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Ricky
08-22-2010, 07:03 AM
Just what the title says.

We have a topic like this for movies in the Gem Theater, so why not for books too?

And...go!

fernandito
08-22-2010, 07:07 AM
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - 6.5/10

A decent enough thriller, not the masterpiece that same make it out to be. I strongly believe that the fascination with this book (and probably the series) comes more from being intrigued by the enigmatic protagonist, the girl with the dragon tattoo, then the actual plot which is very sub-par IMO.

fernandito
08-22-2010, 07:13 AM
Sorry Ricky, beat you to it :P

I'll merge the two.

Jean
08-22-2010, 07:34 AM
Sorry Ricky, beat you to it :P

I'll merge the two.

No, Ricky beat you to it, and I'll merge the two.

fernandito
08-22-2010, 07:39 AM
Ahhh ! So he did. Good form sir :lol:

Ricky
08-22-2010, 11:09 AM
Thank you Jean. I knew I could count on you.

You review of TGWTDT, feev, just confirms my suspicions that it is very over-hyped. I think I'll pass on reading it for now.

fernandito
08-22-2010, 11:11 AM
Like I said, it's a decent enough read .... but yes, it was way too over hyped.

LadyHitchhiker
08-23-2010, 06:32 AM
Blonde Bombshell by Tom Holt
10 million stars.

fernandito
11-10-2010, 02:29 PM
The Gunslinger (45,205th reread) 10/10

Still my favorite of the DT series.

alkanto
11-10-2010, 02:33 PM
Dead Beat by Jim Butcher - 10/10

I absolutely love this series! :D Nothing about it made me wish it was changed, or even slightly altered. It's my favorite book from the series as well...so Dead Beat is probably in my top 10 books I've read

Ricky
11-10-2010, 02:54 PM
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane - 7/10

Really interesting character study paired with the overarching theme of the loss of innocence. I enjoyed the story, but wish there would have been more of a "plot" to it. The writing seemed to drag in places, but overall was more good than bad.

Good read, but I wasn't blown away or as involved with the story as I was with Shutter Island.

fernandito
11-10-2010, 03:14 PM
Have you seen the film, Ricardo ?

Ricky
11-10-2010, 03:39 PM
I just got it from Netflix yesterday and plan on watching it Friday. :D

Brice
11-15-2010, 09:55 PM
The Gunslinger (45,205th reread) 10/10


You are catching up with me. :)

Darkthoughts
11-26-2010, 05:11 AM
A Wild Sheep Chase ~ Haruki Murakami 9/10

I was introduced to this author last year, and he is seriously one of the best writers I have ever encountered. This book follows on with Dance Dance Dance and I would highly recommend reading both. If, like me, you're into Japanese culture you will love getting immersed in his writing, because you actually feel like you're in Japan experiencing everything with your narrator. He has a real talent for making the mundane seem extraordinary.

candy
01-18-2011, 11:23 AM
Gone - Michael Grant 8.5/10

I loved this book - this was Under the Dome as Stephen King should have written it, mixed in with Lord of the Flies

To give you the mere basics as i dont want to spoil it for anyone, the book is set in a small town where one day everyone over the age of 15 disappears. The children then discover they are inside a dome which has been placed around the town. The book follows a young group of friend who have to deal with looking after themselves and the younger children. While worrying what will happen when they reach 15years old and what happened to the outside world
This book doesn't pull any pushes to say its aimed at a teen audience, certain people have powers that they can project from their hands, when the bullies and the power tripping youngsters discover this they enclose the weaker children's hands in blocks of cement. These children are unable to feed themselves or look after themselves. They slowly starve to death while struggling to lift these blocks, all the whiile suffering in their own fecal matter. Not pleasant reading, but all too easy to imagine thats how a child would deal with the situation,

we also have the local bullies laughing as a child burns in a building, again this seemed harsh but true to life as to what certian people/children would do

Apparantley there are 3 more books in this series, and i would love to get my little mitts on them as i thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recomend it

Jean
01-18-2011, 11:28 AM
bears liked the premises very, very much

candy
01-18-2011, 11:30 AM
it was a surprise find too, i got two books the same as gifts over christmas so had to change one. I have had a cold over the weekend and its been really good to sit on the sofa with my blanket and read it with my Hot Toddy

Erin
01-18-2011, 11:46 AM
That does sound very interesting, candy. I'll have to check it out soon!

