Title: Crap Book Swap
Description: Reveal thread - no chatty
Description: Reveal thread - no chatty
giz-angel - December 7, 2007 11:25 PM (GMT)
Here!
giz-angel - December 8, 2007 03:41 PM (GMT)
Brat's reveal:
Ghosts of the Fireground by Peter M. Leschak
If almost no one has heard of the Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871, which consumed an entire Wisconsin town and killed twelve hundred people, that's because it occurred at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire. But Peshtigo was a far more potent example of just how devastating and uncontrollable fire can be, which is why it fascinates the author. In this curious blend of history and autobiography, Leschak, himself a wildland firefighter, intersperses an account of the Peshtigo disaster with stories of his own experience on the fireground. The result is often formally awkward, but the material is gripping, and Leschak does an excellent job of evoking both the terror and the majesty of a raging fire. In clean, understated prose, he describes the world of the firefighter, in which endless days of waiting give way to hours of intensity and exaltation. Firefighters, Leschak suggests, may not like fires, but they're never happier than when they're in the middle of one.
Ghosts of the Fireground by Peter M. Leschak
If almost no one has heard of the Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871, which consumed an entire Wisconsin town and killed twelve hundred people, that's because it occurred at the same time as the Great Chicago Fire. But Peshtigo was a far more potent example of just how devastating and uncontrollable fire can be, which is why it fascinates the author. In this curious blend of history and autobiography, Leschak, himself a wildland firefighter, intersperses an account of the Peshtigo disaster with stories of his own experience on the fireground. The result is often formally awkward, but the material is gripping, and Leschak does an excellent job of evoking both the terror and the majesty of a raging fire. In clean, understated prose, he describes the world of the firefighter, in which endless days of waiting give way to hours of intensity and exaltation. Firefighters, Leschak suggests, may not like fires, but they're never happier than when they're in the middle of one.
giz-angel - December 8, 2007 03:46 PM (GMT)
Giz's reveal:
A Dangerous Husband by Jane Shapiro
Amazon.com
Reading The Dangerous Husband is like waking up to earthquake weather: Jane Shapiro's second novel exists in an atmosphere where something shattering is always about to happen. Its context is deceptive--New York in the '90s, a world of artists and writers (the narrator is a photographer), elegant dinner parties at chic apartments. But beneath the surface of this polished world there is trouble. Things are not quite right. For a start, the narrator's new husband, Dennis, cannot move two steps without tripping over himself. At one point he falls through a glass tabletop and almost maims his penis. He keeps an albino frog in a bucket in the basement. The frog floats there, colorless, a sign--but of what?
Shapiro is that rare breed: a truly funny writer who is also emotional and lyrical and deeply sad. Like Joy Williams, she seamlessly evokes a dark and unmistakable world. In The Dangerous Husband the narrator always feels like she is bluffing, playing the part of the wife, watching herself act the way a woman in love acts, wishing she could stop watching herself, wishing she could escape her acute and menacing self-consciousness. Shapiro describes loneliness in prose so precise it's breathtaking:
In loneliness, as we know, anyone who cares for you can become the object of a kind of vagrant love: dry cleaner, hair cutter, naturally any masseuse if you visit one; occasionally the doctor, always the nurse. If any of these evinces a bad attitude you can be crushed like a pip. Otherwise, depths of gratitude. The guy who fixes the frame of your eyeglasses (which you will have broken yourself, when you're lonely, by some method like forgetting they're in bed with you and fitfully rolling back and forth and crushing them in the night), this wonderful simple calm optician, holding up your own glasses in delicate fingers.
As the story progresses, the narrator begins to fear her husband more and more, and fear isolates her further. While at times the plot edges into the implausible, Shapiro never lets it stay suspended there for long. Even when you can't believe her story, you trust her. By the book's end, I knew I would follow her anywhere.
Giz's review
Oh my, this book irritated me! Pretentious, poor construction, HORRIBLE characters, I wanted to hurl it straight out of the window! And looking at the reviews on Amazon I think are you reading the same book as me???? I found it too CLEVER for the sake of it.... oh you can tell can't you, me and this book did not part as friends. So I am offering it in this swap, as I KNOW there are people who disagree with me, and I am hoping to see what someone else thinks!
