Wish list
Norwegian Wood
Haruki Murakami
Estrada: Grand Narratives and the Philosophy of the Russian Popular
Song Since Perestroika
David McFayden
It Must Have Been Something I Ate
Jeffrey Steingarten
Mapping Lives: The Uses of Biography
Peter France and William St.Clair
Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life
Eric Hobsbawn
Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City
Norman Davies and Roger Moorehouse
*** Suburban Guerillas
Joseph Freda
Many many thanks to Joseph Freda for
sending me a copy of Suburban Guerillas!
Suggest something , or, if you've read any of the books avove, tell me what you thought about them (unless they are here on your suggestion, of course =))
I do not intend this to be a comprehensive book review site (some of which are included below ). What you'll find here are really just thoughts on the books I've read and enjoyed - or maybe didn't. I'd love to hear your opinion about any of the books listed here, and would welcome reading recommendations.
NOTES
REVIEWS
An Equal Music
by Vikram Seth
I love Seth's writing. It's clean, light, poetic, and sincere;
the sort of writing that can make one fall in love with the English language
- quietly, without noticing, and with no hope of escape.
Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy
the Vampire Slayer
ed. by Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery
Oh, the fluff that is cultural studies! There are a few good, solid
essays on themes ranging from Buffy and feminism, and Buffy and
relationships between mothers and daughters, backed by some solid
and well-explained cultural theory. But you'll probably read this
book for ubiquitous Buffy quotes. The show really IS well written
(or was through season 4, which is what the book covers) - see quote
on my main page
if you missed it.
The Island of the Colorblind; and the
Cycad Island
Oliver Sacks
A cross between a popular science and a travel book. Sacks is a
neurologist, with a well-defined romantic streak and a flair for
writing. The book describes his travels to two Pacific islands
- first, to visit a community with an extraordinary incidence of
complete color blindness; second, to learn about a strange neurological
disorder that plagues another (oh, and see cycads, of course).
Apart from easily accessible scientific descriptions, the book
is full of other delights - perceptive observations on local culture,
well-written segues into history, and, not least, an extraordinary
neurologist's description of a drug trip (somewhere around page 70-80
;-)).
- "The World of Caffeine"
...and what a wonderful world it is! - "The Scandal in a Small Town"
...a social history of rural Hungary in the 20th century - "Prague: The Novel"
...American expatriates in Budapest, and the lost American generation of the 1990s - Soviet collapse books
...work project. Brief summaries of various arguments explaining the collapse of the USSR - Pushkin's Children
...on Russia and Russians - An Equal Music
...on violins and the English language
The New York Times book reviews . Intelligent reviews, and good coverage of the most recent books (fiction and non-fiction) published in the U.S. The site is free (although may require a free registration with the New York Times - not sure, because I've had it for a while now), and you can access - and search! - archives back to 1996. Use the advanced search, otherwise you will probably end up with a lot of irrelevant results.
The Guardian/Observer book reviews . There archives are not as large as the New York Times archives, but they have other things to offer. Most notably, you can read the first chapters of selected books (or listen to them, in case of audio books). There's also a search engine, and the archives are free.
The Independent book reviews . Somewhat shorter reviews, and still a rather small archive. The selection at the moment seems mostly fiction. Lots of interviews with authors, and an easy access to the rest of The Independent website, should you be interested in British news.
I personally often rely on the Economist book reviews. Most of their online book review archives, however, are premium contents, and you have to register and pay-per-view, or get an online subscription, so it's not really worth it. Still, here is the link to their front page.
If you know of another good free online source of book reviews, please let me know!