Showing posts with label 4 - Pretty Good. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4 - Pretty Good. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sideway Stories from Wayside School
A very fun book to read to your kids and enjoy yourself at the same time. It's very imaginitive and interesting. I felt it was a little rude at times and I did need to censor/edit/bleep some things on the fly as I read this.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
the other Shulman
Let me start by saying that this is a very entertaining book.
A fictional autobiographical account of a fat man with a stale marraige and a failing stationary business who takes on the New York Marathon as a whim.
The book is broken into 26 chapters, one for each mile of the marathon.
Each chapter not only describes Shulman's experience running that particular mile, but also a simultaneous chronology of the events leading up to the actual race.
The language is casual and the story is well woven together.
I really enjoyed this book and if you are looking for a light read that is interesting and entertaining, I would reccommend this book without reservations.
VITAL STATS:
Title: the other Shulman
Author: Alan Zweibel
# Pages: 288
Published by: Villard Books (Random House)
Year: 2005
ISBN #: 1-4000-6266-7
A fictional autobiographical account of a fat man with a stale marraige and a failing stationary business who takes on the New York Marathon as a whim.
The book is broken into 26 chapters, one for each mile of the marathon.
Each chapter not only describes Shulman's experience running that particular mile, but also a simultaneous chronology of the events leading up to the actual race.
The language is casual and the story is well woven together.
I really enjoyed this book and if you are looking for a light read that is interesting and entertaining, I would reccommend this book without reservations.
VITAL STATS:
Title: the other Shulman
Author: Alan Zweibel
# Pages: 288
Published by: Villard Books (Random House)
Year: 2005
ISBN #: 1-4000-6266-7
Monday, September 3, 2007
Rogue Warrior
Most (auto)biographies that I have read are a staid affair. This autobiography of a decorated Navy SEAL on the other hand, reads like a Tom Clancy novel. It starts off by pitting the reader directly into the middle of an ongoing SEAL mission. Then it rolls back and starts at the beginning. The time period of the action extends from a little before the Vietnam war and extends all the way up to the beginning of Desert Storm in Iraq. It takes the reader from the dangerous battles in the jungles of Vietnam, to the equally dangerous political battles in the Navy bureaucracy.
Richard Marcinko a real life action hero with a passion for life is brutally honest about his successes and his failures, his adventures and his misadventures. He gives an insight into the stresses a military life can have on a family, the inadequacies of a by-the-book military that were apparent in Vietnam, and are just as stifling and paralyzing in the current day battles against terrorism, and the unfortunate truth about the real qualifications that are required to succeed in the US (or maybe any) military.
Also included at the end is a Glossary of the maddeningly long and complicated abbreviations used by the US Navy, some of which have as many letters as the word abbreviation! The only caveat I have for a discerning reader is the extensive use of foul language in the book, which after the first few chapters come across as rather juvenile. But then like I said Richard Marcinko is completely honest about his failures. If you like military fiction (which this is not) and you can read past the profanity (of which there is abundance) this book is definitely worth your time.
VITAL STATS:
Title: Rogue Warrior
Author: Richard Marcinko with John Weisman
# Pages: 373
Published by: Pocket Books (New York)
Year: 1993
ISBN #: 0-671-79593-1
Richard Marcinko a real life action hero with a passion for life is brutally honest about his successes and his failures, his adventures and his misadventures. He gives an insight into the stresses a military life can have on a family, the inadequacies of a by-the-book military that were apparent in Vietnam, and are just as stifling and paralyzing in the current day battles against terrorism, and the unfortunate truth about the real qualifications that are required to succeed in the US (or maybe any) military.
Also included at the end is a Glossary of the maddeningly long and complicated abbreviations used by the US Navy, some of which have as many letters as the word abbreviation! The only caveat I have for a discerning reader is the extensive use of foul language in the book, which after the first few chapters come across as rather juvenile. But then like I said Richard Marcinko is completely honest about his failures. If you like military fiction (which this is not) and you can read past the profanity (of which there is abundance) this book is definitely worth your time.
VITAL STATS:
Title: Rogue Warrior
Author: Richard Marcinko with John Weisman
# Pages: 373
Published by: Pocket Books (New York)
Year: 1993
ISBN #: 0-671-79593-1
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
New Spring The Novel
This book is a prequel to the Wheel of Time (WoT) series of books. The subtitle of the book is The Wheel of Time: In the Beginning. Not having read the actual series I don't know how the time line of this book fits into the larger scope of the story arc defined by the WoT stories.
Nevertheless, this book stands quite well on its own. It does a great job of describing the setting, people, and conflicts that the WoT stories are based around. The two main characters in this story are two women Moiraine and Siuan who have been discovered to have the ability to cast magic "saidar." The story starts with the two being "Accepted" or sorceresses in training and continues through their test and success at being full sorceresses "Aes Sedai." In this world only women have the power of magic. Men who display such talents are broken and cleansed or destroyed, because they have dark magic that can cause much grief.
Woven through these events is a grave foretelling of the birth of a savior/destroyer, a boy child with magic who under the wrong tutelage could cause the end of the world. The Aes Sedai are sent out to find this child and take him into custody to prevent the catastrophe. But strange accidental deaths start happening to the searchers and the Aes Sedai leadership culminating in a great plot twist and revelation at the end of the book. The plot lines and characters are very well developed and the book moves along at a very rapid pace.
