10 Minutes To Bedtime

Peggy Rathman

"I read Ten Minutes til Bedtime because I have a 3 and a half year-old son and we read every night, and it's one of his favorite books. It was I guess chosen kind of at random, but it became one of those books where we read it every night, and then the next night, and the night after that, and a real actually, a classic.

It's about a boy who has a couple of pet hamsters and has hamsters over every night I assume every night before bedtime. My favorite part of the book, and I think my son's, is all the detail. So we're not only reading a book but we're talking about all the different activities going on. When he's taking a bath, there might be what appear to be like 100 hamsters around him; and they have lawn chairs set up, and parasols, and they're listening to the radio, and kicking a soccer ball around, and all these things that you would do at a beach maybe. We get to talk about all those little things, and there's enough detail that you can do it every night and still find more detail.

There is absolutely nothing that we don't like about the book. It's also a good length; it doesn't go on forever. It's the exact right length for a bedtime book. My son is 3 and a half, and I think he's pretty much at the perfect age for it although I'm enjoying it, and I'm 46, so maybe a lot of people can enjoy it. I'd give Ten Minutes til five stars. There's nothing that I would like different or better or more or less; it's really perfect."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

1000 Places To See Before You Die

Patricia Schultz

"I wanted to read 1000 Places to See Before You Die, because it was given to me, so that's a reason right there. But it's really interesting. You kinda wonder, "What exactly do I need to see before I die?" The book obviously covers a thousand places. It also covers things like places to stay, things to do, things to eat, and so it kinda is a sampling of - In many ways, it's a sampling of tour books from all areas of the world. The things I like about the book is just flipping through it. It's not the kinda book you can read from front to back - just flipping through it and getting an idea of, "Ah, why haven't I been to South Africa? I gotta go to South Africa. This looks fabulous."

One thing I found frustrating about the book that made me dislike it is that in many ways, some of the sections that she's picked or some of the places are kind of cliché. If I were to edit the book, what I'd ask her to do is take out the obvious stuff. Nobody needs to hear about the Eiffel Tower, and then, just sort of whittle it down to the surprises that not everybody knows about. Out of five stars, I'm gonna give the book three and a half, because on the one hand, it's really exciting to read about so many places, and she includes pictures too, so you get an image of what it looks like. But on the other hand, she's included so many things you could see in other travel books that it makes this book a little bit less valuable."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers

Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn

"I chose to read 102 Minutes in large part because of sort of a time had passed since 9/11, and I was reading a lot about the assassination of JFK and how a lot of the reports were done after a pretty fair amount of time. I started thinking about what it meant to have that day; and I know it that it was sort of like that in the same way, that that was our event for the era.

102 Minutes is about the story of the people that were actually in the two Twin Towers before they were hit, as well as when they actually came down. So the 102 minutes is from the point of the first plane hitting until the actual second tower falls. It's almost a minute-by-minute description of what's happening in the towers.

I think this book would be well read by just about anybody. I think even people that are sort of intimately involved might find some form of understand beyond the emotional just by reading what else is happening. I mean it doesn't mitigate the severity to read what happened; it really is sort of more comforting to understand that these people that were trapped really had a lot of opportunities. A lot of them really did get out. I mean a shocking number got out compared to how many were in the buildings, and response wasn't entirely bungled but in fact was actually really super-efficient given the circumstances. It really was sort of dumb luck that the buildings fell, and that there are a lot of things that people have emotionalized that would be useful to read and get a deeper sense of what happened.

I would give 102 Minutes four stars. It's an excellent piece of nonfiction."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

1421: The Year China Discovered America

Gavin Menzies

"I read the book 1421 by Gavin Menzies because I've always been a fan of history, and the topic was 1421, the year the Chinese discovered America. So the title alone is what captured my attention to read it.

Primarily, 1421 is about the circumnavigation of the globe by the Chinese, and roughly 1421 is the year that the fleet left China; and it was at the time the world's biggest fleet. They discovered places like Antarctica, North America, South America, the Caribbean, Bahaman Islands, parts of Greenland and parts of Africa that hadn't been explored, as well as they left colonies in a lot of those places.

