Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Review: Turtle Moon


Turtle Moon
Turtle Moon by Alice Hoffman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I read this on a night train in Europe, the summer I backpacked around and caught the travelling bug. I recall thinking it was okay, but nothing worth lugging about as a keeper, except that I started the habit of writing the date and location I've read books on the first page inside the book that summer and I wanted to have the one that referenced a night train between two separate countries.



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Review: Crow Lake


Crow Lake
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It was a long time ago and all I really recall was that my store bought copy was missing pages and I had to read that section in Waterstone's.



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Monday, June 24, 2013

Review: The History of the Forgotten War: Korean War, 1950-1953 and Afterwards


The History of the Forgotten War: Korean War, 1950-1953 and Afterwards
The History of the Forgotten War: Korean War, 1950-1953 and Afterwards by Soon Wuk Kim

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



My students and I went on a field trip to the War Museum of Korea on Friday and a man in the museum handed me this. Though it's poorly translated, it was a decent basic intro to the war.



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Monday, June 10, 2013

Review: Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies, and Aid


Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies, and Aid
Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies, and Aid by Samantha Nutt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Moving, if not really telling me anything I don't know. The Canadian connection was interesting. It made me want to go out and do something useful, or at the very least move to Africa.



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Friday, June 07, 2013

Review: India Dishonoured: Behind a nation's war on women


India Dishonoured: Behind a nation's war on women
India Dishonoured: Behind a nation's war on women by Sunny Hundal

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



While I'm not sure I learned very much that was completely new, this was a good summary of the situation in India and a reminder of things I'd read previously in newspapers, magazines and online.



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Thursday, June 06, 2013

Review: Always Right


Always Right
Always Right by Niall Ferguson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



So, the other day while I was bored at work I one-clicked away on a bunch of Kindle Singles and this was one of them. I didn't put much thought into any of these purchases, and so I was a bit startled when I realized that this was a book praising Thatcher - I guess I thought the title was a joke.

Anyway, it does the mind good to read something you don't agree with every once in a while, though I will admit to being glad that this is something I almost totally polished off on my short commute to and from work yesterday. It only gets 2 stars because it really didn't provide much background about her at all - what are wet and dry Tories, for example?

I must admit, my mind was chanting "Thatcher, Thatcher milk snatcher" asI read.



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Monday, June 03, 2013

Review: The Heart Goes Last


The Heart Goes Last
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This series makes me feel all Dickens-era old-fashioned, having to read installment by installment. I liked this section a lot - the prostibots are interesting and it's set up the next section nicely.



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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Review: The Undead in My Bed


The Undead in My Bed
The Undead in My Bed by Katie MacAlister

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I enjoyed the first two stories - vamp porn is best when it's funny. The last one was pretty meh, but it was also the shortest, so that's fine.



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Monday, May 27, 2013

Review: Cloud Atlas


Cloud Atlas
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



So, this book blew my mind. That first chapter, I wasn't too impressed. It was sort of meh, and I wondered what everyone was raving about and then it ended really abruptly and I was confused. The second chapter, still kind of meh, though it interested me that there was a connection between the two. And then by part three, I was completely and utterly hooked. It's the language, the technique, the fascinating way each connects with the other and how the things that you accept as fact turn out to be fiction, each story nestling into the other like pots in a cupboard.

Plus, a pre-apocalyptic society set in South Korea? Fuck yeah. I really need to see the movie because I can't imagine who/how/why someone read this and thought it would make a good film. I said more intelligent things about this while raving about it to a hasher I bumped into on the bus to Songtan on Saturday, but I'm overtired now and so this is what you get.



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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Review: Hear the Wind Sing


Hear the Wind Sing
Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I read/heard/made up in a dream that Murakami would prefer no one read his first two books. But lately, for really no reason I can pin down, I've gotten interested in the idea of reading books by authors in order -written or published, I haven't obsessed about the details- and until now hadn't done anything with that idea.

Until I found myself bag-sitting while everyone else was running the NQR hash, under a train bridge at night with a podium someone rescued from the trash and a chair I borrowed from a hut-ajoshi, at night under a single street lamp and this is what I decided to click on in my kindle. And in spite of what I expected, considering Murakami's lack of love for this short novel, I quite enjoyed it. It had a lot of his elements: a cat, a slightly misformed character, descriptions of simple meals, music, and a sense of extreme, profound loneliness and the struggle to connect.

