Reading Project - Comments Archive

These reviews have prompted me to return to some of the books. When first encountered many years ago I found them often artificial, but now I seem to be able to accept their boundaries and appreciate their many good qualities. I guess as the reader changes, books change too! Anyway, thanks for the reviews.

I was struggling a bit to understand my “not completely satisfied” takeaway from “A Book of American Martyrs”. I read your review and agreed with everything you said. Some terrific insights as well which ironed out very nicely some of my views about the book.

It was an extraordinary book, but for me only up until the boxing section, where I began to become restless and drift away. I agree that it did somewhat undermine the rest of the book and needed to be shorter. Sadly, I skimmed the last 70 pages or so.

Having said that, I have not read anything by JCO since “We Were The Mulvaneys”, so, it has been a long time between drinks! A few months ago, I picked up “Carthage” which I loved, and am now 6 books down . . . and very grateful there are so many more to choose from, by this extraordinary writer.

Thanks for your great review!

I loved Alias Grace as well. To me, Atwood is a wonderful writer who maybe writes too much. Some of her stories have 'thin' points where I wish she'd tightened up the prose, spent more time editing but that's not the case with Alias Grace (and The Blind Assassin is a masterpiece, imo). As the book progressed, I reached a point where I didn't really care whether Grace was guilty at law, it felt irrelevant. I was drawn to her capacity for survival.

This was a selection for my book club.. unfortunately I read the book after the discussion. The discussion was topical. After I read it I found myself wishing we had discussed the book itself and went in search of independent reviews. One of them referred to "A Long Petal of the Sea" as magical realism.

The only magic I discerned was the survival of the protagonists. I was familiar with the history, but not at the depth as Allende provides, nor from the personal perspective. I found one review which said Allende was a reporter at one time (advised to be an author). That "reporter" perspective was obvious through out, as well as the "interview" insights.

Allende produced a powerful message for living with current events and perhaps a prediction of events to come. I appreciated the perspective of staying involved despite the personal hazard. thank you for this review.

p.s. it reminded me of book I read to my children over 50 years ago. The title was something like, "Fortunately. Unfortunately. Fortunately." My current perspective on history.

Thank you. I’ve just finished this book this morning. Hung in there for the first half, stuck around for the second. Am glad I did. Your review helped to reframe the story and my understanding.

A very dear artist friend of mine had this book, and I was thrown for a loop by the almost surreal juxtaposition of the silliness with the macabre. I guess I was expecting something more like Maurice Sendak when I picked it up? The strange mix of emotions that I felt in that moment...Haha! Thank you for reminding me.

It's not a hot air balloon, but a hydrogen balloon.

Jules Verne is such a masterful writer. His characters are always so full of personality! Unfortunately, I haven't read "Around The World In Eighty Days" yet, but I enjoyed "The Survivors of the Chancellor" a few months ago as part of a book club. Anyway, thank you for sharing! I really like how you contrasted its contents with the movie adaptations. It makes me want to take another look at his prolific catalogue of writings (and maybe even some of the other films based on them).

Can you tell me is Sarah Blue the one who actually killed Sholt, Cavanagh and Flint?

Who is Sarah Blues friend, the one thats trying to be a cop to investigate her dissapearance.

short but fire

Very empathetic and enlightened. I too was not taught about enough Aboriginal history. We don't respect the traditional owners of Australia. It's a native culture we should be proud of and be showing off to the rest of the world. In our short history of 230yrs our laws and humanitarian wisdom is not evolved enough. We can become a more mature and compassionate nation, if we empower our Indigenous brothers and sisters by giving them a voice to Parliament and allowing them to exercise self-determination and become the envy of all nations. More importantly, we would be upholding the international treaties we have ratified as a country. We can co-exist with Aboriginal sovereignty and enrich ourselves by co-existing with both Indigenous and non-indigenous/colonial cultures. It doesn't have to be one or the other. Even for those who are proud of the Colonial History, let's err on the side of caution and make amends for building a wealthy country on the back of Indigenous trauma and loss. Our government's piece-meal and incremental approach to affirmative action perpetuates the pain and disadvantage and keeps Aboriginal people trapped in a vicious cycle of dysfunction which makes them look like they are not trying hard enough despite hand-outs and government assistance. Benevolence at the hands of the thieves and perpetrators.

