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Goodreads

I like using the cataloging and tracking power of GoodReads, and I post reviews of recent and older reads there. My tastes are eclectic: the following is a selection of recently read and reviewed books.


Recent Reviews on Goodreads

Translations
5 of 5 stars
This devastating, gorgeous play about the Ordinance survey of Ireland in the early 19th century is one of the best, if not the best, of Friel's plays. It is a direct comment on the replacement of Gaelic with English, and it also comments...
Little Black Book of Stories
4 of 5 stars
I love the first story in this wee book, and like the others as well -- fans of Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry or Byatt's own Possession will really enjoy the tingling dread of the first gorgeously mannered story, and the othe...
Witness the Night
4 of 5 stars
Really interestingly constructed story that gives you chills and keeps you intrigued. Each chapter has a journal entry written by the accused girl/victim Durga, a main narrative told by Simran the social worker/detective, and an brief e...
Gone Girl
3 of 5 stars
The first half of this book was exquisitely chill-inducing, but the second half got rapidly more forced and was disappointing. I found the end very weird (trying to avoid spoilers). Also, I wish Go's character had been developed more. ...
The Jasmine Isle
3 of 5 stars
I've read a lot of experimental literature. I've read Ulysses a few times, plenty of Woolf, Pynchon, Faulkner, etc. I could not deal with the comma splices in this book. I couldn't tell if it was the translator's invention, an attempt to...
Her Fearful Symmetry
4 of 5 stars
This book ups the creepiness that Time Traveller's hints at, and pushes us closer and closer to the edge of nausea and despair. There is a lot of cruelty in this book, and your sympathies are constantly jockeying from one character to th...
Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories
4 of 5 stars
I loved the twisted worlds that Karen Russell created. Definitely the wrong stories to read before bedtime, and all the better for it. She takes us to the edge of horror and yet everything has so much warmth and humor. I am looking forwa...
Treasure Island!!!
5 of 5 stars
Hilarious, absurd book. Reminded me of Confederacy of Dunces because the unreliable narrator is so sure of herself and the righteousness of her cuckoo choices, and the reader and all the narrator's friends can see right through them. I ...
A Fairly Honourable Defeat
5 of 5 stars
When you read this, you feel the inexorable drive of the novel toward its inevitable conclusion, and you mentally beg the author to relent just a little, to allow the decent folks some breathing room, to not let what you know is going to...
Ibid
4 of 5 stars
Another funny, clever, experimental book from Dunn and from Macadam/Cage. This one was very reminiscent of Woody Allen's books, like Without Feathers -- I love Allen's writing, more than I like his movies, though I like a lot of those t...

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