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Joel B

Joel B

has 43 followers and is following 49 people

Check out the best books I've read lately: http://crunchygods.blogspot.com/
I've read all the books on my "Read" shelf, and I plan to read all the books on my "Plan to Read" shelf, if I live long enough! I love fiction that expresses the overwhelming beauty and sadness of the world, and if it makes me laugh out loud, that's a bonus. I like... more »
  • Denver, Co, USA
  • member since December 1, 2007

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Joel B’s last login was 15 hours ago. show recent activity »

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Public Notes

  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    Thanks for the review, Joel--I think H. will enjoy "Reamde."

    posted 4 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    Thanks for the review, Joel--I think H. will enjoy "Reamde."

    posted 4 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    not a problem--thanks!

    posted 5 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    Hi, Joel--I saw that you're reading "Reamde." Could you let me know what you think of it? If you like it, I might buy it for my husband. He's liked other Stephenson books he's read. Thanks, Joel--Leslie

    posted 5 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jim H

    Jim H says

    Yes, I've "read" The Arrival. I've liked them all. Terrific artwork.

    posted 8 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jim H

    Jim H says

    Joel,

    I've just finished Lost and Found, by Shaun Tan. It includes The Red Tree, Lost and Found, and The Rabbits. I highly recommend it. The illustrations seemed even more fantastical in this edition than in the single editions of Lost and Found and The Rabbits. I don't know if they actually are; maybe I was in a more receptive frame of mind. I love it when I can get lost in a book. So many things to look at and absorb.

    Jim

    posted 8 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jim H

    Jim H says

    Joel,

    If you look at my shelf you will notice that I have (accidentally) blocked my pictures. Do you know how to restore them?

    Jim

    posted 12 months ago. ( send a note )
  • Jim H

    Jim H says

    Joel,

    I accidentally deleted "my friends" icons. Not the actual links but the pictures. Do you know how to restore the icons?

    Jim

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    Thanks, Joel and good new year wishes. Your blogs are great. I agree completely with you re "Room"--the voice makes the novel. Thanks again for the encouragement to read David Mitchell--he's a true delight. "Cloud Atlas" and "Thousand Autumns" are definitely on my list of favorites for 2010. Look forward to whatever he creates next! Any clues?

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Robin636

    Robin636 says

    wishing you a wondrous new year
    cheers,

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    Hi, Joel--Maybe someone else has answered this question somewhere online. I'm wondering if something like Mount Shiranui and what happened there has any basis in history or if this is all out of Mitchell's head. Any idea? Loved "Autumns" and it's just as good this time around.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    "Thousand Autumns" is amazing and incredibly wonderful. This one bears a reread--40 pages to go and I'm wondering how many more twists can he possibly put in before the end? He packs so much into this book--sets my mind reeling: isolation versus contact with the outside world, attempts to bridge the two very different worlds, metaphor of translation, things being lost in translation, literally and figuratively and of course struggles for power, and that's only a smidgin of what's here. You can really play with a lot in this book.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    Hi, Joel--there are some books where I'm disappointed, not in the book, but in what I brought, or failed to bring to them. That's where I am with "Ghostwritten." Dazzling artistry, loved the humor (the Bach "Well-Tempered Clavier" that makes him "dream about a team of synchronized tail-chasing Escher cats"--THAT'S funny!), but overall just didn't really get where he was going. More than anything else, for me it seemed like a dress rehearsal for "Cloud Atlas." The Music of Chance piece seems in some way a precursor to Frobisher's Cloud Atlas Sextet. Even characters that he first starts to imagine here and brings them in much more fleshed out in CA--Cavendish, Luisa Rey. I know I'd get more out of it if I read it again, just don't want to. Just started "Thousand Autumns" and love it so far. I'd welcome your thoughts.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Cheryl C

    Cheryl C says

    I've read both. Now I'm a big bonobo fan. I learned a lot about the traveling circus when I read "Water". Not literary giants, but entertaining.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Cheryl C

    Cheryl C says

    Did you like "Ape House" as much as "Water for Elephants"?

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Jerseygirl / Mrs. Constance (Oodles) Oxford-Whapdoodle, B.C., D.C.

    Jerseygirl / Mrs. Constance (Oodles) Oxford-Whapdoodle, B.C., D.C. says

    The History Non-Fiction Group is voting for the Oct-Dec Quarterly Group read. We've had several interesting books nominated. Please take a look and vote if you'd like to join in.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    Hi, Joel--I'm squarely in the David Mitchell fan club. I found "Cloud Atlas" really wonderful, especially the Sonmi and Zachry sections for the ways he stretches language. In Sonmi, I also marveled at the imagination--he must have sketched out an entire world for her to inhabit, then chosen bits to highlight in her interrogation. So much here that I'm struggling to write a mini-review of it. Cavendish's fellow elderly compatriots feeling "invisible," the horrible "eat or be eaten" worlds that many of these characters inhabit and stand against. The musician in me was very drawn to the "Cloud Atlas Sextet" parts and I was glad that he brought the Sextet back and elucidated it even more in "Black Swan Green." That's where I am now, with Jason hiding from horrible boys who tease him unmercifully about his stammer. Love that he calls it Hangman. Thought this is so real, Mitchell must have experienced it firsthand. So went on Wikipedia and discovered that he's had a stammer since childhood and searches for alternate words that "Hangman" will allow. Wonderful book! Or "epic," as Jason says.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • jane v

    jane v says

    HI Joel. You were so write about Mitchell, and "Black Swan Green". I loved BSG, but it differs so much from "Cloud Atlas". I am so grateful and impressed by Mitchell, his creativity and craft seem endless.

    And, even though I am going to read it, you are right about Franzen too. He is a misanthrope, and he doesn't have the generosity of Mitchell, the sheer joy in writing, does he?Thanks for your insight.

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • Leslie E

    Leslie E says

    Hi, Joel--I love "Cloud Atlas." Would really like to talk about it with you when I finish (only just started the second Sonmi-451 section). Think I'll need to read this one more than once--lots of interconnections that I'm missing, I'm sure. Saw that you're planning to read "Never Let Me Go." This is one of those books I absolutely loved, though it broke my heart. Hope you like it. Cheers, Leslie

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )
  • jane v

    jane v says

    Dear Joel B., I see that you are a fan of David Mitchell. I am reading "Cloud Atlas" and also "Black Swan Green." Did you like BSG if you'd read it? (I will check out your website) Do you like Franzen? I am eager to read his latest at the moment, love your description of fiction.......thanks for your time, Jane

    posted 1 year ago. ( send a note )

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