I understand that LGBTQIA it's presumed to be the new trend!! I understand that this community is asking for respect and recognition.

But for crying out loud, not all families are heading the same direction!!

As a parent, I believe that my children should also be respected for what they are being raised!!

They should not be pushed or shoved into this education!!

Every book should have a LGBTQIA label for children to be aware that this content isn't appropriate for them!!

A very interesting review, although my experience of the book was different. Julian Barnes is just about my favourite living writer, but of fiction not non-fiction, so the essay in the middle of this one was a sticking point for me. I also wondered why the narrator thought Ms Finch was so wonderful when most of her observations on life were so ordinary. Maybe that's intended to tell us something about Neil, but for me it seemed to drain a lot of significance from the book.

It was really rewarding to have landed on this great comparison after thinking my Google search would yield no concrete results, given its too narrow (so I thought) scope of there possibly being a round up of the two novels side by side.

Well done and thank you!

Woah I had no idea these two books were predicting something that would be true decades later after the authors were long gone.

Very interesting!

I have nearly finished this book, and decided to see if anyone else found it pretentious. It has recently won the Giller prize. My daughter in law gifted it to me about a year ago- I put off reading it until now. This review is immensely helpful .

I have a slightly different and more positive take but greatly appreciated your chart!

There is an additional connection as Sandor and Marcus are mentioned as the children of Eugene at the end of part 9. This is an interesting link between Marie Curies story and Peter/Anna/Maura.

I totally agree with your review..i have my Ph.D. in science and refuse to be confused by this author's misuse of it to make her point. There is such twisting of logic in this book and it is done in a very clever way so it may persuade many people. Thanks for the reveal on this book. Excellent summary!

Wow! What effort and energy you have put into this! Thank you. It will greatly help our reading group discussion of the book I think.

Agreed on the spiritualism counts. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel as a novel, but I was a bit irked by the flippant use of science as a tool when the author felt it was warranted. I will say that the Anna problem didn’t bother met- Mara said she was going to name her and Alan’s child Anna if it was a girl. It makes sense that this new Anna is Alan’s daughter as the timeline makes sense. What super irritated me? Lia being Peter’s mother via the photographer. It’s impossible with the timeline and facts set out by Peter himself. He describes his father and grandfather working together and that he himself learned his trade from his father. That couldn’t happen if he was dead. Also the timeline of selling the business after the fortune in uniforms was made by the grandfather also doesn’t work well. It’s very clumsy. Thanks for the great review. The writing is beautifully haunting but the life after death did bludgeon the reader at the end.

Thank you for sharing this analysis of Held. Your ideas regarding the manipulation of the reader and the questionable honesty and motives of the author were extremely interesting. One thing you were mistaken about was the supposed confusion on the author's part about Ruth's child. It was described as a boy in both instances you referred to. Looking forward to reading more of your inciteful reviews!

Richler was a well known journalist in Montréal before he rote the Jacob Two-Two series. He and his family (who inspired the characters) were living in England with the first Jacob Two-Two book was written. Later volumes are set back in Canada.

I think I watched the 1999 film when I was younger; something about it seems vaguely familiar. However, I've never read the book. It sounds like a lot of fun! I have a feeling that I would much prefer it over a movie adaptation.

Oh, I had a great deal of fun with this book, though I agree with all the critiques listed here. I am prone to similarly confusing word choice, and thought it was pretty funny to encounter a book that was (somehow!) worse than me. (I also seem to recall googling and finding out that English is not his first language; this was either his first or second book written in English. Not certain how much that has to do with it.)

I also love the irreverent, chaotic take on those two genres. It doesn't quite breach into the legendary Pratchett & Addams funny-but-genuinely-good-metacommentary-story realm (very little can) but feels cut from leftover pieces of the same cloth.

Middle Sister is not ‘reluctant’ about having a relationship with ‘Milkman’ - she does not want his attention at all - it is entirely unwanted, threatening, invasive - it is sexual harassment and hence a form of sexual violence. understanding this is central to understanding this novel.

I haven't read this since I was a teenager but it's a great book. A bit like Moominpappa at Sea (called 'Father and the Sea' in a Lithuanian translation), it finds connection within the loneliness and isolation. The Groke (translated as 'Mora' or 'Moira' - I did love that translation) in particular got lodged in my memory for many years. Having read this review I'm tempted to find and read this again ; )

So helpful. Would love to read the Moominpapa at sea book. Thankyou.

