Reviews

'11/22/63' by Stephen King

November 18th, 2011

I’ve been a fan Stephen King since I was in high school, and I’ve somehow managed to read every book he’s ever written. Being he's one of the most prolific authors ever, that’s no small feat. His latest tome is 11/22/63, an 849-page novel about time travel and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Hooked already, aren’t you?

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'1Q84' by Haruki Murakami

November 11th, 2011

When it comes to the act of reading, I'd classify myself as a sipper. I prefer to savor the flavor of words, not toss them down my eye-gullet like some boorish medieval peasant. So knowing I had to read and review Murakami's mammoth 1Q84 in ten days was the literary equivalent of frat party peer pressure. It's like gulping down a fine wine while a group of rowdy knuckleheads cheer you on. Only, instead of demanding that you chug, they are chanting, "Iki! Iki!"

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"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

November 9th, 2011

Reading Ready Player One is not a trial. Weighing in at a manageable 372 pages, Ernest Cline’s debut novel zips us right along through an entertaining story, and his affection for geek culture, the 1980s, and a good old fashioned adventure tale is readily apparent. However, Cline’s book ultimately disappoints. It’s not a bad effort, but Ready Player One is unsatisfying in a way that is much more of a letdown than out and out trash like The Da Vinci Code or a Zack Snyder film could ever be.

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'Pauline Kael: A Life In The Dark' by Brian Kellow

November 7th, 2011

Back when there was still a sense that the internet was competing with print (i.e., in the days before print essentially became a paper supplement to websites), there were certain beliefs about web film critics. We were considered over enthusiastic, our style too colloquial, our reviews too long, our relationships with filmmakers (who identified with us as fans rather than academics) too chummy. Perhaps worst of all, we sought to elevate genre trash to the level of important art.

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"Hell & Gone" by Duane Swierczynski

November 3rd, 2011

Writing thrillers is a tough business.

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'One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com' by Richard L Brandt

November 2nd, 2011

Richard L Brandt’s biography of Amazon.com and its founder, Jeff Bezos, will not win any prizes for literary excellence. One Click is a third-person biography that veers between failed but earnest attempts at rhetorical distance and gushing Toastmaster-esque entrepreneurial fanwank; it’s a “clip-job”, collated and collaged from journalistic coverage of the subject and other extant sources.

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'The 90s: The Inside Stories from the Decade That Rocked' by Rolling Stone Magazine

October 25th, 2011

Rock and roll was born in the 1950s. It got downright sassy in the 60s, pounded its chest and roared in the 70s and went way over the top in the 80s, leaving everyone channeling their inner Peggy Lee and asking, “is that all there is?”

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"Double Dexter" by Jeff Lindsay

October 20th, 2011

Double Dexter, the sixth installment of Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter series, is going to be familiar territory for fans of the novels and Showtime subscribers alike.  Personally, I happen to be a bigger fan of the show, having watched every season.  Michael C. Hall absolutely owns it as the serial killing blood spatter analyst, and it’s this version of the character that stuck with me when reading the novel, dulcet tones and all.

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"Djibouti" by Elmore Leonard

October 18th, 2011

There are a slim number of crime novelists who've achieved the success and wide spread recognition which Elmore Leonard has enjoyed in his fifty plus year career. His novels of con men, dirty cops, and morally bankrupt lowlifes in the freezing slums of Detroit and sleazy alleys of Florida have inspired countless imitators (including Quentin Tarantino, whose every pre-Inglorious Basterds film pays indirect homage to the author) and a dozen Hollywood blockbusters.

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"The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides

October 13th, 2011

Cynicism, because it is so fashionable, is not cynical enough anymore. So dark and edgy books need to get darker and edgier. Sometimes, it all becomes samey. Which is why it is so refreshing when a writer gives us something different.

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