A Dangerous Husband by Jane Shapiro
Amazon.com
Reading The Dangerous Husband is like waking up to earthquake weather: Jane Shapiro's second novel exists in an atmosphere where something shattering is always about to happen. Its context is deceptive--New York in the '90s, a world of artists and writers (the narrator is a photographer), elegant dinner parties at chic apartments. But beneath the surface of this polished world there is trouble. Things are not quite right. For a start, the narrator's new husband, Dennis, cannot move two steps without tripping over himself. At one point he falls through a glass tabletop and almost maims his penis. He keeps an albino frog in a bucket in the basement. The frog floats there, colorless, a sign--but of what?
Shapiro is that rare breed: a truly funny writer who is also emotional and lyrical and deeply sad. Like Joy Williams, she seamlessly evokes a dark and unmistakable world. In The Dangerous Husband the narrator always feels like she is bluffing, playing the part of the wife, watching herself act the way a woman in love acts, wishing she could stop watching herself, wishing she could escape her acute and menacing self-consciousness. Shapiro describes loneliness in prose so precise it's breathtaking:
In loneliness, as we know, anyone who cares for you can become the object of a kind of vagrant love: dry cleaner, hair cutter, naturally any masseuse if you visit one; occasionally the doctor, always the nurse. If any of these evinces a bad attitude you can be crushed like a pip. Otherwise, depths of gratitude. The guy who fixes the frame of your eyeglasses (which you will have broken yourself, when you're lonely, by some method like forgetting they're in bed with you and fitfully rolling back and forth and crushing them in the night), this wonderful simple calm optician, holding up your own glasses in delicate fingers.
As the story progresses, the narrator begins to fear her husband more and more, and fear isolates her further. While at times the plot edges into the implausible, Shapiro never lets it stay suspended there for long. Even when you can't believe her story, you trust her. By the book's end, I knew I would follow her anywhere.
Giz's review
Oh my, this book irritated me! Pretentious, poor construction, HORRIBLE characters, I wanted to hurl it straight out of the window! And looking at the reviews on Amazon I think are you reading the same book as me???? I found it too CLEVER for the sake of it.... oh you can tell can't you, me and this book did not part as friends. So I am offering it in this swap, as I KNOW there are people who disagree with me, and I am hoping to see what someone else thinks!
bluecat07 - December 8, 2007 04:03 PM (GMT)
My reveal is:
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Book Description
The story of Hank Morgan, a nineteenth-century American who is accidentally returned to sixth-century England, is a powerful analysis of such issues as monarchy versus democracy and free will versus determinism. Yet it is also one of Twain's finest comic novels, still fresh and funny after more than 100 years. This edition reproduces more than 40 of Dan Beard's original drawings.
I had to read this for an English lit class and just couldn't get into it. Didn't get the humour. I liked Huck Finn but not this book. But maybe someone else will think it is hilarious and interesting?!
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Book Description
The story of Hank Morgan, a nineteenth-century American who is accidentally returned to sixth-century England, is a powerful analysis of such issues as monarchy versus democracy and free will versus determinism. Yet it is also one of Twain's finest comic novels, still fresh and funny after more than 100 years. This edition reproduces more than 40 of Dan Beard's original drawings.
I had to read this for an English lit class and just couldn't get into it. Didn't get the humour. I liked Huck Finn but not this book. But maybe someone else will think it is hilarious and interesting?!
giz-angel - December 9, 2007 08:34 AM (GMT)
Breeze's reveal:
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage
Okay, this is an Oprah book and I've heard loads of good things about it, but I CANNOT finish it! Its sooooo sloooooow. I've been carrying it around trying to get into it for weeks, and I'm tired of trying. To me, its crap.
From Amazon.com:
Ava Johnson was the typical everyday woman until a trip to the doctors changed her life; she was diagnosed with AIDS. As a result of all of the stress that comes with living in a big city (Atlanta) and living with AIDS, Ava decides to make a pit stop at her sister's home, while on her way to move to San Francisco. However, once in Idlewood, Michigan, at her sister, Joyce's, everything changes. This book tells about the summer from Ava's point of view. At first, it seems like a pretty harsh book, with AIDS, teen pregnancy, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence. However, the way Cleage ties all of these realities together makes the book even more eventful. Her use of first person allows you, as the reader, to feel as though the book is talking directly to you. Overall, the book is a great example of real life turned into a fiction novel that is a must read for everyone.
What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage
Okay, this is an Oprah book and I've heard loads of good things about it, but I CANNOT finish it! Its sooooo sloooooow. I've been carrying it around trying to get into it for weeks, and I'm tired of trying. To me, its crap.
