Books I've Read - February 2009
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I've started on a non-fiction title that's hard to read and I find myself re-reading paragraphs just to have an understanding of what's being written.
Let's continue our tally!
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Started reading end of Jan and End in Feb, I guess counts as Feb right? Reading this detective series set in the 1940s - Doan and Carstairs by Norbert Davis! It's Very Very funny and well written and you really grow to like the characters (considering that Carstairs is a huge Great dane) that's not difficult. I quote the review below:
"Doan and Carstair are the creation of relatively prolific pulpster Norbert Davis, whose "fatal flaw" was, according to Jack Adrain, in Hard-Boiled, "a sense of humour...that was ultimately responsible for keeping him from being published more frequently." Even now, a lot of people just "don't get" Davis' whacky blend of hard-boiled humour."
Here's the review!
Check out how BIG Carstairs is.. err on the illustration!
(I have this set of 3 ebooks if anyone is interested)
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Ok I finished reading 2 books yesterday but who cares, I'll treat it as my quota for Feb
First one was a Graphical Noval "Coroline by Neil Gaiman"
“Coraline discovered the door a little after they moved into the house.” Thus begins the creepy adventures of a little girl who discovers an alternate world in her own house. The world beyond the door is similar to her own world. There is even an identical set of parents…but wait! Are those big black buttons in place of eyes? Soon Coraline realizes that her “other mother” wants to keep her permanently in her world. She even has a lovely set of black buttons for Coraline.
This is the graphical adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s hugely popular children’s book, Coraline. Not having read the original book, I can’t really compare them, but it seems the ideal story to receive the graphical treatment. The illustrations by P. Craig Russell are detailed and realistic, evoking the kindness of Coraline’s real mother and the evilness of her sinister ”other mother” equally well.
This book will be released as a major motion picture in stereoscopic 3D in February of 2009. See the trailer http://www.coraline.com/
It's really quote a strange story to be a children's book. Kinda warped actually :P but it is enjoyable nevertheless
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Other book I finished was "Blue Heaven by C.J Box"
Reviews and cover picture here
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Originally posted by ShrodingersCat:
Started reading end of Jan and End in Feb, I guess counts as Feb right? Reading this detective series set in the 1940s - Doan and Carstairs by Norbert Davis! It's Very Very funny and well written and you really grow to like the characters (considering that Carstairs is a huge Great dane) that's not difficult. I quote the review below:
"Doan and Carstair are the creation of relatively prolific pulpster Norbert Davis, whose "fatal flaw" was, according to Jack Adrain, in Hard-Boiled, "a sense of humour...that was ultimately responsible for keeping him from being published more frequently." Even now, a lot of people just "don't get" Davis' whacky blend of hard-boiled humour."
Here's the review!
Check out how BIG Carstairs is.. err on the illustration!
(I have this set of 3 ebooks if anyone is interested)
I want the ebooks pls!!!
Thanks
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anyone knoe where got sell twlight? popular got boh?
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I'm currently reading a historical novel, based on the diaries of a english seafarer. It's called Samura William: The Englishman who opened Japan written by Giles Milton, and my short 20-page stint of reading has got me hooked.
The one I bought is apparently the 'sale' paperback version of it. A few different covers as well. This is the one I have, which I think is visually appealing comparing it to the rest.
Part of the review.
Samurai William is an extremely readable, scholarly study of the opening (and in 1637, the closing) of Japan to western trade. Using many primary sources, Milton creates an exciting story of how Japan came to be "discovered," what its values and culture were, and why the intrusion of the west and the possibility of trade were eventually rebuffed. The contrasts Milton sets up throughout the bigoraphy attest to his appreciation of 17th century Japanese society. Though he clearly does not agree with the sense of quick justice, the immediate executions, and the brutality and torture carried out by the Japanese in the name of justice, he shows his admiration for their courage and sense of honor, their loyalty and respect for authority, their beautifully constructed and aesthetically pleasing gardens in Kyoto, the grandeur of the palace in Edo (now the Imperial Palace in Tokyo), along with more mundane characteristics, such as their concern for hygiene and bathing, their medical practices (including acupuncture), their care for their appearance and cleanliness, their careful food preparation with its emphasis on freshness and healthiness, and their quiet self-control. The obvious contrasts to the mores of western society show how the hierarchical, non-individualized focus of the Japanese led to a more community-oriented society with a much higher level of "civilization" than that of the adventurer-traders, who were out for personal benefits, no matter the costs to their host country. So power-hungry were the westerners at the trading posts and the Jesuits in their parishes, that it is easy to see why Ieyasu's grandson eventually banned them all in order to preserve his own society.
