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K

K

has 6 followers and is following 6 people

Hello, my name is K. When I'm not reading my back issues of Penthouse Forum, I like to indulge in literature and works of fiction that involve the main character(s) being on some sort of journey (a road novel for lack of a better term)- bonus points if the narrative voice is in the first person and extra bonus points if one of the key characters... more »
  • Western Sahara
  • member since March 11, 2008

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 20 reviews
  • Kitchen Confidential
    • Rated 4 stars

    “I've always liked Tony Bourdain- I appreciated his curmudgeonly snark. While I enjoyed his biographical anecdotes, I preferred the behind-the-scenes goings-on at a restaurant. Some really eye-opening stuff which gave me a new appreciation of the chef occupation. While I had an idea of some of the organized chaos in the kitchen from shows like Top Chef, I didn't know the full extent of what a successful restaurant entails.”

    K wrote this review Sunday, January 15, 2012. ( reply | permalink )
  • The extra 2% : how Wall Street strategies took a major league baseball team from worst to first
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Moneyball-lite. Written about the underdog Tampa Bay Rays, and how they've arisen from laughingstock to annually rival the Red Sox and Yankees at a payroll dwarfed by those megaliths. Unlike Moneyball, the principle architects of the franchise and key players aren't delved into, and thus empathy and simpatico is not the same. This is in part due to the secretive nature of the ownership- so you don't get any of the compelling fly-on-the-wall chapters such as the infamous Moneyball draft room scene.”

    K wrote this review Tuesday, December 27, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
    • Rated 4 stars

    “A detective novel made compelling by the heroine: a precocious 11 year old British girl who is also an aspiring chemist. Flavia is plucky and likeable. I'm reminded of the heroine in True Grit in that she is able to outsmart adults and intuit their motivations. Maybe this would also make for a good movie adaptation and a equally good vehicle for a starlet?”

    K wrote this review Tuesday, December 27, 2011. ( reply | permalink )
  • Little Bee
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Gripping story about an orphaned Nigerian teen whose life becomes entwined with that of a British woman after a "Sophie's Choice"-type harrowing event occurs on a beach. Each chapter alters between the narrative voices of Little Bee, the girl, and Sarah, a 30-something magazine editor. I felt that Cleave, the author, made Little Bee a little too precocious. While the tale is moving, it didn't tug at my heartstrings and resonate as much, as a result of Little Bee's tone being slightly off-putting.

    Anyway, I do recommend this page turner with an important message about the atrocities that occur in civil war ravaged countries that we often choose to bury our heads in the sand about.”

    K wrote this review Thursday, December 23, 2010. ( reply | permalink )
  • Codex
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Intellectual suspense thriller in the genre of "Da Vinci Code", "The Rule of Four", et al. Very readable (I suppose most books of this ilk are page turners) but I found this to be more realistic. It avoids cliches that abound novels in this genre. The ending is a good example of this. Also, it's refreshing that the balance of world power (ahem Dan Brown) isn't in jeopardy with the outcome of solving the medieval puzzle at the crux of the story.”

    K wrote this review Thursday, September 23, 2010. ( reply | permalink )
  • Middlesex
    • Rated 3 stars

    “Winding narrative takes a while to develop. Eugenides uses a flowery prose that paints a vivid picture. Things pick up towards the end. A couple of times the narrator tips off what's going to happen which spoils a couple of major plot developments. I know Calliope, the narrator, has an omniscient view point, but odd to me nonetheless.”

    K wrote this review Wednesday, September 8, 2010. ( reply | permalink )
  • Dubliners
    • Rated 2 stars

    “It seems like with most short story collections I read, I always end up liking only a couple out of the entire lot. It's no different with The Dubliners. This is the second work of James Joyce I've read, after Portrait of An Artist as a Young Man, and because I'm unfamiliar with the vernacular and nuances of early 20th century life in Dublin, it is difficult to follow at times. (in fact, in reviewing some of the stories online afterwards, I completely missed a key plot line in "The Two Gallants"). In fact, I recommend skipping "Ivy Day in the Committee Room" entirely, as it deals with people complaining about Irish politics entirely.