The author is a retired ex-British naval officer who sailed a lot of these seas that the Chinese - ancient Chinese explored or sailed. What I liked best about the book was all the evidence that he brings forth to support his argument that the Europeans weren't the first to explore North America and circumnavigate the globe. What I didn't like is that it's almost like reading a history textbook from school. It's very hard to get through; it's a very tough read. I would probably recommend this to anybody who has an interest in ancient history, as well as people who are interested in the beginnings of North America as far as when it was discovered. I would give this book about four stars out of five."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I read 1491. I read 1491 because it was recommended to me by my wife. It was actually an anniversary gift. The concept that we don't, in America, have a good notion of what life in pre-Columbus times was like. It's really about how Indians shaped both North and South America and how completely the continent was developing up until the time that Columbus first sailed. It definitely contained a lot of surprises and a lot of new information, at least for someone who has not studied pre-Columbian North and South America.

I really enjoyed the book, and I cannot think of anything that really stood out to me that I didn't like, because it was written in a very engaging way. Sometimes history can be boring, and so it was written, in a sense, just for a lay reader like me. And it was very much a book of presenting both sides to arguments, like in just about any scholarly community, there are going to be two sides to every story. I recommend, geez, every high school student should read 1491. I think it should replace some of the textbook material that exists out there. I would give 1491 five stars. I think it did an outstanding job of presenting history."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I wanted to read 1776 because I'm very interested in history. I was a history major in college, and so it - the American Revolutionary period is certainly a very fascinating period.

This book is about the year 1776 from a military perspective. It's about George Washington and his victory at Boston - bloodless victory - his defeat in the Battle of Brooklyn and then subsequent, miraculous victory in Trenton, New Jersey.

McCullough actually does a very good job of describing conditions in the camp and just the way that a ragtag army could defeat an army of superior size. It doesn't read like a history textbook. A lot of history textbooks can be very dry and just recitation of facts, and 1776 is not one of those. It's a book that is written in a narrative form that's very exciting and fast paced. I would give this book four stars out of five. It's very - like I said, it's a very fast-paced novel, it's one that - not novel, but book - that grabs the reader's attention and keeps it throughout. It's what would be called a page turner."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

1984 by George Orwell, I'm trying to remember whether we were recommend - actually as I'm thinking about it now, I believe it was recommended when we were still in high school. I had heard about the book prior to that, where people were mentioning 1984, didn't really understand what they were talking about. And that book I enjoyed highly.

It's one of those books where it's just essentially timeless, not a matter of you're watching television, which is what we have now. The television literally watches you. Big Brother can see what you're doing. Thought Police - that whole term came from 1984.

I would think for somebody to read 1984 by George Orwell, I think it is a great book for high school. We were recommended the book in high school, and I think that is a very perfect time. I would highly give five stars. It is an absolutely brilliant book. And it is just so dense; you can always go back to it and find other things in it that really relate to things personally and things that are going on around you.

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Jules Verne

"I read it because I think it would be a good adventure book.

It's about a guy named Professor Aronnax. He goes on a boat to find this really big sea monster, and he goes with -- they call him the greatest harpooner in the sea; his name is Ned Land. They go on the ship, they think they found the sea monster, but it's actually a submarine, and it's -- I think the ship and Professor Aronnax and Ned Land fall off -- or jump off -- and they get onto the submarine when they still think it's a sea monster. Then people come out of it, and they go in and start the adventure.

My favorite thing about the book is all the exciting things that happen and the things that are surprising that you wouldn't think would happen at that time. There wasn't anything about this story that I didn't really like. It's a really good book. A lot of people that like the ocean and swimming and having fun in the water would like this book. I would recommend this to 11 years old. I'd give it five stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

28 Stories of Aids in Africa

Stephanie Nolen

"I am very concerned about the AIDS epidemic. At times I wonder why is anyone talking about anything else.

