Pages

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Review: Beautiful Ruins


Beautiful Ruins
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A great story that takes place in different years and locations but is tied together by the pains of love and life told trough Jess' great writing. If you love good storytelling, then this book will not disappoint.

The characters are memorable and distinct. I think their lessons in life are hard earned and the pace of the story is what makes it so addictive. You want to jump in and save them from themselves but obviously you can't and in the end they resolve themselves in the way that life does to.

Great book. Great writer. Worth the read right now.





View all my reviews

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Review: The English Patient


The English Patient
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Dreamy and haunting are the only two words I come up with for this book every time I read it.

Still beautiful and wordy with one of the best beginnings a book could want.



View all my reviews

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Review: This Is How You Lose Her


This Is How You Lose Her
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Rat-a-tat-tat. I hear the sound of a cartoon machine gun in my head every time I read Junot Diaz.

There is this ride-along feeling from this book that makes it almost therapeutic. Maybe it's just having Yunior narrate for us (then a sly move to a third personish narrator later in the book which is so very intimate) which feels like a known quantity. It's like an old voice that we can trust. He is the certainty that we crave from our institutions right there on the page.

The language? Coarse, quick and pointed. No doubt. No doubt I can't wait for the next one.




View all my reviews

Thursday, October 17, 2013

New work - first chapter

This is something I just posted on Goodreads.

It is the first chapter of a science fiction work I'm currently working on. I'm digging it and it has me excited to see what's going to happen and when. Let me know your thoughts..

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/349481-level-5---the-antarian-conspiracy

Monday, September 9, 2013

Review: Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory


Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Wow. Super great read from a bunch of different angles. I love historical accounts of most kinds (Think Erik Larson - another Seattle guy) and this one doesn't disappoint with its clever weaving of story lines which all coincide beautifully to tell a story of suspense and intrigue that really happened.

Great read, four stars easily.



View all my reviews

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Review: Amsterdam


Amsterdam
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



A quick and strange read that has its own twist at the end although you don't see it coming necessarily, it doesn't rate up there as the most plausible.

Still, Ian McEwan is worth studying and if I could go 3.5 stars I would for the very fact that he does things with character and place that are hard to beat even though this one ended up less than 4 stars.



View all my reviews