From Amazon.com:
Ava Johnson was the typical everyday woman until a trip to the doctors changed her life; she was diagnosed with AIDS. As a result of all of the stress that comes with living in a big city (Atlanta) and living with AIDS, Ava decides to make a pit stop at her sister's home, while on her way to move to San Francisco. However, once in Idlewood, Michigan, at her sister, Joyce's, everything changes. This book tells about the summer from Ava's point of view. At first, it seems like a pretty harsh book, with AIDS, teen pregnancy, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence. However, the way Cleage ties all of these realities together makes the book even more eventful. Her use of first person allows you, as the reader, to feel as though the book is talking directly to you. Overall, the book is a great example of real life turned into a fiction novel that is a must read for everyone.
blackteiwaz - December 10, 2007 02:18 AM (GMT)
Candy's Reveal
Whereas McCall's delightful character, Precious Ramotswe, views the world in a rather simplistic, "black-and-white" way, in "The Sunday Philosophy Club we are presented with Miss Dalhousie, whose perspective on the world is far more intellectual, governed by her enthusiasm for philosophy, and as the editor of an erudite publication entitled, "Journal of Applied Ethics". She sees plenty of moral dilemmas around her, very much a consequence of her philosophical approach to life.
She is both fascinated and concerned with those people she meets in her daily life. A sub-plot involving her niece draws out the empathy she feels towards others. In the main plot, as a chance observer to a violent death, this Scots lady finds herself being drawn by default rather than design into detective work. She is determined to get to the bottom of this awful tragedy, which is resolved quite beautifully in the final few pages.
I enjoy the Precious Ramotsywe series so decided to try this one, set in Scotland. However I just could not get on with it at all. I found the central character to be an intellectual snob, patronizing and irritating. All I could think about was that in this book Alexander McCall Smith was showing off his knowledge of the arts: poetry, art and philosophy. I could not finish it!
I know others who have really enjoyed it but not me!
Whereas McCall's delightful character, Precious Ramotswe, views the world in a rather simplistic, "black-and-white" way, in "The Sunday Philosophy Club we are presented with Miss Dalhousie, whose perspective on the world is far more intellectual, governed by her enthusiasm for philosophy, and as the editor of an erudite publication entitled, "Journal of Applied Ethics". She sees plenty of moral dilemmas around her, very much a consequence of her philosophical approach to life.
She is both fascinated and concerned with those people she meets in her daily life. A sub-plot involving her niece draws out the empathy she feels towards others. In the main plot, as a chance observer to a violent death, this Scots lady finds herself being drawn by default rather than design into detective work. She is determined to get to the bottom of this awful tragedy, which is resolved quite beautifully in the final few pages.
I enjoy the Precious Ramotsywe series so decided to try this one, set in Scotland. However I just could not get on with it at all. I found the central character to be an intellectual snob, patronizing and irritating. All I could think about was that in this book Alexander McCall Smith was showing off his knowledge of the arts: poetry, art and philosophy. I could not finish it!
I know others who have really enjoyed it but not me!
Breeze - December 10, 2007 10:43 AM (GMT)
Camis' Reveal:
Is It Just me Or Is Everything Shit? by Alan McArthur & Steve Lowe
If you hate: loft living; bar-clubs; Tony Blair; chick lit; global warming sceptics; Keane; loyalty cards; IKEA; Kabbalah; bling and Richard Curtis...then you need IS IT JUST ME OR IS EVERYTHING SHIT? - an encylopedic attack on modern culture and the standard reference work for everyone who believes everything is shit. Which it is. This book is for the large percentage of the population interested in saying NO to the phoney ideas, cretinous people, useless products and doublespeak that increasingly dominate our lives. This book is designed for everyone who thinks they may have mislaid their soul in a Coffee Republic. Never before has there been a book so completely full of shit. This very funny, well-informed, belligerent rant of a book adds up to an excoriating broadside against consumer capitalism that the authors hope will sell loads of copies.
This is my journal entry...
I've only made it to 'C' and I'm afraid it is really irritating me so I don't think I will read any further! A few amusing bits but the rest all seemed to be him ranting about things and that, plus the constant swearing, has put me off.
Hopefully someone else may want to read it!
Is It Just me Or Is Everything Shit? by Alan McArthur & Steve Lowe
If you hate: loft living; bar-clubs; Tony Blair; chick lit; global warming sceptics; Keane; loyalty cards; IKEA; Kabbalah; bling and Richard Curtis...then you need IS IT JUST ME OR IS EVERYTHING SHIT? - an encylopedic attack on modern culture and the standard reference work for everyone who believes everything is shit. Which it is. This book is for the large percentage of the population interested in saying NO to the phoney ideas, cretinous people, useless products and doublespeak that increasingly dominate our lives. This book is designed for everyone who thinks they may have mislaid their soul in a Coffee Republic. Never before has there been a book so completely full of shit. This very funny, well-informed, belligerent rant of a book adds up to an excoriating broadside against consumer capitalism that the authors hope will sell loads of copies.