Hannah
01-18-2011, 11:49 AM
Hmmm me too. I just looked it up on Amazon and it looks like the fourth book should be coming out this April.

Ricky
01-18-2011, 01:54 PM
Sounds interesting, Candy. I'll have to take a look.

DoctorDodge
01-10-2012, 12:33 PM
The House of Silk - Anthony Horowitz

Trying to write a Sherlock Holmes novel must be a huge challenge. After all, Conan Doyle's stories have such memorable characters and such a unique style, that trying to write a bold new story that gives a new light on those characters and pushes them in a new direction while still fitting Doyle's original vision must be an incredibly difficult task to follow.

Nevertheless, having just finished reading the novel, Horowitz does this absolutely perfectly. He gets the voice of Watson as narrator spot on, and gets everything right about Holmes too. The spirit of the story, while certainly being darker and more horrifying in some aspects than what I read of the original stories, still matches that of the original stories quite closely. What may have helped in this is the fact that we have not one case to read but two very closely interconnected ones, as very few of the original Holmes stories were novel length. An amazingly excellent read that superbly follows the spirit of the original stories while also acting as an incredibly appealing read for the more modern taste of darker, more disturbing detective stories. 10/10

Merlin1958
01-14-2012, 08:09 PM
I'm just about done with the first installment of "The Strain" trilogy and I gotta say, great recommendation folks!! So far, so good. I'm intrigued and very interested in the characters. It's a little "pulpy", but that's OK. I keep wanting to turn the page and isn't that the "Tell-Tale" in the end?

BROWNINGS CHILDE
01-14-2012, 08:28 PM
Black House 8/10.

I am surprised that I enjoyed this book so much. I didn't care so much for The Talisman. I didn't hate it, I just didn't really enjoy it as much as others seem to. I expected the same from Black House, but knew by page 50 or so that this was a very different novel. This book is much darker than Talisman. In fact, I might even say that the violence in this book is more brutal than almost any other SK novel. It's substance is as sinister as its name. I really liked several of the characters, Henry Leyden in particular. The villain was indeed and evil bastard. I enjoyed the DT references and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of crossover there was. I expected a few little references, but did not expect it to be a major plot line. Had to deduct a couple of points for the last hundred or so pages, as it got a little cheesy with the bees and the honey and the magic baseball bat and the light sabre ring etc. Also, the death of Mr. Munshun was pretty lame. But, overall I was very pleasantly surprised by this book.

Jean
01-14-2012, 11:38 PM
well, what did I say?

Heather19
01-15-2012, 12:44 PM
Black House 8/10.

I am surprised that I enjoyed this book so much. I didn't care so much for The Talisman. I didn't hate it, I just didn't really enjoy it as much as others seem to. I expected the same from Black House, but knew by page 50 or so that this was a very different novel. This book is much darker than Talisman. In fact, I might even say that the violence in this book is more brutal than almost any other SK novel. It's substance is as sinister as its name. I really liked several of the characters, Henry Leyden in particular. The villain was indeed and evil bastard. I enjoyed the DT references and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of crossover there was. I expected a few little references, but did not expect it to be a major plot line. Had to deduct a couple of points for the last hundred or so pages, as it got a little cheesy with the bees and the honey and the magic baseball bat and the light sabre ring etc. Also, the death of Mr. Munshun was pretty lame. But, overall I was very pleasantly surprised by this book.

This is next on my list :)

Mattrick
01-21-2012, 12:37 AM
Candide by Voltaire

I read this in the Summertime but it's second to last book that I read. It is not a book for the faint of heart. You think of all the travesties and tortures and most deplorable, inhumane acts that can be done to a human being and they are in this book, seemingly ad infitium. It's only about 120 pages but it's not an easy book to get through because of everything that you witness. Hangings, towns being burnt down, rape, slaving, killing, murdering, war, genocide, theivery, betrayals, insurrections...you name it, it's all in there. Yet deep down beyond all the mess is a love story which is rather and endearing and heart breaking. And there is hope of course, in the madness that seems to be everywhere on the planet during these times, that this might be the best of all possible worlds, that maybe it is possible to be free from the hostility and heartbreak and just be comfortable with ourselves and our lives and our loves. And the ending leaves a lot to be pondered as to human nature itself. Voltaire obviously by the end of his days (he wrote this at the age of 74 while incarcerated in a french prison I believe) had a very dim view of human nature and the world. The honesty of his views comes across genuinely even though the goings of the novel are greatly exaggerated live like real satire, the message lies behind what you see on the surface.

