Books

Book 52: The Boy Detective Fails – Joe Meno

The Boy Detective Fails - Joe MenoThis is the story of Billy Argos, the boy detective. The way the book is put together is fascinating and reminded me a lot of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The chapters start at 31 and there are random pages with word formations or small paragraphs which was a bit annoying, but it added to the quirkiness of the book. Perhaps the most intriguing/annoying thing was the hidden message along the bottom of the pages. I of course had to figure it out because it was driving me nuts. The coded message is after the jump, but I didn’t decode it and left out a bit so you have to read the book yourself to find out. I did follow the instructions and we’ll see what happens. Update: After having emailed the address and then googling the email address I found they no longer respond 🙁 Apparently you received another coded email and if you broke that code some stickers.

Click here to continue reading the review, to see the coded story and quotes from the book.

Books

Book 51: The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson

The Finkler Question - Howard JacobsonI’m not sure how to review this book. I’m surprised I’ve not heard more about it, but simultaneously not in the least bit surprised I’ve heard so little about it. I don’t know anything about the author and the only reason I know this book is because it beat Emma Donoghue’s Room for the 2010 Man Booker Prize. I read it because it was the first book I came across on my new Kindle (see I got a Kindle!!!) under $5.

This book is about being Jewish, or wanting to be Jewish in today’s London. It’s hard to say what was good and what was bad about The Finkler Question. There were times where the comedic and playfulness of the novel bordered on irreverent or even blasphemous. I definitely recommend reading it as it was a hell of a lot easier than most of the other Man Booker Prize novels I’ve read and is about a fascinating subject. There are quite a few quotes thanks to the Kindle’s Notes feature. I recommend checking them out as they might give a better idea of the breadth of the novel than this review.

Click here for quotes and to continue reading.

Books

Book 48: The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington – Brian Francis

The Secret Fruit of Peter Paddington - Brian FrancisWhen I picked up this novel the back cover read as follows, “Peter Paddington is your typical thirteen-year-old paperboy with a few exceptions. He’s 204 pounds, at the mercy of an overactive imagination, and his only friend is a trash-talking beauty queen reject from across the street. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Peter’s nipples pop out one day and begin speaking to him threatening to expose his private fantasies to an unkind world.”

So of course I had to purchase it and at only $2.99 it was a bargain.

Overall I wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to find a copy, but if you stumble across it and it’s cheap you might enjoy reading it. It was a fun book to read, especially if you’re a ‘fat kid’ questioning your sexuality, or once were. And although my imagination is nowhere near as overactive as Peter’s and my nipples never talked to me, I couldn’t help but identify with Peter’s struggles and triumphs.

Click here to read the review…

Books

Book 41: Room – Emma Donoghue

Room - Emma DonoghueI finished reading Room in three days. Now that might not sound like much of a feat, but it was actually closer to 48 hours (which if you know me still isn’t much of a feat, but with a full-time job and a million other things to do, it sounds like a challenge). After hearing Emma Donoghue read a portion of the first chapter (Oh Hey, Big City…), I of course had to start reading immediately. Her reading was perfect and the Irish tilt of her American accent gave voice to the characters in my head as I was reading.

From the various Booker Prize winning novels I must say that I feel those that make the shortlist and those that ultimately win are distinctly different. For me it is much easier to read the shortlist novels and they are almost always invariably more enjoyable. The one exception so far is Margaret Atwood’s Blind Assassin (Book 27: The Blind Assassin – Margaret Atwood), but perhaps that is because I thoroughly enjoyed the uniqueness of the three distinct stories weaving into one.

Click here to keep reading.

Quotes

Harvey Milk Quote

“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”