The book is about the title, 28; the author is a journalist, Stephanie Nolan, and she is a journalist from the Toronto Globe and Mail. She's worked in Africa for years writing about the AIDS epidemic, and she approached her publishers to write a book 28. Why 28? Because there are 28 million HIV infected people in Africa and she writes one story - one personal story for each million. She covers - but she covers from east to west, from Nigeria to Ethiopia, and south to South Africa with very, very, very intense stories. It's impossible not to feel the suffering of these people.

As you read through this, you find people who are very strong and courageous. One of them is a high school teacher who is a refugee from Burundi in a refugee camp, and he and his wife; and his infant daughter dies. He ends up being tested for HIV because he wants to give blood for someone who needs a transfusion; he finds out he's HIV positive. His wife is tested; she is HIV positive. They fled Burundi after she was raped by five or six soldiers, and they have no idea which one of them was positive first, but this is what they have to live with. They don't know when it happened to her, when it happened to him.

There's an enormous amount of information about how people are behaving, both good and bad. It's not an easy book to read, but it is a mat - it's a very informative, very strong work of journalism. Five. Definitely five."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I'm 68 and counting; my wife is 62 and not counting; my mother-in-law is 39 and holding. We're all fighting the aging process in our own way. The opening words of it were, "Getting old sucks," and I thought, "Well, this might be a book that tells it like it is."

Dr. Ruben says she's read all the books about the golden years and about how 60 is the new 40, and 80 is the new 60; but she believes these books are either written by people in their 40's who are sort of trying to cast a magic spell against getting older by saying nice things about it are liars. It covers things like the infirmities the accumulate as you get older. Basically we've stretched out the aging process so we remain younger or older in a sense, but the basic cycle is the same. A lot of people look back to an era when old age was revered, but she points out that in those days, old age was revered as long as the elderly person could make a useful contribution to the community.

I think that it affirms my point of view that it's not just positive thinking that's the answer to every solution - the solution to every problem. It's the right balance between positive and negative thinking. It raises issues for people who haven't yet reached that threshold about how society should be reorganized so that an increasing elderly population can still be accommodated.

Anybody who's over 60 and anybody who hopes to be someday - and I especially recommend to my wife. I'll give it five stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Beautiful Mind

Sylvia Nasar

"I read A Beautiful Mind because I really enjoy reading biographies, and I'm also fascinated with science and math; and I had heard great things about the movie but never seen the movie, so when I found a copy of the book, I knew I wanted to read it.

John Forbes Nash, Jr. is this brilliant mathematician who has schizophrenia. In the 80's, his work kind of came back to the surface, and he ended up winning a Nobel Prize for economics for his game theory, the - this paper he wrote when he was in grad school. Around the same time he happened to win that Nobel Prize, he actually came out of this darkness, this schizophrenia, and kind of woke up again; and the book talks about his whole life.

I really liked that in no way did the author try to paint John Forbes Nash, Jr. as this perfect person who ended up getting schizophrenia. She portrayed him very honestly; he's a person that I don't think a lot of people would want to be friends with or like. He has this brilliant mind and can see things in a way that other people don't see them, but that doesn't make a person a good person.

I would recommend the book to anyone who really enjoys reading biographies or is interested in science or math. It just traces the history of science and math, and the making of the atomic bomb, and like something as simple sounding as game theory could end up being so important. I would give A Beautiful Mind five stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I've always been a fan of Francine Prose as a critic. I've always really enjoyed reading her essays in Harpers and elsewhere, and I'd never read anything by — no, I'd read one book by her — and so I thought I'd give this a try.

A Changed Man is about a man by the name of Vincent Nolan, who's a former neo-Nazi, and he leaves his life as a neo-Nazi and decides he's going to turn over — you know, change.

I think what I liked best about A Changed Man I thought was the set up. I thought it was a really interesting idea for a novel. I liked the dynamism of the book, I liked the way it kept moving, I liked the way the writer got into the heads of all the characters. I also found it entertaining. It was funny, and it was — in parts it was very funny and smart.

