Book reviews written by capybara

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Displaying 11-19 of 19 reviews

The Rebel

by Albert Camus
- Rated 5 stars
“How does one live authentically when life is ultimately without meaning? A perfect pairing to The Myth of Sisyphus. Accessible existentialism.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )
Ne?gres blancs d'Ame?ri?que. (English)Pierre Vallieres
Ne?gres blancs d'Ame?ri?que. (English)

by Pierre Vallie?res
- Rated 5 stars
“No one else has this? What's wrong with you people?! This is the biography of a member of the Front de liberation du Quebec (FLQ), a radical separatist group active in the 1960s. The actions of the FLQ - they kidnapped and murdered both a British trade official and a Quebec provincial cabinet minister in October 1970 - led to the 'October Crisis', when PM Pierre Trudeau suspended civil liberties in Canada with the War Measures Act.

Pierre Vallieres is honest, raw, brutal, and real. A must read.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )
Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov
- Rated 5 stars
“God, this book. Nabokov's finest. Nothing like the heady intoxication of doing something you shouldn't, and he captures that.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )
The Amber Spyglass

by Philip Pullman
- Rated 5 stars
“The best of the three. The biggest highlight of this book - the main character kills God by accident, without even realizing what she's doing, in an entirely believable fashion. Also notable -- the strong, believable, and painful depictions of sacrifice on the part of all the characters, especially the main protagonists.

Read the whole trilogy.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )
The Subtle Knife

by Philip Pullman
- Rated 5 stars
“An elaborate cosmology, the revealed plot to kill God, a clear anti-authoritarian message -- I can't imagine for the life of me that they'll be able to pull this off in the movie adaptation.

Any book that gets young adults struggling with issues this weighty gets five stars. Hell, any book that gets anyone of any age struggling with issues this weighty gets five stars.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )
The Golden Compass (Northern Lights)

by Philip Pullman
- Rated 4 stars
“Very strong -- four stars only because this one still doesn't fully reveal the extraordinarily strong (and suprisingly ballsy, for young adult fiction) plot that's the centerpiece of the second and third books in the trilogy.

Read them all, back-to-back.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )
The Plot Against America

by Philip Roth
- Rated 4 stars
“The rather abrupt and utterly unexpected / implausible departure of Lindbergh in order to get the historical timeline 'back on track' is the nagging thing that keeps me from giving this extraordinarily well-written book five stars.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )
World War Z

by Max Brooks
- Rated 5 stars
“Classic. Brooks is the master of zombie fiction.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )
I Know This Much Is True

by Wally Lamb
- Rated 4 stars
“The situation with the girlfriend, on top of the main character's other trials, pushed the novel from the believable to the unbelievable. Otherwise, very strong.”

capybara wrote this review Sunday, June 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )