1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“I thought this book was very uneven--I hated the first thirty-odd pages and the entire section when Zhuang travels around Europe, but the development and evolution of her relationship with a stranger is well-handled and fascinating. It's a relationship between two isolated people who are not entirely sure they want to give up their isolation. To me, the heart of the book is the relationship between people who don't really understand each other, not Zhuang's interaction with Western culture. I really only enjoyed the book when the relationship was front and center.

It's not a must-read, but if you like character-oriented fiction about relationships, it's probably worth a look. I give you fair warning: it's a jaded portrait of love. Romantics probably won't like it.”

Gayla B wrote this review Tuesday, December 11 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“A bit disappointing, really. There's not that much about the quest to live forever. The book starts out talking about Lindbergh's and Carrel's experiments--which helped lead to the invention of the artificial heart! who knew?--but devolves into another account of Lindbergh's affinity for Nazi Germany. (The handling of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder is mercifully brief, especially if you're like me and can't stand to read about bad things happening to children.) Read Scott Berg's Lindbergh instead.”

Gayla B wrote this review Tuesday, December 11 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Interesting, if dry, history of the rise of capitalism in the West. Argues that political fragmentation and decentralization enabled institutions favorable to capitalism to arise and flourish. It's somewhat repetitive--read the intro and conclusion to get the argument, then skim the chapters to get a feel for the evidence.”

Gayla B wrote this review Tuesday, December 11 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“I was hugely disappointed by this book. Is it my imagination or is Jin getting weaker with each effort? I thought Waiting and The Bridegroom were exquisite; I appreciated both Crazed and War Trash; but this book felt shapeless to me. The plot meandered, chapters ended seemingly at random, and even the Jin's writing felt flat in many places.

Certainly I've read worse books, but I expected this one to be so much better than it was. That said, I still admire this writer's ability and I'll certainly be first in line for Jin's next.”

Gayla B wrote this review Sunday, December 2 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“An easy read. I read it quickly and enjoyed it while I was reading. I'm not sure there was enough meat there to make it memorable. I really felt that Ruth and her gay friends were pretty stereotypical.

What impressed me most about it, though, was the characterization of Tom, the born-again Christian. He could have so easily been a cliche and yet he was very complicated.

A Tom Perrotta book is always worth picking up, but I don't think this is one of his better efforts--I prefer Election or Little Children myself.”

Gayla B wrote this review Sunday, December 2 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 5 stars

“The best of the Little House books, in my opinion. I loved this book as a child, and as an adult I have a lot more appreciation for the exquisite writing. There are scenes in this book that have stayed with me for 25 years: Mr. Edwards' surprise Christmas visit, Laura and Pa twisting hay into sticks for burning, and the wonderful holiday barrel that arrives four months late when the trains can finally get through again.

If you're only going to read one Little House book, I would read this one--but you should read more. They're all wonderful!”

Gayla B wrote this review Sunday, December 2 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“What I love about E. M. Forster is the crisp, bracing tone of his prose. After reading Martin Chuzzlewit for an hour this morning--and don't get me wrong, I love Martin Chuzzlewit--Where Angels Fear to Tread was a nice palette-cleanser.

It's a charming comedy of manners that turns very dark at the end. The mood shift was jarring, and I actually reread a couple of pages to make sure that what I thought had happened had really happened.

Most of the characters are broad, especially Harriet and her mother--but characters in a comedy of manners are supposed to be broad, so I'm not sure it's fair to call this a flaw. And there are some nice shades in the character of Miss Andrews and even, to a lesser degree, in Lilia.

This isn't a masterpiece, as Foster's Howards End is, but it's certainly well worth your time.”

Gayla B wrote this review Sunday, November 25 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 3 stars

“Reasons You Might Choose to Read Barnaby Rudge:

1. You are fascinated by/writing a paper on the Lord Gordon Riots.
2. You are dying to know what the whole nineteenth-century Dolly Varden craze was all about.
3. You are preparing to teach a class called "The Raven in English Literature."
4. You are on a desert island, the only books available to you are Barnaby Rudge and a Harlequin romance, and you've already read the Harlequin. Twice.
5. You have decided to read all of Dickens' novels in chronological order, and Barnaby Rudge is blocking your way to Martin Chuzzlewit.

I will leave you to guess the category into which I fall. Hint: I am neither a teacher nor a student, and I do not reside on an desert island.

Oh, it's not all that bad. There are some memorable passages, and I got a few smiles from Mrs. Varden and Miggs and Simon Tappertit. But this very much lesser Dickens, and I hope it's not anyone's introduction to him. ”

Gayla B wrote this review Saturday, November 24 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“This is a very hard book to review, because on the one hand, I didn't really like it, but on the other hand, from a purely objective point of view, I can see that it is a brilliantly written book, and Skip Sands is one of the most complicated, fully realized fictional characters I've read about this year.

The thing is, I don't like war novels, and this is a war novel. I read it because it's Denis Johnson and it won the National Book Award and it's an Important Book. But it's not my thing, and it's really long, and it was keeping me from my beloved Ha Jin. So I was perhaps not as objective as I could be.

But even while I was reading the book and not really enjoying it, every time I made up my mind to just put it aside and pick up something else I would come across a beautifully crafted scene or a note-perfect bit of dialogue and I just had to keep going. So I can't say it's a bad book. It's not. It's a nearly perfect book for the sort of person who likes this sort of book. It's just not a nearly perfect book for me.”

Gayla B wrote this review Friday, November 23 2007. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“This account of an aristocratic English family in the 17th century got off to a slow start, but by the end I was well engrossed. The author has a lot of primary sources to draw on--the lives of the Verneys are comparatively well-documented--and he makes the most of them. Of course, personal letters and other such documents often conceal as much as they reveal, and I don't think that we ever get to know any individual member of the family very well, particularly the women. For example, what emotions lay behind Jack Verney's dutiful letters to his father? What were Jack's young wife's real feelings about her husband? But the Verney family led wide-ranging, interesting lives and you can't help but care what happens to them in the end.”

Gayla B wrote this review Friday, November 23 2007. ( reply | permalink )