Ah, the disgruntled reader has returned in full force with this book. Excuse the profanity, but what the hell??? In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, by Hampton Sides, was one of the most horrible book experiences I’ve had all year. (Note: I’m going to reveal the […]
I was doing a lot of business travel for a while, which was great for accumulating miles, but terrible for someone with a nearly debilitating fear of flying. Then I read an essay in the New York Times, written by a pilot, which did such a brilliant job romanticizing flying that I immediately felt more […]
I didn’t finish The Atlantis Gene, by A. G. Riddle. It was another book that I listened to, mainly on flights. Two factors definitely prevented me from finishing, and it’s possible there’s a third. 1) I listened to it while I flew places for work, and when my business travel stopped, I stopped reading. But […]
As I drove cross country, moving from Virginia back to the mountains of the west that I’ve always considered home, I listened to The Dead Key, by P. M. Pulley. Some of the drive was beautiful, and I could spend hours just watching the scenery flash by, but states like Oklahoma required the distraction of […]
For me, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doer, was very meh. I’m always torn about what to do with a book like this. Everyone loved this book. My review is probably not the one to go by. Hell, it won the freaking Pulitzer. (This book another example of why I think the […]
Wow. That pretty much sums up my reaction to this brilliant book. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert, completely changed the way I look at humanity. The research and writing are absolutely genius. The author does a wonderful job taking what could easily by dry science and adding humanity, emotion and drama. […]
Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk, was, well, weird, as only a Chuck Palahniuk book can be. It’s a diary written by a woman to her husband who is in a coma after he apparently tried to kill himself. But this is Chuck Palahniuk, so it’s obviously not going to get sentimental. Prior to attempting suicide, the […]
Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell, was a charming story. It was engagingly written, with wonderful characters. It was full of humor and warmth and very little romance. Because there were so very few men in the town. And sometimes you just need a book about people living life and not stressing out about what someone of […]
I attempted to read Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche. It was a disaster. The book is written for students of philosophy, and even more specifically for students of philosophy studying and philosophizing during his time. That means that in order to follow his arguments (and understand his satire and jokes), you need to […]
As if trying to read 52 books in 52 weeks wasn’t time consuming enough, I added to the challenge by vowing to review each book I read. That’s on top of working up to three jobs at any given time. Sometimes, I suspect I may be a masochist. So, it’s no real surprise that I’m […]