I won't start on them right away, but I look forward to the other three Rat books.



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Review: Erase Me


Erase Me
Erase Me by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I enjoyed episode three o Positron, though not a lot happened. The set up for what will come next was great though.



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Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Review: Child to Soldier: Stories from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army


Child to Soldier: Stories from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army
Child to Soldier: Stories from Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army by Opiyo Oloya

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



The low ranking doesn't entirely feel fair, but then, this wasn't a three star read for me, not entirely. Partially I just wasn't expecting such an academic work - I thought it would be more of a narrative nonfiction read. So, the constant references to various thinkers sort of bored me. In general, I found a lot of it a wee bit boring. The section on the history of Uganda was rather on the confusing side and I thought that a lot of the parts about Acholi culture were a bit repetitive.

Where the book really shone was in the two stories of the CI (Child-Inducted) soldiers. They were really interesting. But they didn't feel entirely complete - at the end Oloya talks about how to reintegrate people who are both victims and perpetrators of the LRA, but neither of the stories at all discusses the way in which they were perpetrators. It felt rather one sided.



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Friday, April 26, 2013

Review: Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel: Ten Twisted Tales


Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel: Ten Twisted Tales
Shooting Monkeys in a Barrel: Ten Twisted Tales by S.G. Browne

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The comparison to Christopher Moore has to be made first. After that, we'll I think it might be more of a three star read, in terms of the language, but I loved the ideas behind all of the stories. Particularly the last one, Zombie Giggalo, because I've never been so grossed out while reading!



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Monday, April 22, 2013

Review: The Night Eternal


The Night Eternal
The Night Eternal by Guillermo del Toro

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was pretty decent and all, but I really found it dragged. It was like I hit a point where it seemed so obvious what had to happen but there was a substantial percentage of the book still to read. And, total spoiler but the bit at the end when Eph and Zack die felt like such a cop out to me. I wanted some sort of dramatic showdown, or an after where they have to improve on their clearly fucked up selves, but nope. They just get to stare into each other's eyes and croak.

Oh, and I am now SUCH a kindle convert. It took me a wee while to get used to it, but now, I'm in. I managed to read the end of this while standing in the rain waiting for the hashers to finish trail, and I could not have held the umbrella and an actual book at the same time.



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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Review: Choke Collar


Choke Collar
Choke Collar by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It's interesting to get to review a story in parts like this because while the first installment was a 5* read for me, this one was only 3. It's not bad, at all, but it focuses more on building up to an interesting thing than being about interesting things. It left off on an interesting note, though, so I look forward to the next.



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Saturday, April 06, 2013

Review: The Fall


The Fall
The Fall by Guillermo del Toro

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I read this book in tiny slivers - ten minutes in the cab to work in the mornings, twenty minutes during a break at work, another chunk on subways or buses before I got too tired to concentrate.

It was really good. It's been awhile since I read The Strain and it took me a bit to get into the story line again. The focus in this book was to take the world to the absolute worst case scenario, so the next one should be interesting. I assume based on the authors that this may become a movie and I think it would be really good.



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Review: I'm Starved for You


I'm Starved for You
I'm Starved for You by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



It's been ages since I've had the time to read for fun, so at work when I had a Friday with only an hour and a half of classes and nothing really to prep, I started this.

It was great. I loved the way she dropped me into the story and slowly let the world unfold, but I think I also just loved reading again. I'm glad it was short - one afternoon at work and the bus home and maybe another 15 minutes as I ate dinner and it was done.

Looking forward to the rest of the Positron series.



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Monday, February 11, 2013

Review: Nervous Conditions


Nervous Conditions
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Holy fuck, this blew my mind.

I suppose what really got me was watching a young girl in an extremely male dominated world try to work her way through it to succeed in spite of a lot of adversity. And to watch each of the women around her try to do so too. What I really liked about the novel gets hit on in the author interview at the end, that there are no monsters in this book, each character does get to explain and be understood.

The author interview also mentions that Dangarembga finds race hard to write about. I hope she succeeds though because what was touched on in Nervous Conditions was interesting and I'd love to read more.

Read this book. Now.



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