5/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goose Posted June 15, 2009 Share Posted June 15, 2009 QUOTE (iluvgeddy05 @ Jun 15 2009, 10:01 AM) Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited Just as the title says. However, I'v read about 50 pages of the book and am not going to read any more. The story is extraordinary, but the way it's written is annoying! Both twins are writing memoir style, in the present (anything written in present tense that happened in real life in the PAST is hard for me to not be bothered by it). Also, within the chapters, it changes from which twin is talking practically every third paragraph. Guess I am being a book/writing snob... 4.5/10 There has to be something beyond the facts of the story, and it doesn't sound like there is with this one. I'll skip the book and read the article, in this case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iluvgeddy05 Posted June 15, 2009 Author Share Posted June 15, 2009 QUOTE (goose @ Jun 15 2009, 11:38 AM) QUOTE (iluvgeddy05 @ Jun 15 2009, 10:01 AM) Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited Just as the title says. However, I'v read about 50 pages of the book and am not going to read any more. The story is extraordinary, but the way it's written is annoying! Both twins are writing memoir style, in the present (anything written in present tense that happened in real life in the PAST is hard for me to not be bothered by it). Also, within the chapters, it changes from which twin is talking practically every third paragraph. Guess I am being a book/writing snob... 4.5/10 There has to be something beyond the facts of the story, and it doesn't sound like there is with this one. I'll skip the book and read the article, in this case. Pretty much. I read as much as both twins going "omg, I can't believe I have a twin and didn't know" and I thought just as much. I didn't really feel for them either? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willowroolz Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 Gardens of The Moon by Steven Erikson 9/10 I would describe it as an adult fantasy novel but - seeing as that could lead to all sorts of misunderstandings! - I'll say it's the start of a fantasy epic for older readers. It's the first tale of the Malazan Book of The Fallen and was first published in 1999, so I'm a little late jumping on the bandwagon. If you want more detail you can find it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malazan_Book_of_the_Fallen I've bought a lot of books recently and this was the one I was least looking forward to, based on comments I had read from people who struggled with it. Maybe there was some reverse psychology going on there because I couldn't put it down. The complexity of the characters, races, world and history he has created is quite mind-boggling. Suffice to say, a quick trip to the shops yesterday and the next two in the series - Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice - have found their way into my possession Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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