Wow, I don't watch many movies, but this one looks interesting!...Historical fiction is such an intriguing genre. To place oneself into the past as if it was the present sometimes gives one an entirely different view of events, yet at the same time, some things never seem to change. For example, the expression of compassion is a theme which is timeless. Thank you for sharing!

What were the big clues you noticed?

Thanks for this inspirational book review. From https://www.halmblogmusic.com/

I remember my mother once telling me that I was supposed to be a twin, but I don't know the details. I have a feeling that it was a "vanishing twin" that was simply reabsorbed. Fortunately, there are no strange psychic connections to speak of. :-) This sounds like an intriguing storyline. Thank you for sharing!

I remember reading these with my son when he was very young. They were such good books to read together!

That was a fine tribute to a marvellous book.

I'm sorry that the story was underwhelming, but I am glad that you brought up Inky the Octopus. Haha! I was so enchanted by that news item when I first came across it. I had no idea that it was adapted into a children's story though!

kewl

Brilliant review! The scope and impact of this book is immense. I have a digital version from FadedPages (www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20151002), but I should probably invest in a good physical copy.

This is exactly what I was looking for when I searched up the title of this book after finishing the last page. Beautifully written and understood!

Murakami wafts between signs and symbols through the narrative of Sputnik Sweetheart. In the title, the words Sputnik Sweetheart are both a sign and a symbol. The sign being the entry of Miu in Sumire's life changes her to the core and alters the rest of her life. Miu mishearing Beatnik for Sputnik and then the meaning of Sputnik as traveling companion are symbols of this unrequited love-destiny of Sumire. The question is, will she be able to tolerate it or not? And that's how life is. There are signs: directions in which our life can go. And there are symbols: reflections of what we choose ultimately.

What a thought provoking piece you've written.

For the "Stalingrad - Character Map", there is a typo spoted.

"Tolya" Lt. Anatoly Shaposhnikov: around 22 years old. Ludmila's son by Abarchuk [NOT A SON OF V.P. SHTRUM] " (Wikipedia).

The rest is just awesome.

Thanks for sharing such a gem.

~A

In all seriousness though, great review as usual. I found myself doing a fair bit of Googling during the math-heavy parts of the book, my lack of physics/mathematics knowledge betraying a deeper connection to Alice (probably a good thing, I suppose).

The parts that appealed most to me were the inconsistencies between both books and how an individual would interpret and try to reconcile these conflicting details. I agree that I think Passenger and Stella will be discussed for many years to come, over-analyzed to the point of total abstraction and eventually regarded as significant works of literary genius.

But most importantly, inquiring minds are dying to know - were Bobby and Alice banging?

bikerbuddy: i'm too dumb to understand this book

also bikerbuddy: Alicia’s intellectual tenets reject what is often referred to in the novel as a ‘platonist’ ideation of reality, whether that be in Mathematics under models proposed by Gödel, or other human systems of knowledge. McCarthy is drawing upon Plato’s Forms here, as a system of reality beyond human experience, but also from neo-Platonist doctrines which are the basis of the separate physical and spiritual aspects of humanity – the body and soul – as understood in Christianity

Eloquent review! It sounds like such a mix of emotion. Humour, sorrow, passion, and hope, all woven together in a way that is deeply inspiring. To effectively encapsulate a life within a book seems like an impossible task, but who better to make the attempt than a close friend.

Wow!

Has anyone compiled a list of good detective novels that have broken any of these rules? Benjamin Black (also known by his pseudonym John Banville) has ignored the one on descriptive passages, for a start - he's never seen a cloud he doesn't think worth describing in detail!

An interesting review. I particularly appreciated the comparisons of the book with the film - which I now need to watch again!

I thought the use of language was beautiful and no book club review I've read even mentions it. Since I listened to it mostly in the car, I couldn't write down the lovely poetical language I heard from beginning to end. This comment is for Troublesome Creek.

I might be misinterpreting this review but it seems to me that it's about the people who believe that neutrality is both possible and commendable, with stability and industry being their top values. I've met such people. I think it's possible to live one's whole life without such a world imploding, which is kinda sad.

I've only ever read Gordimer's short stories, brilliant but uncomfortable.