My major problem with the book was that I found it too scripted. In other words, I could feel the author on every page, and I found that all the characters were a little caricatured. They were a little wooden. I do have mixed feelings about A Changed Man because on the one hand, I enjoyed it, it was funny; but on the other hand, as I've said, there was things about it that really bug me.

A good book to grab you, to be funny, to be involving, give it a try. If you're looking for great literature, look elsewhere. I would give this book three."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Child Called It

Dave Pelzer

"I wanted to read A Child Called It, because it was recommended to me, actually, by another teacher that worked at the school I was working at, at the time. And the children I've worked with have often been abused or neglected and that's kind of part of what the story's about. So he said it was really moving and touching, so I thought I'd read it.

It's a story of a young man named David Pelzer and he writes it himself. And it's about his youth growing up in an abused home. It was very honest and moving and I think it did a really good job of, like, going back to childhood and expressing kind of the feelings and frustrations and fears from a child's perspective; and then also from the perspective he learned as an adult.

I think it's a great story for everybody to read. I think it makes you very conscious of the things that may be happening right near you, of things that children in our communities go through, and I think it's just a really moving personal narrative.

I would give it four stars. It's better than your average book, but I don't think it's a great masterpiece of literature. It's a good read. It's really easy. It's fast. I did it in a night. I think it's really moving and it's a book I would buy - and I'm a big check books out of the library, because I don't always need to own them - but it's a book that I would purchase."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, I'm not - I believe we were recommended that book when we were in high school, also. I believe I was interested in it at first because I saw people wearing the t-shirts, and I would see the triangle with this guy's face; and it just seemed really weird and I didn't understand it.

A Clockwork Orange takes place in a futuristic Britain, a futuristic, bleak, Socialist Britain. I would definitely recommend it for someone in high school, definitely in college. I would think it was one of those things that you definitely have to read at one particular point of time. And one, just Alex's character, but then two, also basically the second half of the book and/or movie which gets into the states thing or trying to rehabilitate and how they're trying to rehabilitate, and whether it really does work and what is the end result going to be.

I would have to say overall I would give Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange five stars. The book has stuck with me my entire life. I've always looked on it fondly -"

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I chose to read A Cook's Tour because I am a huge Anthony Bourdain fan, as my other reviews on this site attest to. Anthony Bourdain was a chef in New York for several years who wrote this book, Kitchen Confidential, which was sort of an exposé of the restaurant scene and the restaurant business. From the notoriety of that book, he moved on and got a show on the Food Network called A Cook's Tour, where the show basically followed him to various exotic locales where he would sample the local cuisine and just sort of drink in the culture and experience the world from a culinary perspective. The book is actually sort of a companion to the first season of the Food Network's show.

It's satisfying in a number of different ways. If you're a foodie, it's great, great food porn. If you're a travel junkie, it's wonderful travelogue stuff; and also, Anthony Bourdain just has this incredibly snarky, smart alecky humor. I mean he's not just a comedian all the time, and he's not just the super-serious food journalist all the time. He has different sides to his personality.

Sadly enough, I have actually not seen this season of A Cook's Tour, so a lot of the chapters in the book, I wanted to go back and watch the show so I could see what he was describing and see what he was talking about. I do think that for someone who has seen the show, the book would be more enjoyable because you have that perspective going in.

I would recommend it to anyone who loves food, anyone who loves travel, anyone who loves snarky, sarcastic humor, and anyone who loves Anthony Bourdain. I would give this book four stars out of five."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love

Richard Dawkins

"It's an anthology of all his works, but for various occasions, some of them presented elsewhere and some of them not.

