Books: Last Book You Read and Rate It

[Neil Racki]

"For Now But Not Forever" - Chuck Palahnuik

Ive never been the lady when doing the Lady of the Lake but I imagine reading this book is how one might feel afterwards.

Chuck .. my guy ... each new book is your worst book

tired formulaic approach to his plots now -- secret society that pulls strings to make current world events happen for secret underlying reasons looks to end the world order

Same as invention of sound, adjustment day and now this. I imagien one could argeu Fight Club was also following this plot line

anyway .. nice talking with my self

 

[Spring in Fialta]

L’Avalée des avalés by Rejean Ducharme (1966) - In Montreal, a Jewish man and a Polish Catholic woman are husband and wife. They also hate each other. In the midst of a '30-year war' each parent lays claim to a child and raises the child in that faith. As such, first-born Christian belongs to the woman and is raised catholic and second-born Berenice is raised in her father's faith.

This ultimately bears little importance on the actual writing of the book. At just under 400 pages, most of the book focused on Berenice's extreme misanthropic worldview and the bearing it has on her life (refusing to eat and getting seriously sick, killing two of her mother's cats in hard-to-read scenes, borderline incestuous feelings for her brother that get her shipped off to live with her orthodox uncle in NYC before finally getting shipped off to the ME to fight Arabs). All of which are related mostly in monologues written in a first-person POV in which it never gets better and her antisocial behavior steadies in an awful way.

385 pages of misanthropic rhetoric sounds like a tough read. I had to give up on Irvine Welsh's Filth specifically because of how tedious and repetitive his crap got in a massive volume. Well, this is different here. While I think that the book probably could have been trimmed a bit because it's hard not to repeat yourself at some point, Ducharme is on a whole other level compared to most other writers I've read. His voice and sense of rhythm feels singular and he is able to make passages that would seem nonsensical in most hands come across as completely appropriate for his book and the girl's voice. I'm not someone who is into poetry (though I do enjoy prose that can have a poetical lilt) but his prose is littered with sentences that read like a bouquet of roses being tossed even if it is sometimes ugly. Sometimes it's also funny as the girl's confidence and erudition make for a fun contrast with her speech.

Ducharme also does a great job of giving his girl just enough to hang unto to not give it all up. For example, Her love and letters for her brother and a friend are strange and ambiguous when it comes to intent and emotion but her father is so despicable that you can almost appreciate the act of rebellion. The book is littered with little touches like that that add up to a whole that's not always clear to the read, even by the end. Sometimes it feels rather scattered as her thoughts but not her life fills up the book through a period of about 10 years.

It's not the sort of book that would please a casual and/or novice reader but I thought it was superb, unique and highly artistic.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (2011) - A superb book. There's little as satisfying as well-written Westerns. The book does that thing where it sneaks up on you up with little sentences that reward a second or third reading even if they don't seem like much the first time you read them. But the doodling of scenes is so fun that you enjoy re-reading a chapter and come away even more satisfied after it.

The book does well in not focusing at all times on the larger plot, giving a bit of a picaresque adventure with good emotional heft, drawing its own paths at its own pace, much like how a journey at the time might feel like. It doesn't overstay its welcome at around 320 pages but neatly ties everything up by the end of it, balancing well between adventure, violence and original little sidepaths that can sometimes be humorous and intelligent.

Really loads of fun. I find myself thinking about it a lot a couple of days later. Great film too, which I watched when it came out. I think I'll rewatch it next week. Also makes me want to commit to Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove (1985) but that's an over 800 pages book.

 

[whitez]

The Thorn Birds-Colleen McCullough. I want to write essay about it. Luckily I found EssayHave to write my essay and save my time. These guys are pro in writing and proofreading and helped me hundreds of times. Useful service for someone who need urgent paper help.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster (1987) - A decent dystopian novel. Its prose is pretty well-written but for a story written entirely from a single point of view, I thought Auster sometimes focused too much on the general, such as the different types of misery which exist within his world, even if they do not hold much significance to the story or the character's viewpoint. It read like a good thought exercise for his own pleasure, which is fine, I guess.

It's another one that constantly delves into this favorite themes like luck and abandoning one's sense of self. While the twists and turns sometimes feel a bit easy, too easy even, it reads well, has intelligent and meaningful things to say and is paced excellently. Well worth a read.

 

[K Fleur]

Compelling setting, held back by an uninteresting plot and an author that thinks character development is simply internal ranting monologues. 3 out of 5.

A book that built and built and built to a meh climax. Not the worst horror/thriller I’ve read but just ok. 3.25 out of 5

 

[Osprey]

I just finished Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy and really enjoyed it. I've owned the first book for over 30 years, but, for some reason, never read it. I'd give it a 7/10 because I liked it but I wasn't sure that I liked certain additions (especially the ysalamiri) and the number of references to the movie trilogy were a little out of hand. I'd give the second and third books 8/10 because I got used to the additions, the movie references were fewer, the plot really picked up and the character of Mara Jade became more important and interesting. Overall, I really enjoyed the trilogy and wish that I'd read it 30 years ago, when I was a teenager and starved for Star Wars content... though having it now to wash away some of the bad taste of Disney Star Wars is nice, too. I may even read Zahn's follow-up novels.

 

[Hippasus]

Sets and Groups: a first course in algebra, by J.A. Green 375

In the preface, Green bills this is as a book for freshman age mathematics majors, but I think it is too advanced for that. I read it because it is a small book and treated a wide range of topics from set theory to linear and abstract algebra. I was hoping for a concise treatment of fundamental matters, and this I got because the book is formally-intensive (e.g. tons of indices in the way of superscripts and subscripts), but I think this book is more like a supplement to other texts in said subjects, which should have a fuller treatment and more worked-out exercises. I pretty much skipped the exercises and just read for concepts. This was sort of a review and refresh book for me, while I was killing time and whatnot, but I don't think it's a good stand-alone.

200: distasteful and pathetic
300: mediocre or subpar
400: average, but decent
500: very good
600: superb
700: transcendental

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Mercier et Camier by Samuel Beckett (1970) - Initially wrote Camier et Mercier which feels like a funny cosmic joke as the novel's two main characters, Mercier et Camier, two old men looking to leave town, are in symbiosis for the entirety of the story.

The structure and the story itself start and end completed and without progress. It has no real conventional narrative sense but the plot's unpredictability always feels fair. Sweet twang to it too, as the banter style, the pirouettes - and subsequent contrast with the soliloquies - makes for smiles and smirks while also asking that you concentrate on its content.

I'm sure I didn't understand most or all of its points but so what. It was entertaining purely as writing, I like reading different shit, even I don't understand all of it.

 

[Hippasus]

A History of Algebra: from al-Khwarizmi to Emmy Noether, by B.L. van der Waerden 525

This text is divided into three parts: (1)Algebraic equations (2)Groups (3)Algebras. I found the narrative to have somewhat of a zigzag pattern in its chronology, but I think there was a method to the author's madness. In regards to van der Waerden, I can only imagine how much is wrapped into the ability to coalesce notations across Millenia in a seamless and transparent account of the state of affairs of ancient history. I have to marvel at how one can, successfully, be a historian of mathematics. It is a matter of interpretation of times long past, memory, cognition/analyticity, and thoughtfulness in one's exposition. This book did not seek to give full proofs, but rather the flavor of an essential part of mathematics as it led up through the present. I feel like its purpose is largely a mere reference for further exploration for students.