For a second, I had only read the title and got excited because I thought it was the book by Boethius, but this sounds pretty good. The selection of quotes on the sidebar are insightful and elucidate the book's content well, as do both of your interviews! Thank you for sharing.

...Also, "scatological delights" is a turn of phrase that I never thought I would ever hear. Haha!

I tried reading this last year and gave up. Will give it another go now!

I just wanted to mention in regards to “The count of Monte Cristo” I hope readers will seek out the Robin Buss translation which came out in the early 1990s from memory. The reason I mention this particular translation is that it is the first since the novel was published 150 years prior that contains the entire text as Dumas wrote it, incorporating passages that editors and publishers through the ages took it upon themselves to remove - vampirism, female homosexuality etc I think the cover you feature is from the first printing of the Buss translation.

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of those books whose lifetime can be just as interesting as the actual story between the pages!

I know there must be a literary reason for the diversion to Normandy, and the refusal to acknowledge Franz d'Epinsy on their meeting again in Italy, but I have never seen a comment about it.

I liked this book very much, for many of the reasons BB suggests. It is also a painless way to learn more about a neighbour Australia has both helped and abused. Crime novels can be very helpful in this regard, and it can only be hoped our Department of Foreign Affairs buys several thousand copies soon for general distribution. 😏

I find the highlighted quote quite evocative, and the fact that the author integrates a realistic social dynamic into the story makes me want to read it all the more. Thank you for the historical insights as well! (As an aside, that is a good point about cover art, but I struggle to find an example of a book that I've selected based on the cover alone. They have almost all come by way of personal research or recommendation.)

A good summary!

this site is actually sick

Interestingto hear about this new nove My great great grandfather was Andrew Bogle in this story.

This looks incredible! I am definitely going to add this and Martin Edwards' other book ("The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books") to my Wishlist. Thank you for sharing! Another really good resource that I've come across is Michael E. Grost's webpage "A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection": mikegrost.com/classics.htm

...My TBR pile is becoming mountainous as well, but oh is it a mountain that I love to scale. Haha!

Well done. The dystopian near future is forgotten after they enter Positron and doesn’t reappear. I wish she had developed that more. Mainly, I thought she was funny; the book had me laughing on many pages. It also made Charmaine look like an airhead.

Wow, I love Sherlock Holmes, but I had not heard of Kosuke Kindaichi before! This series looks really promising. I've been wanting to go back to Poe's Detective Dupin stories and gradually work my way forward in time throughout various authors of the the Golden Age. This book in particular looks like it would make a good capstone for that project. Thank you so much for sharing!

I thoroughly agree! Reading Coben is almost physical, the way the books rush around and keep your attention, a bit like watching a good sports match.

I recall receiving this book as a gift. Perhaps, I was a little too young to appreciate the nuances of this book, but I had come to a similar conclusion that you have. In all honesty, I did not finish it. Maybe I'll give it another try one day, but I figure it was pretty boring for my young mind.

A thoughtful review of a great novel. As always, thanks for the pictures!

This book is a bit scary but I love it. From Halmblog Music

Never seen the play nor read the script, but I enjoyed the review.

So learned quite a lot, thanks!

Well it doesn't matter if you liked this book or not!! Everything can't be written for Western people. European writers also write it in way that it becomes impossible to actually understand what they are trying to say. Gravity's rainbow and Infinite jest (utterly nonsensical book). And for the readers who want to truly understand, a bit of homework won't hurt. So do the hard work and read the book.

whats the theme

I find it equally troubling and funny that I basically only focused on how often Bobby was hanging out with his friends at restaurants, bars, and cafes and I hyper-focused on when he was drinking coffee, rather than, y'know, take away anything meaningful from the story itself.

Many thanks for the review, bikerbuddy. It's an honour to have someone read a book and appreciate what I was trying to put into it. I've read and enjoyed a lot of crime novels, maybe too many, so with this one I wanted to do something a bit different. It does seem to me that crime novels have a lot of potential for exploring themes and places.

I think Evie IS a tragic character. She is used and abused by almost every male who comes in contact with her. The fact that she goes along with it can be seen as a defense mechanism, that if she willingly participates, perhaps she can have some control - as when she tells Oliver, "It's here or nowhere" (and thus exposed Oliver to his father).