Though Samurai William Adams is the real-life role model for James Clavell's Shogun, I found him far more true to life and interesting in this book. Neither romanticized nor idealized, he exists here as a man with flaws, often speaking in his own voice. His life as a seaman and his life in Japan, are fascinatingly portrayed, attesting both to Milton's scholarship and his imagination as he recreates successfully the two cultural and social milieus in which Adams spent his two very different lives.
- From http://www.mostlyfiction.com/adventure/milton.htm
More at http://www.amazon.com/Samurai-William-Englishman-Opened-Japan/dp/B000BTH562/ref=ed_oe_p_bargain
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Originally posted by elindra:
I want the ebooks pls!!!
Thanks
Silly me! I should have just placed this link here
I used to love neil gaiman's comics.. the Endless and Morpheus..
he's a lovely writer with a lot of very whimsical and original ideas.
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OK, for the running tally in the Booklovers League, two for Pinky, one for ShroCat!
Keii, tell me when you have completed reading so I can count your tally too!
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the only book i am reading now is the manuals for my office ept.
damn how to fix the printer!!
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yr printer what problem? oo
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nicholas spark - the choice
not bad
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booklovers! just getting back in the habit of reading books for pleasure rather than for exams.
my first post so be gentle.
just finished 'The Demon Haunted World' by Carl Sagan. good book about the impt of rationality and science in our lives.
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Now reading The Firm, by John Grisham.
Not mine, just borrowed from the nannies room at the Texas House.
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Originally posted by The Fatone:
booklovers! just getting back in the habit of reading books for pleasure rather than for exams.
my first post so be gentle.
just finished 'The Demon Haunted World' by Carl Sagan. good book about the impt of rationality and science in our lives.
Oooh! First post!! You gave your 'virginity' to Club 30!!
We welcome you with wide open arms! 
I love science titles and that book looks like something I'd love to read someday! Don't know if you're heard of the book "The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science" :
It caught my eye when it was first released, but now, years later, I still have yet to get hold of it to read.
Akan datang... I think... Anyways, if you're a keen bookreader, do join us in our thread that has a sticky on it - The League of Booklovers.
We welcome fellow book lovers with wiiiiide open arms! -
Originally posted by SydneyLibrarian:
OK! I shall go update your tally!
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Originally posted by The Fatone:
booklovers! just getting back in the habit of reading books for pleasure rather than for exams.
my first post so be gentle.
just finished 'The Demon Haunted World' by Carl Sagan. good book about the impt of rationality and science in our lives.
I find that Carl Sagan really shares with you a sense of wonder about the world - and the amazing paradox that each of us are insignificant in an immense creation, yet being part of this miracle makes each of us so special too.
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Finished re-reading this one over the weekend. The last of 3 books about norton the cat. A must for all cat lovers!
http://www.amazon.com/Cat-Wholl-Live-Forever-Adventures/dp/0767909038/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c
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And this one:
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Wow... I'll add another two books to your tally! Impressive!
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http://manybooks.net/titles/whitefre2739527395-8.html
The Slave of Silence
by Fred M White
Published 1904
category: Thriller
Another light enjoyable pulp fiction! Ok some things don't make sense but some of the ideas are pretty cool.
I also like the fact that there are incorrigible villains in it.
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by G.K. Chesterton
Published in 1905I enjoyed this collection of stories and thought it has some pretty innovative and cool ideas!!! Essentially about a group of people who have 'invented' original trades that they make their living by. You can click the link to download the story or to read an excerpt.
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I'm done with Samurai William!
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Originally posted by Keii:
I'm done with Samurai William!
Alright! Way to go!
I'll add that to your tally!
