Son of Johnny Depp Ate Altered Jesus
Nov. 12th, 2005 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maribouThe Man Who Ate Everything, by Jeffrey Steingarten
Essays on the minutiae of food, written by a very lawyerly lawyer who is also Vogue's food critic. I thought they were funny and clever and worthwhile.
(213/200)
Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan
Best SF book I've read this year. Like William Gibson in some ways, only with a touch of Joan-Slonczewski-like biology stuff and more emotional depth. Like, this book made me honestly sad where Gibson never takes me past bleak and hollow. Glad he's written more.
(214/200)
Johnny Depp Starts Here, by Murray Pomerance
Hmm. This is a very very smart book chock full to bursting of highly intellectual theories, playfully presented. However, not actually very important. Still it was fun. But just as fluffy, in its way, as Meg Cabot, only with many more citations and efforts to not be fluffy. I think the author really thinks he is presenting Important Cinematic Theory and I really think he is more or less chasing his own tail. But since I like it when smart funny people chase their own tails, it worked out for me.
(215/200)
Jesus Land, by Julia Scheeres
Oh brother. This was extremely well-made and spiritually sound and really deserves all the acclaim it's been garnishing. But I really didn't realize what a horrible horrible adolescence I was going to be reading about and how much it would make me hate people in general for a while. Ugh. I knew about the Evil Church Reform School going in, but I hadn't grasped how much of what came before would be utterly awful. I don't recommend picking this up if you're already feeling even a little bit frail and/or depressed.
(216/200)
Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire
Hm. I did like this, very much, but I thought the part where Liir was in the army was boring, and that Liir was way too much of a cipher without actual feelings or emotions that I could give a crap about. And then after I got through that part and considered it in the light of the rest of the book... I may've been supposed to be bored and restless and unhappy during that part. I'm not sure. Also, it is not as relentlessly intellectual as Wicked was, which is a loss, in my opinion. But I still ended up making myself late for work because I was enjoying it too much to get my morning stuff done. Which rarely happens. The good parts are a lot better than the lame parts are lame.
(217/200)
Essays on the minutiae of food, written by a very lawyerly lawyer who is also Vogue's food critic. I thought they were funny and clever and worthwhile.
(213/200)
Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan
Best SF book I've read this year. Like William Gibson in some ways, only with a touch of Joan-Slonczewski-like biology stuff and more emotional depth. Like, this book made me honestly sad where Gibson never takes me past bleak and hollow. Glad he's written more.
(214/200)
Johnny Depp Starts Here, by Murray Pomerance
Hmm. This is a very very smart book chock full to bursting of highly intellectual theories, playfully presented. However, not actually very important. Still it was fun. But just as fluffy, in its way, as Meg Cabot, only with many more citations and efforts to not be fluffy. I think the author really thinks he is presenting Important Cinematic Theory and I really think he is more or less chasing his own tail. But since I like it when smart funny people chase their own tails, it worked out for me.
(215/200)
Jesus Land, by Julia Scheeres
Oh brother. This was extremely well-made and spiritually sound and really deserves all the acclaim it's been garnishing. But I really didn't realize what a horrible horrible adolescence I was going to be reading about and how much it would make me hate people in general for a while. Ugh. I knew about the Evil Church Reform School going in, but I hadn't grasped how much of what came before would be utterly awful. I don't recommend picking this up if you're already feeling even a little bit frail and/or depressed.
(216/200)
Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire
Hm. I did like this, very much, but I thought the part where Liir was in the army was boring, and that Liir was way too much of a cipher without actual feelings or emotions that I could give a crap about. And then after I got through that part and considered it in the light of the rest of the book... I may've been supposed to be bored and restless and unhappy during that part. I'm not sure. Also, it is not as relentlessly intellectual as Wicked was, which is a loss, in my opinion. But I still ended up making myself late for work because I was enjoying it too much to get my morning stuff done. Which rarely happens. The good parts are a lot better than the lame parts are lame.
(217/200)
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 03:54 am (UTC)My favorite book I've read this year!
When are we getting together again?
Later this week if I'm not still sniffly?
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 02:20 pm (UTC)So if you are better, please do come down. Wednesday? Friday? ... but if you'd rather wait til we can come up there it might be a while. I don't mean to be so vague, but Jay has like 3 people he has to talk to on Monday that will possibly scheduling him interviews and whatnot. So I don't really know.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 06:18 am (UTC)Not to name-drop (okay, I'm lying), but the reason I read that book was because Nancy Pearl recommended it to me personally when I recommended her "Finder".
(If you haven't run across it, Finder is a very well-realized YA urban fantasy. Elves, motorcycles, racial tensions, and bits that made me sniffle.)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 02:21 pm (UTC)And yay Nancy Pearl.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 09:35 pm (UTC)