This is my opinion, not backed up by fact, by I wonder if all the people who have reviewed this work over the years were all men, who couldn't see the abuse Evie suffers for what it truly is.

i like ravens, they're cool and a nice colour :)

:-)

We love your website :) great insights about a great book.

Thank you. Your opinion is very well written and corresponds with my own experience of this story. Getting through this book was a bit of torture. I wanted to finish it only because I wanted the story to come together in a cogent and cohesive way. I felt more played with than transported. I, too, did not understand the attraction between Dorian and Zachary. Although I knew who Zachary was, I had no idea who Dorian was. I wanted to know more but I was taken down so many side rivers and fever dream experiences that it no longer mattered. Just let me finish the book so I can get out of this dream.

I had the feeling, and this may be true, that this book was meant for people with much larger brains than I. That I was almost being made fun of because I wasn't able to put all the pieces together. I can't tell whether this is a beautiful wonderful book too lheady for me to understand or if this was a messy, unreadable book with wonderful prose. I'm inclined to believe both are true.

This sounds like fun. I have to check it out. Toriaz is like a detective when it comes to uncovering so many obscure mystery classics! The art nouveau style of the review page is classy too. Thank you all for sharing.

Thank you for this, I found it really interesting, especially delving into all the various references. I also liked your comparison of the books obscure words to the BFG’s ‘idiosyncratic language which doesn’t need translation in order for children to understand the meaning’ - this is how I’ve always read it - after all, we all speak in idioms, everyday language requires them, and we don’t have to explore their obscure etymologies and derivations to understand them, although we can if we like because it’s often fun, as here.

For me, the story was very much about moving on - or more specifically, succession, or inheritance, the transferring of something. I don’t know about the heroes journey, but the story seemed to me profoundly liminal. Most of its scenes take place at noon, when the sun is at its height, seeming briefly to stand still in a moment between ascent and descent.

I think succession resonates with the cuckoo as well. Moments of succession are dangerous, things can get in at the crack, and the cuckoo is a great analogy for this, intruding it’s own egg at the moment some other bird is trying to reproduce itself. And the analogy isn’t subtle really, we’re told what the cuckoo is - night, threatening to supersede the sun.

The story plays on a tension between the fundamentals of reality and the brute thereness of the world that we experience everyday. I really liked your commentary in the post about ‘human taxonomies that are inadequate to understand the world; that conceptualise its component parts without understanding it as an organic whole’. But I don’t think that ‘whole’ should be seen here as ‘a natural world that has nothing to do with human taxonomies’. For me, the underlying assumption of the story is that the two are mutually linked in a kind of causal relationship - you do need to pin a body down in a bog so that it can dream reality. The eddy, the ‘whirligig’, is the thing that persists, the fundamental, but it needs a constant flow of water in the world to form it and keep it going.

Likewise, you do need Treacle Walker to keep walking so that the sun keeps treading its daily passage. For all the ineffable fundamentals, people need to be there doing things if it’s all going to work. Yet, being part of the human world, the Treacle Walker we meet in this story is at last tired, and he wants out, ‘to hear no more of time. To have no morrow and no yesterday. To be free of years.’ He wants to go ‘home’. And so a new Walker is needed, and that is to be Joe, once he’s successfully negotiated this moment of succession, of inheritance from the Walker before him.

You could read all this in light of Garner’s other books, the persistent themes are certainly there. Likewise you could read it biographically and wonder if Garner is worried about his advanced age, and what happens to the meanings of the stories he tells when he’s no longer there to tell them. But I wonder if, thematically, if certainly not stylistically, it could be productively read besides Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather!

I hope you don’t mind these extended comments. I read the book this morning, and coming across your blog, found a fertile ground for thinking about it.

An extremely interesting and helpful review. Gaining knowledge of some of the hitherto nonsensical words and unfamiliar objects has deepened my appreciation of Garner's work. For me, the optometrist was possibly in Joe's head.

This is really excellent, thank you

Thank you for taking the time to do this. It was really helpful.

huh?

im genuinely surprised to see a reading project on neocities, pretty helpful though

no way she did it. Her heart and mind would not even think this way. she went back and found the necklace. He fell accidentally. Delia, can you let us know your thoughts on this?

Are non-Aussies allowed to read these books?

I too enjoyed Windhall very much!

such a beautifully written review! Kuang is not an easy author to read, but she sure makes you think.