Devils Chaplain has kind of a religious connotation from two opposite points of view, and people often confuse atheism with Satanism; but it turns out that that title comes from a quote by Charles Darvin where he's referring to the kind of book a devil's chaplain might around about the clumsy, chaotic nature or nature basically. He also touched on the subject of atheism, particularly in a letter that he wrote to his ten year-old daughter and is giving good and bad reasons for believing. You should believe in evidence and not because someone claims to have a revelation, for example; and he was very conscious of this concept that he had that children are true believers that need to be protected from forming beliefs for the wrong reason. I think the point is that he wants -- it's more important to him that she have the principles for arriving at truth rather than presenting her what he considers to be the truth. So it's quite an interesting grab bag of scientific and religious ideas.

I think what it showed about him as a person, that he was able to respect people who disagreed with him in the scientific field and present very good ideas for his disagreements with other people. I didn't find it as interesting as other books where he developed a theme from the beginning all the way through. I give it a four, I think, because I think it's a good book, but it didn't grab me quite as much as his other books."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I read A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore because I've read other novels of his. He has I think seven or eight now, and they're just hilarious.

A Dirty Job is a story about a young man named Charlie Asher who just lost his wife; and he becomes a death merchant, which means that he actually goes to where people are dying - unbeknownst to him - and actually takes their soul when they die and puts it in an inanimate object.

What I liked most about A Dirty Job was the intense emotions you can have. You can laugh out loud at this book. I mean, there are so few books that you would just literally laugh out loud while you're reading it. People look at you like you're crazy, but it's just that funny. And then there's times when you just want to weep because he makes things so sad and so emotional.

A Dirty Job is definitely a fictional book that has comedy elements, and I'm used to reading science fiction/fantasy - which I love. But for an author to pull me into this just plain fiction about someone being around in town, in San Francisco, definitely says something because it's not usually my genre. If you're having a bad day and you just want to laugh, pick up a Christopher Moore book; and you will just laugh your butt off and then you'll feel better. I'd give A Dirty Job five stars out of five stars because the writing is great, the characters are unbelievable. You'll never read characters that are so loving in the first chapter that you think wow, this guy's hilarious."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Fine Balance

Rohinton Mistry

"I read A Fine Balance, and I was just looking for a book to read and this is a book that at least was nominated for Booker Prize, and so I figured it had to be worth my time reading it.

The book is about these four characters who come from entirely separate backgrounds, and it's set in India during the 70's when Indira Ghandi kind of forced her way back into power and then declared a state of emergency over India. So the four characters all come to live in this one apartment, and it's owned by this woman who, she is a really unique character set in that time period because she's very independent. She was widowed early, and chose not to remarry, and chose not to live with her family, and struggled for years to maintain her own separate life.

The book really explores the caste system in India in a way that explains - if you don't understand what it is, it explains - it makes you feel how horrible it would be to be in the lower caste; and it also really describes what it must have been like to live in that political upheaval.

I didn't like - and this is just a personal thing of the book - it didn't end happy, and I didn't like that; but the book wouldn't have made sense had it had a storybook ending. I would give A Fine Balance four stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius

Dave Eggers

"I originally wanted to read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius because my friend said it was funny! And I do enjoy funny books, and I've read Erica Jong, I've read David Sedaris, and I thought, hey, that's what I need, something light.

The plot is about a young guy in his 20's who's suddenly - is himself an orphan and has to take care of his like nine year-old brother. He has to suddenly like become a single dad and raise someone else while he himself is in a very immature point in his own life. It's very obvious throughout the entire book that it was written by a guy in his 20's, because the sense of humor and the topic matter and just what goes on in his life is very much kind of the slacker - I don't want to say slacker, but the 20-something, post-grad lifestyle.

Perhaps the problem I had with the book is that I've never been a 20-something guy who has quite this intense personality as this writer. It is non-fiction; it is his own life, so you can't criticize him for having that life experience. But I probably never had to raise a child when I was 21, or I didn't have quite the same drive to be on MTV Real World. I didn't quite have the same obsessions as this guy, so maybe that made it hard to appreciate the book in its totality. I guess you want to finish it because you want to know if his life ended well. You want to know if it ever got easier, you want to know if his magazine ever launched and took off, you want to know if - I don't know, his brother makes it through junior high unscathed, unscarred.

