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ordovician

ordovician

I assure you that I am not a tiny, yappy-type dog with great taste in books. But, I'd be a lot cooler if I were.

By day, I work in non-profit, and it is awesome. By night, I try (in vain) to meet the demands of the small, yappy-type dog pictures to your left. I also knit things. And cook things. And watch things. Sometimes, all... more »
  • Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  • member since February 25 2007

Reviews

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Displaying 1-10 of 55 reviews
  • The Touchstone
    • Rated 3 stars

    Edith Wharton's first published novella, _The Touchstone_, is really a story about celebrity: public consumption and commodity in relation to a celebrated figure. Stephen Glennard learns that a biographer will soon publish a book about Margaret Aubyn's short life. Glennard, it turns out, corresponded with the author during her short life. Publishing these intimate letters will allow Glennard many pleasures in life, incluing money enough to marry his beautiful new beloved, Alexa Trent. The novella includes flashes of Wharton's beautiful phrasing, the kind fully fleshed and beautifully crafted in later works like _The Custom of the Country_.

    ordovician wrote this review Friday, July 10 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Sound of Waves (Vintage International)
    • Rated 3 stars

    Yukio Mishima's _The Sound of Waves_, tells the story of Shinji and Hatsue, two youths who fall innocently--and naturally--in love in a small, secluded island town. This beautiful little love story examines the moral code of the entire town, a place where right does win out in the end, where respect reaps great rewards. It's a must-read for any fan of Mishima's works, because it provides a reader with deeper insights into the troubled/troubling mind of this great literary master. It's also a perfect book for fans of romance: the end of the book will put you in a happy, delighted mood...not unlike sweet young love!

    ordovician wrote this review Wednesday, June 24 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An) (Detective Stories)
    • Rated 3 stars

    I'm a fan of all types of mystery novels, from classic canonical detectives like Sherlock Holmes to new hardboiled mystery novels coming out of Japan. _Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee_ is a great addition to any mystery lover's bookshelf. Judge Dee is a shrewd, honest, no-nonsense judicial figure, a judge who must serve on the bench and weed out complex clues. Even faced with a series of 3 interlocked cases, involving a double homicide, a poisoned bride, and a gruesome corpse, he's driven by his morals and his keen insights. This book is a real page-turner, and in-depth translator's notes provide readers with great historical context.

    ordovician wrote this review Thursday, April 23 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • Cries in the Drizzle
    • Rated 4 stars

    Sun Guanglin narrates an often free-flowing account of his childhood in Yu Hua's _Cries in the Drizzle_. On the day he returns home from life with his adoptive family, Guanglin meets his grandfather on the village road and comes home to his biological family only to find that their home is burning to the ground.

    The pacing of the book parallel's the narrator's place in his family: he's in limbo, and though he belongs--by blood--to one family, he is always an outsider. Memories saturate and seep like a drizzling rain; they do not flow freely like a river.

    This is a sad, grey little novel that speaks to feelings of isolation and abandonment. It's also a novel of profound childhood misunderstanding. The novel contains many unanswered questions, the kind children can't answer for themselves; the kind parents should answer for their children.

    ordovician wrote this review Thursday, April 16 2009. ( reply | permalink )
  • On the Beach
    • Rated 3 stars

    The dystopian novels of the 1950s give readers classic story arcs--and dystopic possibilities--like Shute's _On the Beach_. A quick nuclear war in the not-too-distant future (Shute shoots ahead to the 1960s) quickly decimates all life in the Nothern hemisphere. Though untouched by even one bomb, those in the Southern hemisphere must wait for a slow death to find them: radiation poisoning brought on the wind and water through current and tide. Who is most affected by this slow death? Is it Dwight--now widowed, childless--the captain of an American sub now stranded in Australian waters? Is it Moira, a beautiful young girl who will never have a family of her own? Or, is it Peter, an Australian naval officer who will watch his beautiful wife and baby girl slowly die? Though the old saying tells us "life goes on," all characters in Shute's _On the Beach_ know that, in the end of days, even the most universal truths become outright lies.

    ordovician wrote this review Tuesday, December 30 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • I Love You, Beth Cooper
    • Rated 1 stars

    Very reductive without even being very amusing. I'm a fan of screwball comedies, juvenile humor and teenage awkwardness, but Doyle brings nothing new to the table. He struts around, oh-so-clever and self-indulgent because he's "in on" the fact that he uses stereotypical characters, scenes and plot points, but there's nothing even ironically original about all of this smarmy un-originality. They used to use crap books for toilet paper in the "old days"; this book makes me understand that now-defunct practice.

    ordovician wrote this review Tuesday, December 30 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Glimpses of the Moon
    • Rated 5 stars

    Susy Branch lives a luxurious life on another's dime. Without trade or talent, dowry or inheritance, she's beloved by the pond-hopping elite, and when she isn't at one friend's summer home in Venice, she's at another's summer home...in Versailles. When she meets Nick Lansing--another of the elite class' "pets," a dreamy writer with a well-defined moral code--she comes up with a brilliant idea: marriage. The elite love newlyweds, and Susy knows that she and Nick can turn their love into a year--at least a year!--of luxury and comfort. Though both of them understand that the marriage can and will end as soon as one finds a better partnership with a more well-to-do-suitor, what will happen to Nick and Susy if they love each other more than they love luxury?

    ordovician wrote this review Wednesday, December 17 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Claw of the Conciliator
    • Rated 3 stars

    I'm going to level with you: I have only 25% of an idea about what's going on in this second book in Wolfe's epic saga. The opening of the second book is quite removed from the closing of the first: Severian is seperated from his traveling companions (except for one), and he uses his skill as an executioner to make his way on his journey to Thrax. In the process, he comes in contact with subteranean monsters, futuristic examples of "faerie glamour" (they're seriously cool), and at least 2 species of alien. I'm interested enough to work through a third and fourth volume, but I hope I get some answers to my questions...

    ordovician wrote this review Wednesday, December 17 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Shadow of the Torturer
    • Rated 3 stars

    Severian belongs to the guild of torturers, the Seekers of Truth and Penance, located in the Citadel in the vast city of Nessus. When the beautiful prisoner Thecla enters the oubliette, Severian's life changes. Thecla is a well-connected, affluent and beautiful political prisoner who asks for books and friendship while she awaits her torture. Like all prisoners in the oubliette, Thecla will receive no pardon, but when Severian shows mercy on her, he leaves the Citadel with his life. For the first time, he enters the vast city of Nessus, bound for the outpost Thrax, the city with no windows. In the first of this 4-book series, Severian makes it as far as Nessus' outer wall, stopping along the way with time enough to fall in love, star in a play, and duel to the death. It's an exciting and interesting read--full of beautiful prose and description--sure to keep you captivated and looking forward to the 2nd volume.

    ordovician wrote this review Thursday, December 4 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, Book 7)
    • Rated 2 stars

    The seventh book of the Dark Tower series spans over 800 pages; nearly 500 of those pages--with King's self-engrandizing asides--are wholely unnecessary. If you slogged your way through Books 1-6 of the Dark Tower series, read this book. The ending is interesting, enough to keep me for beating King to death with a pillowcase full of Dark Tower books. But that ending is mired in so much dross that you may risk missing it entirely, especially if you (like me) are trying to reach this particular finish line at a hard run, just looking forward to closing the cover forever on this damn series.

    ordovician wrote this review Wednesday, November 26 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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