This is my journal entry...
I've only made it to 'C' and I'm afraid it is really irritating me so I don't think I will read any further! A few amusing bits but the rest all seemed to be him ranting about things and that, plus the constant swearing, has put me off.
Hopefully someone else may want to read it!
Breeze - December 10, 2007 10:48 AM (GMT)
Sunny's Reveal:
Haunting and tender, with brilliant flashes of humour, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is the story of the disintegration of a captivating American family in 1970s suburban Michigan. The five Lisbon sisters are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who, twenty years on, recall their adolescence: the sisters' gauche but breathtaking appearance on the night of the homecoming dance; the brassière belonging to the beautiful, promiscuous Lux, draped over a crucifix on the wall; the records the boys played down the phone, trying desperately to penetrate the sisters' isolation; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched fragile lives disappear ...
....................
Hmm, without doubt the most disapointing book I've attempted to read this year - I found it soooooo boring, which is a shame because I found the premise really interesting :shrug:
Haunting and tender, with brilliant flashes of humour, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is the story of the disintegration of a captivating American family in 1970s suburban Michigan. The five Lisbon sisters are embalmed in the memories of the boys who worshipped them and who, twenty years on, recall their adolescence: the sisters' gauche but breathtaking appearance on the night of the homecoming dance; the brassière belonging to the beautiful, promiscuous Lux, draped over a crucifix on the wall; the records the boys played down the phone, trying desperately to penetrate the sisters' isolation; and the sultry, sleepy street across which they watched fragile lives disappear ...
....................
Hmm, without doubt the most disapointing book I've attempted to read this year - I found it soooooo boring, which is a shame because I found the premise really interesting :shrug:
redhot-brat - December 10, 2007 11:02 PM (GMT)
Blackteiwaz' Reveal
Highlander in her bed by Allie MacKay
Book description:
Tour guide Mara MacDougall stops at a London antique shop-and spots perhaps the handsomest bed ever. Then she bumps into the handsomest man ever. Soon Mara can't forget the irresistible-if haughty-Highlander. Not even when she learns that she's inherited a Scottish castle.
Spectral Sir Alexander Douglas has hated the Clan MacDougall since he was a medieval knight and they tricked him into a curse-the curse of forever haunting the bed (the very one that Mara now owns) that was once intended for his would-be bride. But Mara makes him feel what no other MacDougall has-a passion that he never knew he'd missed.
Highlander in her bed by Allie MacKay
Book description:
Tour guide Mara MacDougall stops at a London antique shop-and spots perhaps the handsomest bed ever. Then she bumps into the handsomest man ever. Soon Mara can't forget the irresistible-if haughty-Highlander. Not even when she learns that she's inherited a Scottish castle.
Spectral Sir Alexander Douglas has hated the Clan MacDougall since he was a medieval knight and they tricked him into a curse-the curse of forever haunting the bed (the very one that Mara now owns) that was once intended for his would-be bride. But Mara makes him feel what no other MacDougall has-a passion that he never knew he'd missed.
giz-angel - December 14, 2007 09:19 AM (GMT)
Stellarv's reveal:
Lasher
Anne Rice
At the centre of Anne Rice's brilliant novel, the beautiful Rowan Mayfair, queen of the coven, must flee from the darkly brutal, yet irresistible demon known as Lasher. With a dreamlike power, this wickedly seductive entity draws us through twilight paths, telling a chillingly hypnotic story of spiritual aspirations and passion. 'Behind all the velvet drapes and gossamer winding sheets, this is an old-fashioned family saga - Rice's descriptive writing is so opulent it almost begs to be read by candlelight' - "The Washington Post Book World".
Lasher
Anne Rice
At the centre of Anne Rice's brilliant novel, the beautiful Rowan Mayfair, queen of the coven, must flee from the darkly brutal, yet irresistible demon known as Lasher. With a dreamlike power, this wickedly seductive entity draws us through twilight paths, telling a chillingly hypnotic story of spiritual aspirations and passion. 'Behind all the velvet drapes and gossamer winding sheets, this is an old-fashioned family saga - Rice's descriptive writing is so opulent it almost begs to be read by candlelight' - "The Washington Post Book World".