Everybody says it's hysterical on the jacket cover. It is very original in that style, and there are some moments that are just hysterical; but I guess I had a hard time with sentences that have 15 commas, that just go on and on and these tangents that would take up several pages. It'd be like talking with someone, and something reminds him of another topic, and they just go on and on. I'm gonna give it a three out of five, just - part of the problem is I'm a little older than its targeted audience. It's probably much more popular with people in their 20's who can identify, and there maybe people who give it a five 'cause they find it funnier than me."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Hell of a Woman

Jim Thompson

"Jim Thompson is -- was a writer of pulp fiction novels back in the 50's. It's as though his novels are disguised -- they're like masterpieces of literature described as pulp novels.

This book is about a sort of a door-to-door salesman. He works for a shady outfit called Pay EZ Stores, which is a company that goes from door-to-door sort of preying on the poor by selling them junk for an initial low down payment and then hounds and harasses them. So Dolly Dillon is the character's name who works for Pay EZ Stores, and he becomes embroiled in this murder plot where he discovers this old woman who is -- has a beautiful granddaughter and is basically keeping her in the house enslaved, and they come up with a plot to murder her and take the money and rescue the girl. It's a first person narration. The character tends to go off on these digressions about how his life basically sucks. Slowly but surely, as the book comes to an end, he's sort of -- his personality is fractured, and he's sort of like -- he's two people, and he just goes completely insane.

I would give this book five out of five stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I wanted to read A Million Little Pieces because I'd heard so much about it. I heard about it from a friend who had read it and liked it a lot when it first came out.

A Million Little Pieces is about - is a true story about James Frey who is at the age of 23 such had been using drugs and been drinking alcohol for so long, he was an incredible alcoholic, that by the age of 23 he's pretty close to death if he continues with his addictions. So he checks into rehab, and this is - the book is the story of his journey through rehab. My grandfather, whose name was Noel - who I'm named after; I got my name from him - he was an alcoholic. When my dad - he's my dad's dad - when my dad was seven or eight, my grandfather was drunk in bed one night, smoking a cigarette, and fell asleep and burnt himself up in bed; and that's how he died. So having that alcoholism in my family, I wanted to read this book and see what it was all about.

I'd recommend A Million Little Pieces to anybody. You don't have to have been an alcoholic or drug user or to have had that in your family to get something from this book. I would give A Million Little Pieces three or four stars out of five. It's a great story, and it's written in a way that doesn't distract from that story being told. I think it's just an amazing story of one man's battle against himself and against his biggest problem."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Million Little Pieces

James Frey

"Well, the book was published as a memoir, about the author's struggle with addiction and time spent in a rehab center, and -- the book is -- you know, as it turns out, maybe a little more fiction than memoir.

I think the first thing that really caught my attention about the book was the writing style and how it's sort of written in a very stream-of-consciousness…. After reading the book and it coming out that it was more a work of fiction that was based off of experiences the author had that he embellished, it actually didn't bother me. I know that that's like the reason the book's had a lot of controversy, but kind of relate it to like your grandfather's stories and over the years how much of those have been embellished.

I think most people who write memoirs are taking something that actually happened to them and then making it more interesting for other people to want to read about it, so it didn't bother me."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder

Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman

"I read A Perfect Mess because I just saw it at the library and I thought it looked interesting.

A Perfect Mess is about how mess — as categorized by a million different words, he has categorizes a bunch of different kinds of mess — can be sometimes useful in regular life and lead to positive outcomes. One of the examples he talks about in the book is about how penicillin was discovered because a researcher left Petri dishes out and some mold got in there, and that ended up being, you know, "Wow, that's penicillin!" As a messy person myself, I was hoping that I would get a lot more ammo from this book for, "Yeah! I'm messy because what he said!" But I didn't get quite as much as I was hoping.

