Twentieth Century | Reading Backwards book reviews

Beyond Safe Boundaries By Margaret Sacks Read: February 2010 Rating: Hmm I want to talk about this book in two capacities–as a story, and as a representation of South Africa. My bestie gave it to me for Xmas, and it looks like a pretty rare find to me. I had no idea there were kids books about SA [...] Full Story	The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold Read: January 2010 Rating: Lovely The sort of book that stays with you for a long time. Susie is fourteen when she is lured off by a neighbor, raped, and murdered. She watches from her heaven as her family struggles to cope with the aftermath. Her father is obsessed with finding her [...] Full Story	The Landower Legacy By Victoria Holt Read: January 2010 Rating: Not Bad I don’t remember where it came from, but I wound up with a paperback of this out-of-print book. I can’t see a reason for it to be. It’s not a romance novel–it’s a novel with romance in it. So there. Caroline Tressidor is the second daughter [...] Full Story
The Blue Lotus By Hergé Read: September 2009 Rating: This was the very first Tintin book I ever got my hands on. So there’s nostalgic attachment to it. Published in 1936, the squabbling countries make speeches to… The League of Nations! Funnily enough, there’s not mention of communism, at all. But I suppose that wasn’t so much on [...] Full Story	The Cigars of the Pharoah By Hergé Read: September 2009 Rating: Transitional One can definitely feel the transitional quality of this volume. It FEELS like a Tintin book, but the story is quite choppy, and for good reason–originally, it was running as a serial. There is a consistent story arc, but it’s not like later books where everything is geared [...] Full Story	Tintin in America By Hergé Read: September 2009 Rating: Trippy I now know why this volume confused the hell out of me as a kid. Firstly, it’s the first in the series, as published widely, but it’s technically the third book. So there are references to Tintin’s past adventures, and he has a hell of a reputation. Such [...] Full Story
The Hebrew Tutor of Bel-Air By Allan Appel Read: August 2009 Rating: Disappointing The back copy for The Hebrew Tutor paints a picture that is enticing: Under threat of nuclear war and the gorgeous California sun, the two [Norman and Bayla] forge a tentative truce. They may not be learning Hebrew, but through the miracle of motorcycles and the epiphanies [...] Full Story	Thorn By Amy Mebberson Status: On Hiatus, Storylines Complete http://www.mimisgrotto.com/thorn It took a little while for me to notice that my RSS feed had stopped updating… and that Thorn really had gone on hiatus/retired. Thorn was a labor of love for its artist, an attempt to get syndicated, and I really wish it had. Now that [...] Full Story	Dreamless By Sarah Ellerton (art) and Bobby Crosby (writing) Read: May 2009, ongoing Rating: Wow Read it at: http://dreamless.keenspot.com/ Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother reviewing a comic that only has about a dozen pages, but my dearest Sreyaduck has been begging me to read this one. You should as well. The art is beyond fantastic. Each panel [...] Full Story
Lady Chatterley’s Lover By DH Lawrence Read: Feb/Mar 2009 Rating:a Romp I wish I’d read this sooner. It’s so wonderful to read a book by a man, written decades ago, that basically asks the question, “Why shouldn’t this woman be happy?” Feminist, ho! Connie is a product of the brief wave of feminism in the second quarter-ish of [...] Full Story	Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield Read: Eons ago, December 2008 Rating: Sweet You may know of Ballet Shoes because the BBC has turned it into a movie with Emma Watson (aka Hermione). Like Harry Potter, that movie is based on a book. Unlike Potter, Ballet Shoes is OLD. It dates back to the 1930s. My copy is [...] Full Story	Falling Angels By Tracy Chevalier Read: October 2998 Rating: Victorian Can I rate something as being Victorian? It sums up quite a bit. Really, it’s on the cusp, beginning with the death of Queen Victoria. More Edwardian–plenty of cultural change going on. It’s hard not to love this one. Two little girls who both decided that they [...] Full Story
Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden Read: high school, January 2008 Rating: Lovely A lot has been said about MoaG, so I’m not going to give it a huge, thorough review. What I am going to say is that it is wonderful. The settings are thorough. The culture feels alive and natural. You sympathize with the characters and [...] Full Story	The Feminine Mystique By Betty Friedan Getcher own @Amazon.com Read: May/June 2008 Rating: Phwoar I consider myself a feminist, am part of my school’s feminist group, and yet I’ve never taken the Feminism 101 class. Which leaves me to educate myself. I have a copy of Wollstonecraft that a class in political theory never got around to. There’s [...] Full Story	Mini Reviews (2006, July-December) Welcome to another edition of “Mini-Reviews Clumped Together Because I Was Too Lazy To Dedicate a Full Page to Each One.” This one covers books read between July and December 2006. (#22-51 of the 50 Book Challenge) Included: The Invisible Ring (Anne Bishop, Black Jewels spin-off) The Seven Daughters of Eve (Non-Fiction) Rebel Angels (Libba [...] Full Story
Spring Moon By Bette Bao Lord Read: August 2006 Rating: Honorable Strand Books has stands outside their stores with lots and LOTS of carts housing $1 books. Last time I visited I skipped them and went straight for the “5 for $2″ paperbacks. (Yum.) In amongst the really trashy romance and outdated guides to New York restaurants [...] Full Story	A Great And Terrible Beauty These books are huge. Undeniably huge. This is my most popular post, and I am just as excited as everyone else for The Sweet Far Thing (Book #3!) to be released on December 26th. I’ve pre-ordered as an Xmas gift for my mom. A film is also in production, and you can get more info [...] Full Story	On The Road By Jack Kerouac I’m not going to tempt you with a link. It’s too awful. Rating: ERLACK. Read: March 2006 It’s not really true to say that I’ve read this… I stopped after 40-some pages because it was just too awful. It’s Fitzgeraldian–and that is not a compliment when coming from me. Full Story
The Blind Assassin By Margaret Atwood Rating: Hmn? Read: Dec 31st ’05-Jan 21st ’06 Look at how specific that timeframe is! I bought the book after years of oggling it on New Year’s Eve as something to read on the train ride home. My friends stayed for Times Square but I skipped out and got home perdy much [...] Full Story	Phoenix & Ashes Mercedes Lackey Rating: Excellent Read: August 2005 I’ve been really disappointed with Mercedes Lackey’s last few books- she’s been churning them out like piss, with much the same result. But when I was at the library, I picked this title off the new books stands, and it had a lot of promise, so I figured, [...] Full Story	With a Tangled Skein By Piers Anthony Rating: Frabjous Read: approx. 1998 (age 12), reread August 2005. I first read the Incarnations of Immortality when I was about 12, and I remember enough to know that I didn’t comprehend nearly as much as I will now, some 7 years later. (Yosh, has it really been that long?) I’ve reread [...] Full Story
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou Rating: Enjoyeable. Read: Junior year, 2002-2003 I have to say it was fairly enjoyable. I’m always suspicious of much-revered works and authors, but I always go in with an open mind, because, afterall, there must be some merit to be found. Her life is interesting, and never dull. Her insights and observations [...] Full Story	This Side of Paradise By F. Scott Fitzgerald Rating: One big fat middle finger up Fitzgerald’s arsehole. Read: Over the summer between my freshman and sophomore years, 2001. Frankly, the most self-indulgent piece of tripe I’ve ever been forced to read. It was a summer reading assignment, and one of two terrible books I brought on a visit to [...] Full Story