The only complaint I have with the book ( and the only time the book slows down ) is when characters are described in great detail, never to be found in the book again. In some cases insight into the background and motivations of a tertiary character are justified, but the author spends time and ink on many characters that have no relevance in the story and don't further the plot in any way. This was annoying at times.
Overall the book is recommended for any fantasy reader. It is a great read whether you have read ( or plan to read ) the other WoT books or not.
Thanks to my friend Phil Knight for recommending I read it and lending it to me!
VITAL STATS:
Title: New Spring The Novel (The Wheel of Time: In the Beginning)
Author: Robert Jordan
# Pages: 334
Published by: Tom Doherty Associates (New York)
Year: 2004
ISBN #: 0-765-30629-8
Nevertheless, this book stands quite well on its own. It does a great job of describing the setting, people, and conflicts that the WoT stories are based around. The two main characters in this story are two women Moiraine and Siuan who have been discovered to have the ability to cast magic "saidar." The story starts with the two being "Accepted" or sorceresses in training and continues through their test and success at being full sorceresses "Aes Sedai." In this world only women have the power of magic. Men who display such talents are broken and cleansed or destroyed, because they have dark magic that can cause much grief.
Woven through these events is a grave foretelling of the birth of a savior/destroyer, a boy child with magic who under the wrong tutelage could cause the end of the world. The Aes Sedai are sent out to find this child and take him into custody to prevent the catastrophe. But strange accidental deaths start happening to the searchers and the Aes Sedai leadership culminating in a great plot twist and revelation at the end of the book. The plot lines and characters are very well developed and the book moves along at a very rapid pace.
The only complaint I have with the book ( and the only time the book slows down ) is when characters are described in great detail, never to be found in the book again. In some cases insight into the background and motivations of a tertiary character are justified, but the author spends time and ink on many characters that have no relevance in the story and don't further the plot in any way. This was annoying at times.
Overall the book is recommended for any fantasy reader. It is a great read whether you have read ( or plan to read ) the other WoT books or not.
Thanks to my friend Phil Knight for recommending I read it and lending it to me!
VITAL STATS:
Title: New Spring The Novel (The Wheel of Time: In the Beginning)
Author: Robert Jordan
# Pages: 334
Published by: Tom Doherty Associates (New York)
Year: 2004
ISBN #: 0-765-30629-8
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Best American Poetry 2005
Part of the Best American Poetry series (published since 1988), this is a collection of nice, strange, and bizzarre poems by contemporary American poets.
It features a total of 75 poems, many of which I found hard to appreciate. Of course that does not mean they are bad poems, just that they did not touch me in any way.
One of the poems that I really liked was A.R. Ammon's "In View of the Fact," a touching poem about aging and loss. "Seesaws" by Samuel Hazo is another poem that struck a chord with me. A short poem pointing out life's yin and yang nature, this one keeps you thinking well after you have finished reading it.
I must mention a couple of bizzarre and witty poems that stood out before I close, so here goes. "A Big Ball of Foil in a Small New York Apartment" by Matthew Yeager and "Urban Myth" by Jamey Dunham are interesting reads.
There are other poems that I liked, "Ants" by Vicki Hudspith and "Some Words Inside of Words (for children and others)" by Richard Wilbur for example, but I don't want to ramble on.
Overall this book is definitely worth a few hours of your time over the course of a week or two. I recommend that you sip it like wine enjoying a poem or two now and a few more later.
Me, I'm going to go look for the other books in this series at the library.
Cheerio!
VITAL STATS:
Title: The Best American Poetry 2005
Author: Various
Guest Editor: Paul Muldoon
Series Editor: David Lehman
Foreword: David Lehman
# Pages: 207
Published by: Scribner Poetry (New York)
Year: 2005
L.C. Control #: 2005049982
ISBN #: 0-7432-5738
It features a total of 75 poems, many of which I found hard to appreciate. Of course that does not mean they are bad poems, just that they did not touch me in any way.
One of the poems that I really liked was A.R. Ammon's "In View of the Fact," a touching poem about aging and loss. "Seesaws" by Samuel Hazo is another poem that struck a chord with me. A short poem pointing out life's yin and yang nature, this one keeps you thinking well after you have finished reading it.
I must mention a couple of bizzarre and witty poems that stood out before I close, so here goes. "A Big Ball of Foil in a Small New York Apartment" by Matthew Yeager and "Urban Myth" by Jamey Dunham are interesting reads.
There are other poems that I liked, "Ants" by Vicki Hudspith and "Some Words Inside of Words (for children and others)" by Richard Wilbur for example, but I don't want to ramble on.
Overall this book is definitely worth a few hours of your time over the course of a week or two. I recommend that you sip it like wine enjoying a poem or two now and a few more later.
Me, I'm going to go look for the other books in this series at the library.
Cheerio!
VITAL STATS:
Title: The Best American Poetry 2005
Author: Various
Guest Editor: Paul Muldoon
Series Editor: David Lehman
Foreword: David Lehman
# Pages: 207
Published by: Scribner Poetry (New York)
Year: 2005
L.C. Control #: 2005049982
ISBN #: 0-7432-5738
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)