5/5


The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - Stephen King

I'm not sure why this book seems to be so poorly looked at. I love it. It's gritty, it's realistic and is a plausible story. To me that's where the horror comes from; this could have happened to us as kids, our siblings, our own children, our friends. Being lost in the woods is a very scary reality that could happen at any time. I personally can't even imagine what happens to people lost in the woods, especially if they are alone. It would be one thing to have gone into the woods camping and you at least have some gears, maybe some food or water or at least a knife and something to make fire. Trisha had nothing except a lunch's worth of food, some drink and a walkman. How terrifying would it be to be nine years old and lost in the woods with no supplies? Especially at night? What about after five days and five nights? Scrounging for food, water, getting cut and banged up, getting sick, eaten alive by bugs. To me the book captures a supreme fear to me because it's so realisitc of a scenario. In the mind of a child King allows an infantile mind with infinite imagination create the fear. What is out in the woods when she is alone at night without even so much as a fire? Knowing what my imagination was like as a kid...and what it's still like now, I can only imagine the fear. Other King books have creeped me out at times but none of them have really capsulated fear until this one. Because this book makes us fear what is 100% possible.

I also love the baseball aspect of this book. I can understand why that would turn some people off but it's not because it's baseball I like it, it's because of what it represents. It represents our childhood heroes and how indomitable they appear to us. They are larger than life, seemingly invincible because in our minds they can do no wrong, they are perfect people. And as kids we implace a surreal amount of trust in these figures we don't even personally know. The way Trisha is with Tom Gordon represents that. With everything going on in Trisha's life the only person she felt she could depend on was Tom Gordon.

I think this is a terribly underrated book and is actually one of my favourites from him. I just love it from it's content to it's length (rare for a King novel) as it's just long enough to read a nice long session on a nice evening.

4/5

Jean
01-21-2012, 07:02 AM
I love Candide indefinitely more than anything else Voltaire wrote; and I adore The Girl WLTG!

Mattrick
01-21-2012, 09:08 AM
I don't even know if I'll bother reading anymore Voltaire because I Can't see any of it being as good as Candide was. With it's size I think it could be one of those books I read fairly often.

tumbleweed
01-21-2012, 09:53 AM
I finally read the Life of Pi and I thought it was a good book. A friend of mine asked me to read it. Her grandmother had suggested it and we both broke down and read it as a booky clubby thing... Now I know why it is stock at a lot of book stores :)

Yes, the story with the animals is always better. And so it is with God.

Mattrick
03-22-2012, 02:00 PM
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

This was such a nice book to read. The characters are fully imagined and the appear real to us. We can understand the love George has for Lennie and how familiar it is to have him around. At times he seems pissy about his situation but I don't think George would have it any other way. One might say there is a homosexual vibe to their relationships if their love didn't surpass physcial requiremens. George finds in Lennie a kind hearted buffoon; someone he can look good against in contrast though he would never take his own personal gain over the well being of Lennie. Taking care of him has hindered the life he could of had. When George is called smart he recants it, not understanding his own intelligence. Partly, I thnk he keeps himself in an unwilling igorance so Lennie doesn't feel so alone. One could wonder the potential he could realize if he was free and on his own, I thnk he wonders that himself.

My favourite part of the book, besides the amazingly written ending, was the chapter where Lennie was in Crook's shack. It was both humourously and the most socially relevant aspect of the book. I enjoyed the bac and forth between Lennie and Crook's and how Crook's has been foreced to deal with his social standing due to his colour and Lennie is unable to undestand how such superficialities can separate people, he doesn't even understand how he is different. He simply sees he world as a child might, wanting to have rabbits and mice and to touch soft, sensual and comforting things. All in all it was a great book.


