Please note: Links pointing to Amazon contain my affiliate ID. Sales resulting from clicks on those links will earn me a percentage of the purchase price. So buy and read now!
Summary: A Sudanese immigrant recalls his life as a child soldier and his struggle to escape his past.
I know I have trouble with non linear books, but I found myself going, "What? What? What?"
When I wasn't cringing at the descriptions of brutality, I was sighing over human stupidity and Valentine's naivety. I sure there have to be better books of child soldiers and immigrants.
I also don't care for Eggers' writing style and that fact that this is a "fictionalized autobiography" much in the vein in James Frey, well, either be fiction or non-fiction, not that amorphous category that is neither.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Please note: Links pointing to Amazon contain my affiliate ID. Sales resulting from clicks on those links will earn me a percentage of the purchase price. So buy and read now!
Summary: A journalist gets to repeat his life over and over again.
On the third week of October 1988, journalist Jeff Winston dies of a heart attack in the middle of a droning conversation with his wife and “wakes up” alive at age 19, back in his old college dorm room in 1963. He realizes he must now replay the next 25 years of his life. A few smart sporting wagers and 12 million dollars later, Jeff thinks he is set for life. Until he dies again on the same third week in October in 1988. And again and again and again.
As Jeff replays his lives, he encounters his wife Linda in many forms and many different ways. Jeff uses his journalist’s knowledge of major newsworthy events to make slight alterations in his favor and plays a major role in the Kennedy assassination, with surprising results. Careless conversation where Jeff inadvertently tells the future are giggle-inducing while the birth of Jeff’s daughter inspires Jeff lives out all the various permutations that readers would expect: successful financial decisions, sexual abandon and drug use, isolation in the woods, scientific exploration, meditation. Until one day in one of his lives, he meets Pamela, another replayer.
While this is a fantastical (yet philosophical) thriller, it is also a romance, as Jeff experiences the joy of being with someone who truly understands him.
Jeff and Pamela enjoy the rest of their lives together, until that same third week in October in 1988. They find each other again, though at different points and with different memories. Why are they replaying? Will it end? What’s the point of it all?
Replay is for anyone who has wondered about our purpose, our paths, our choices as humans. But it’s also great fiction. Easy to read, well-written and perfect for a book club as it will spark hours of “what if” conversation.
Summary: A journalist gets to repeat his life over and over again.
On the third week of October 1988, journalist Jeff Winston dies of a heart attack in the middle of a droning conversation with his wife and “wakes up” alive at age 19, back in his old college dorm room in 1963. He realizes he must now replay the next 25 years of his life. A few smart sporting wagers and 12 million dollars later, Jeff thinks he is set for life. Until he dies again on the same third week in October in 1988. And again and again and again.
As Jeff replays his lives, he encounters his wife Linda in many forms and many different ways. Jeff uses his journalist’s knowledge of major newsworthy events to make slight alterations in his favor and plays a major role in the Kennedy assassination, with surprising results. Careless conversation where Jeff inadvertently tells the future are giggle-inducing while the birth of Jeff’s daughter inspires Jeff lives out all the various permutations that readers would expect: successful financial decisions, sexual abandon and drug use, isolation in the woods, scientific exploration, meditation. Until one day in one of his lives, he meets Pamela, another replayer.
While this is a fantastical (yet philosophical) thriller, it is also a romance, as Jeff experiences the joy of being with someone who truly understands him.
Jeff and Pamela enjoy the rest of their lives together, until that same third week in October in 1988. They find each other again, though at different points and with different memories. Why are they replaying? Will it end? What’s the point of it all?
Replay is for anyone who has wondered about our purpose, our paths, our choices as humans. But it’s also great fiction. Easy to read, well-written and perfect for a book club as it will spark hours of “what if” conversation.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia by Chris Stewart
Please note: Links pointing to Amazon contain my affiliate ID. Sales resulting from clicks on those links will earn me a percentage of the purchase price. So buy and read now!
Summary: An American buys a house in South America and wants to live there while maintaining American standards.
Lacking the charm and delight that A Year in Provence
had, this book seemed comically stupid. I couldn't finish it because I didn't care enough about the author to hope anything turned out for him. The last thing we need is an American buffoon mocking the traditions and slower-paced life of other countries.
Summary: An American buys a house in South America and wants to live there while maintaining American standards.
Lacking the charm and delight that A Year in Provence
had, this book seemed comically stupid. I couldn't finish it because I didn't care enough about the author to hope anything turned out for him. The last thing we need is an American buffoon mocking the traditions and slower-paced life of other countries.
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