Book Blog: July 2008
Gentlemen and Players: Joanne Harris
July 5, 2008
Tedious, predictable thriller about vengeance in an upper-crust English boy’s school. Not only is it dully-written — Joanne Harris is incapable of letting a subtle hint or observation go by without ham-handedly spelling it out and hammering it home, just to make sure you really get it — but the climactic plot twist is visible from space. (Let us just say that painstakingly tiptoeing around certain topics brings them into the forefront of the reader’s mind — and thus raises the reader’s suspicions — as much as if the topic had become the main theme of the book.) A real waste of time, this book.
Orlando: A Biography: Virginia Woolf
July 4, 2008
Okay, this is a Virginia Woolf novel that I can get on board with. Historical drama? Check. Gender-switching? Check. Hilarious prose? CHECK. Part of me feels guilty for admitting my admiration for a Woolf novel. The other part of me wants to name my first child Orlando.
Afterlands: Steven Heighton
July 3, 2008
A lyrical, moving dramatization of the ill-fated Polaris Arctic expedition and the Inuit woman who held it all together. This is one of the most interesting incidents in Arctic history, and Heighton handles it well. Recommended.
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed: John Vaillant
July 2, 2008
Despite the title — and despite the interesting incident it examines — it bored me. The whole thing seemed scattered, lightweight, and badly organized; it felt like a magazine article that had been clumsily puffed up into a book. Something about John Vaillant’s writing style annoyed me, too; it might just be a temporary feeling, since I’m currently having a bad reaction to non-fiction writers who try to get cute with their prose, but every clever little quip of Vaillant’s rubbed me the wrong way. Can’t recommend this book.
Dear Whoever Checked The Golden Spruce Out of the Library Before Me:
July 1, 2008
How nice of you to leave a single pubic hair between pages 162-163, as a little treat for future readers. Too bad you didn’t leave a few packs of sanitary wipes along with it, since I’ve now used up all of mine.
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