    Joyce unflinchingly depicts the social conventions of the working class, warts and all. Melancholy is the overwhelming feeling that envelops these stories.
    A lot of the protagonists in theses stories are unsympathetic. The few that are sympathetic are frustrating as they have an ah-ha moment, and yet fail to do anything, or they just outright fail. In internet parlance: EPIC FAIL.

    The story that resonates the most is the last and longest one, "The Dead". Gabriel, attends a party, and experiences various crises of confidence throughout the night. He rallies, but his emboldened state doesn't seem to last very long as he is shot down repeatedly. He delivers a rousing speech at dinner, the message of which he ironically comes to contradict in a realization at the end of the night.

    This book took me a long time to finish, as I plodded through stories that I didn't particularly care for. In retrospect, I should have just skipped those and gone on to the next one.

    ”

    K wrote this review Saturday, February 20, 2010. ( reply | permalink )
  • Ballad of the Whiskey Robber
    • Rated 4 stars

    “A fascinating truth-is-stranger-than-fiction read about the starting goalie for a professional hockey team in the Hungarian First Division who escapes jail after being incarcerated for a string of bank robberies that foiled the police over the span of a decade.

    Attila Ambrus, despite the whole armed robbery thing, is likable character. What I really enjoyed was trouble the author, Rubinstein, went to describe the setting. The backdrop of post-Communist Hungary, struggling in the infancy of capitalism and democracy adds an important comic undertone throughout the way. The bumbling police department and the corrupt government contribute to the mythical status that Ambrus attained with the public.

    The Whiskey Robber was such a compelling character that I sent a friend request to his actual myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/thewhiskeyrobber


    ”

    K wrote this review Friday, January 1, 2010. ( reply | permalink )
  • Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit
    • Rated 4 stars

    “I've always been intrigued by athletes' lives off the field and what goes on in the locker room. This book gained some notoriety over the disputed veracity of some of the details. I'm sure you can easily google what those are. I've reviewed the cited alleged inaccuracies and feel that while some of the details may muddled, they don't delude from the tone or the major events in the story.

    I thoroughly enjoyed learning about some baseball myths (slump-busting, pitching to color), what players talk about in the locker room (pretty much what I've always imagined, but still riveting), and the struggles of making it to the pros.

    My only quibble is that McCarthy isn't the most sympathetic narrator. Maybe it's my Ivy league bias, but he does come off condescending and holier-than-thou (and rightfully so in some cases) to his teammates (especially to a roommate that is religious). I know he portrays himself as an outcast, but even some of the friendships he makes on the team don't seem genuine.

    That aside, if you enjoyed "Major League" or those documentaries like "Inside the NFL", this is a excellent, fast read.”

    K wrote this review Saturday, July 18, 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Slaughterhouse-Five
    • Rated 3 stars

    “I decided to read this, being in the mood for a time traveling story, after a particularly riveting episode of "Lost".

    This was my first delve into Vonnegut, and what a trip it was. What an unorthodox storytelling method, being a book within a book, written by the narrator, who becomes a minor character after the first chapter. The main character, Billy Pilgrim, jumps between the past, present, and future, as well as fantasy and reality. The book gives an unflinching view of war, with a lot of disturbing images. There is a lot of dark humor spliced in throughout also. Billy is such a pitiable character, bumbling through the war and living in fantasy after the war. The constant mantra of "...and so it goes..." is an apt encapsulation of the feeling that this book conveys; a sense of "it is was it is" or "oh well, what can you do".

    It's an interesting read, but a downer. At least in "The Road" there's a glimmer of hope you can cling to- that doesn't exist here.”

    K wrote this review Monday, March 23, 2009. ( reply | permalink )
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Displaying 1-10 of 20 reviews

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