The Lesson of the Master by Henry James


This very short novel tells about the balance between art and life and when one interferes or hinders the other. We see a young and emerging writer who not only meets and educated and well read woman whom he falls in love with, but his hero and an older, established author. Throughout we hear the characters differeing views pertiaining to art and what it means and how it is created. We see it from a young writer's view, optimistic about his future, a young, rich and edcated woman who is enchanted by great books and an old master of the craft who realizes he was never that good, despite being celebrated. The way everything wraps up is quite interesting as the three characters come back together at the end. If one has an interest in art and life it's an essential read.


Candide by Voltaire


I love this book, read it twice in the last 8 months. Though it has it's grounds in satire it is quite a tragic tale by the end. Candide's dear Dr. Pangloss, a reknowned German philosopher believes 'that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds' and Candide wants to suscribe to that belief. He falls in love with a young Baroness named Cunegonde and finds himself soon after imprisoned and tortured and forced to slavery. He then sets off an an epic journey across the world to find his beloeved Cunegonde. Voltaire admist this great journey, manages to sneak in many inspired viewpoints; his views on literature and plays and their constant reducing quality, his views on poliics and wealth and power and religion and many other things. Each of the characters brings a new philosophical view to the world; Candide is a hopeless romantic fighting to remain optimistic, Pangloss is an optimist who undoubtibly believe's God gave us the best we could ask for, Martin believes man is the tool of the devil and can do no good to one another. The way each character views the world and the discussions they have are marvelous and makes this such a joy to read. Now, for those that have read it: The ending in which Candide finds himself surrounded by the important people in his life, living quiet, undisturbed life on a farm is so tragic. He finds after all his miseries and torments and miles travelled and millions spent that his lovely Cunegonde has become ugly, like a witch and he has no desire to marry her any longer, eventually she can't stand him anymore and he wonders where the girl he fell in love with went. He is eternally bored and his soul is in constant unrest. When the old woman asks what was worse; to live through all the pain and suffering and attrocities or to sit here with nothing to do. It says a lot about man; we always want what we can't have and we're bored with what we do have, that what once looked beautiful can turn wretchedly ugly overtime and that sometimes pain is what keeps us alive, what keeps us optimistic in a world full of festering doom. I love this book :D

The Road Virus
03-23-2012, 05:35 AM
Darker than Amber by John D. McDonald - 9/10

Definitely in the top-tier of McGee books I have read so far. Loved the plot and characters. McDonald is such a good author it's RIDICulous.

DoctorDodge
06-12-2012, 04:18 PM
A Game of Thrones

This is one that definitely lived up to the hype. Unsurprisingly, I only became interested in the series - hell, even became aware of it - because of the HBO series, which from what i've seen of the first season is a very faithful adaptation. It's not surprising, actually, that HBO decided to adapt this, despite having never made a show clearly set in the fantasy genre, with the closest being Carnivale. Beyond the genre, all the key elements of many a great HBO show are already there - a huge cast of characters, so many it would almost be easy to lose track of each plotline were each not written as wonderfully well as they are and all being very distinct from each other, including many amoral and scheming characters that feel so very three-dimensional that you wouldn't expect to find them in another fantasy novel. There's also a plot that's not about the usual epic quest bullshit and more about politics, backstabbing, and numerous other layers, and most importantly a golden rule: anyone can die. These key things are what I've enjoyed about The Sopranos, Deadwood and especially The Wire, so when HBO discovered this series, they must've thought, "holy shit, we've hit the jackpot here!"

The world that GRRM has crafted feels less of the usual Middle Earth ripoff bs and one that's closer to the history of one of ours, at times feeling less like fantasy and more like a historical (the interesting kind), which adds to the depth of such a book.

Oh, and getting back to the characters, here are my favourites: Tyrion Lannister, the only dwarf that you'll be seeing in this series, and one that's far from the bearded Scottish type you might be expected to see (why are fantasy dwarves always Scottish? Lord of the Rings, the Witcher...although in that last case, they speak with more colourful and therefore accurate Scottish dialogue). There's also Jon Snow, a boy trying to find his place in the world as something more than a Lord's bastard, and Littlefinger, a man who's only honest about his dishonesty. But like I said, all of them feel well written and believeable.

