Month: June 2011

Books

Book 46: Hero – Perry Moore

Geoff W

Let’s just say that any book that assumes superpowers are commonplace in society is already off to a good start. As usual I’m not sure when I added this book to my list of books to read, but I know I added it because Hero is a conglomeration of the various types of books I like to read—Young Adult, LGBT, Super Heroes, Coming of Age and Coming Out.

Hero is the story of Thom Creed a high school basketball star who volunteers in the community. Thom is a closeted gay teen who just happens to have superpowers. So while other kids think about prom dates, acne and school work, Thom has greater issues (seemingly) such as the fear of people discovering his (non hetero-) sexuality, his father discovering his superpowers and the strange things that happen around him.

Click here to continue reading.

Books

Book 45: The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

Geoff W

You can always tell the books I enjoyed more based on the length of the blog and my voice in the blog. I would probably skip posts of the books I don’t really like, but it would defeat the purpose of this blog, so instead you get somewhat whinny posts about a book that I don’t understand or just didn’t like, like The Prince.

Whereas when I read a book I truly enjoy you get a true feel for the book and why I’ve enjoyed reading it. Thankfully The Alchemist is of the latter category. Again this is a book I bought ages ago (recognize a pattern) that I never got around to reading. This book was so good I read it in an afternoon (it’s only 170 pages). What I enjoyed most about this novel was the spirituality without the religion. An interesting fact according to Wikipedia (with a legitimate siting) is that the book holds the record for the most translations into another language by a living author.

Click here to read the rest of the review and for a few moving quotes.

Books

Book 44: The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli

Geoff W

I think this was required reading in High School for one of my classes, or I may have switched out of that class, but long story short I never read it. I bought the book and ended up packing the book up in one of my random boxes of books and only found it this past winter when I was looking for another book and I took it home to Boston and finally got around to reading it.

I’m not going to pretend I understood most of the novel, but I realize the further I get away from reading it that I understood more than I thought I did. The last half was a lot easier to understand as it had less to do with the people and princes of the time. Without an intimate knowledge of the princes and people it was a bit difficult to follow things.

The forward by Christian Gauss was perhaps the most interesting bit of the book to me as it was a who’s who of world leaders from dictators to presidents. Gauss did a great job of breaking down the book and explaining how it’s still as viable today as it was then.

Perhaps because I’ve read a lot of fantasy/fiction novels about power struggles often including monarchies a lot of what Machiavelli said made perfect sense and came across as common sense, but clearly when he was writing it was a time of turmoil and change.

Updates

Quick Update

Geoff W

This past weekend I flew home for my aunts wedding and had a bit of down time and read three books. I’ve not had time to just read in ages and it was luxurious! Over the next couple of days I will be posting my ‘reviews/musings’ of Machiavelli’s The Prince, Coelho’s The Alchemist and Moore’s Hero. While at home I picked up a copy of The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Emma Donoghue recommended it at her book reading for Room.

[I had this cool idea of incorporating the book covers like I do on each posting in this post (you know just a simple row of those I’d just read and those purchased, but clearly the images weren’t cooperating. I’ll come back and link to the posts when I’ve finally written them. I also have what I think is a brilliant idea of what I want my home page to look like, but I don’t have the technical skills to pull it off yet, but I will eventually!]

I’m steadily making my way through all those books I purchased last year at the Boston Book Festival, but on Monday after flying back to Boston we went to lunch and to Harvard Bookstore where I purchased a few books (yes, bad Geoffrey), but I spent less than $8 as they were remainders, AND I supported the Harvard Book store, shop local and all that jazz. I purchased Patricia Marx’s Him Her Him Again The End of Him, Brain Francis’s The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington: A Novel (read the blurb it just sounds hilarious) and The Beautiful Miscellaneous: A Novel by Dominic Smith. This is a bad thing as Harvard has their summer warehouse sale this weekend and it’s been on my calendar for months and I will be going, but I’m going to try and limit myself to $20.00(ish). I’m also going to try and use the library more often, I should support the Somerville Library (even if it is slightly scary).

So stay tuned for the updates on all of these books and hopefully they’re published in a timely manner.

Books

Book 43: A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

Geoff W

John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of DuncesWhat a peculiar novel.

I had to slog through this book and at various times was convinced it was repeating itself. I’m slowly understanding that books that win major awards such as the Pulitzer or Man-Booker are somewhat dense to read, whereas the books that almost make it, but don’t are considerably easier to read. When it comes to this novel, the author’s personal story is tragic, but perhaps not as tragic as Ignatius J. Reiley’s story, his protagonist.

This story takes place in New Orleans and has the most interesting cast of characters, from Jones and Lana Lee to Detective Mancuso and George to Myrna and Irene to Ms. Trixie, Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Levy – all have encountered Ignatius J. Reiley and have not necessarily remained the same. Having never been to New Orleans I can’t confirm this, but I felt that Toole’s writing of the accents was brilliant even if I couldn’t read or give voice to all of them.

Click here to continue reading.