I'll be moving onto A Clash of Kings soon, I expect. I strongly suspect that the story has barely begun and that, no matter how much development there was, I've really just read 800 pages of setup compared to where it's going. Which makes me excited to see where it's heading! :D

9/10

Jean
06-12-2012, 10:47 PM
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. One of the best books I've read in my life.

Brice
06-13-2012, 04:58 AM
The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. One of the best books I've read in my life.

Fixed that for you! :D

Jean
06-13-2012, 05:01 AM
right, thank you!

Brice
06-13-2012, 05:16 AM
:D

Merlin1958
06-14-2012, 05:14 PM
Finished TWTTKH the other day and really enjoyed it!!! The "Story within a story within a story" was a little off-putting, but in the end it was all good!!!!

jhanic
06-14-2012, 06:17 PM
Finished TWTTKH the other day and really enjoyed it!!! The "Story within a story within a story was a little off-putting, but in the end it was all good!!!!

That's one of the reasons I enjoyed it.

John

fernandito
06-15-2012, 08:16 AM
Finished WTTKH earlier this week, and I absolutely loved it.

I'm hoping that King finds other ways and reasons to plug in ka-tet stories set in the Dark Tower storyline.

WeDealInLead
06-15-2012, 01:38 PM
Neuromancer by William Gibson. 5 stars. Intelligent, prophetic, idea-heavy. I can't remember when a book kicked my ass so much in a long time.

alkanto
06-15-2012, 05:12 PM
A Game of Thrones

This is one that definitely lived up to the hype. Unsurprisingly, I only became interested in the series - hell, even became aware of it - because of the HBO series, which from what i've seen of the first season is a very faithful adaptation. It's not surprising, actually, that HBO decided to adapt this, despite having never made a show clearly set in the fantasy genre, with the closest being Carnivale. Beyond the genre, all the key elements of many a great HBO show are already there - a huge cast of characters, so many it would almost be easy to lose track of each plotline were each not written as wonderfully well as they are and all being very distinct from each other, including many amoral and scheming characters that feel so very three-dimensional that you wouldn't expect to find them in another fantasy novel. There's also a plot that's not about the usual epic quest bullshit and more about politics, backstabbing, and numerous other layers, and most importantly a golden rule: anyone can die. These key things are what I've enjoyed about The Sopranos, Deadwood and especially The Wire, so when HBO discovered this series, they must've thought, "holy shit, we've hit the jackpot here!"

The world that GRRM has crafted feels less of the usual Middle Earth ripoff bs and one that's closer to the history of one of ours, at times feeling less like fantasy and more like a historical (the interesting kind), which adds to the depth of such a book.

Oh, and getting back to the characters, here are my favourites: Tyrion Lannister, the only dwarf that you'll be seeing in this series, and one that's far from the bearded Scottish type you might be expected to see (why are fantasy dwarves always Scottish? Lord of the Rings, the Witcher...although in that last case, they speak with more colourful and therefore accurate Scottish dialogue). There's also Jon Snow, a boy trying to find his place in the world as something more than a Lord's bastard, and Littlefinger, a man who's only honest about his dishonesty. But like I said, all of them feel well written and believeable.

I'll be moving onto A Clash of Kings soon, I expect. I strongly suspect that the story has barely begun and that, no matter how much development there was, I've really just read 800 pages of setup compared to where it's going. Which makes me excited to see where it's heading! :D

9/10

Seriously, a great review! Makes me jealous that I can't read it for the first time again. I LOVE re-reading all these books, but you can never match the magic of the first through, really. Also makes me want to re-read it again. And I really am glad you liked it so much :D

Jean
10-19-2013, 06:35 AM
the last book I read: Watership Down. It's beyond rating. I only wish I had read it earlier; I would have voted for it then and it would be higher on our Top 100 list.

Amazing book. Full of love, humor, adventure, drama... everything, with, at the core, the sublime concept coined by Sai King: stand and be true.

Darkthoughts
10-19-2013, 06:38 AM
I absolutely agree, Jean. It's a book my father first read to me, before giving me his copy to read myself. I still have that worn and much loved paperback :)

Jean
10-19-2013, 06:40 AM
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