I would give A Perfect Mess about three stars out of five. Ironically, what I didn't like about the book was kind of that — it approached the topic in a kind of messy way. It did a lot of anecdotes and took a long time to get around to so where are you headed with this?"

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist

I have a son. He's 11, and he's the one who wanted to read A Series of Unfortunate Events. The book is about the misadventures of a family, the Baudelaire family and these children are tragically orphaned in the first book, and end up being sent to live with an uncle who's only interested in their fortune.

I loved the humor -- dark humor. Lots of wordplay. He has certain things that he does that he does repeatedly, like he'll use a phrase, like dastardly, and then he'll say, which -- in parentheses, which in this case means, you know, evil to the core or something -- something funnier than that. But he gives these definitions of words that acknowledges that a kid might not necessarily know what they mean, but that gives them a very funny definition in context.

It's probably geared towards a slightly younger crowd, but I can see how, you know, even a little bit older kids could get into it.

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lemony Snicket and Brett Helquist

"A Series of Unfortunate Events tells the story of three orphan children whose parents died, and they get passed along and - ya know, from house to house and caretaker to caretaker - trying to figure out what to do, and bad things keep happening all the time. And I think it's about kids just overcoming those things. I found out about it and wanted to read it for the same reason. I was just stumbling around the library, down in the lower dungeon level, where the bums hang out sometimes, and I saw this book that caught my eye and just said, "Put this book down. You don't want to read this," you know, "If you're looking for a happy, cheery book, you definitely do not want to read this." The style of writing was very unique, in that, you know, the author oftentimes says stuff like, "And right now, just when you think things are cheery - Oh, heck no! That's not this book," ya know, "Walk away," ya know, "This is gonna go bad. You know it's gonna go bad, and you think they're gonna catch a break," and it's just - It's got a lot of irony and sarcasm in it.

You need breaks in between, if you're gonna read the whole series, because it kinda copies the same thing over and over, at times. Ya know, every book is gonna be about something that's gonna happen to the kids and them having to overcome it, and, of course, there's gonna be a happy ending, because it's a children's book. The grand majority of people would enjoy it. I think it's a good family book to introduce it. So if you wanna do something with your kids, this is something that you can both enjoy. The movie's good. Watch the movie. That won't spoil it. They actually did a good job just - the humor and the acting, giving you a good flavor for the book, but there's many books, so it's not like it's gonna spoil. I would give this book probably four and a half stars. It was just - It's a very fun, lighthearted book, entertaining, a quick read - so, appealing to a lot of people, I think."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Song of Fire and Ice

George RR Martin

"I'm not a huge fan of fantasy novels to being with and this seemed like a very fantasy, hardcore fantasy novel. Its 900 pages, four books so far, I mean it would be a lot of work. But, everyone who I talked to and who I trusted in terms of reading books said that this was a series that you had to read. It was a new kind of fantasy series that was just, it broke the mold and was really interesting. So, I picked up the first one and I couldn't down any of them.

So, the books take place in this fantasy world where magic has existed in the past, but it doesn't really exist any more. So, you've basically got a medieval kingdom in you know sort of the European mold. There's some rebels, some free-living people who live way up in the north and there's a wall, a huge wall like the Great Wall of China or something that keeps them from invading the rest of the kingdom.

But, basically 20 years before the novel starts there was a huge civil war and the king was overthrown and a new king was put in place. And at the very beginning of the first book, this king dies under suspicious conditions and basically, five different people claim to be the rightful heir to the thrown. And so there's a huge war that breaks out as a result of that and that's basically the background for the whole series.

It really is about relationships and you know intrigue and people scrambling for power in a vacuum basically. There's a little bit too much sex and violence for my liking, but I'm told that goes along with the fantasy genre. So, I would give this series, five stars out of five stars. They are well written. They're compelling. They keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. I couldn't put them down, and I wasted four weeks of my life basically reading these books."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Song Of Fire And Ice

George RR Martin

"I found out about the series A Song of Ice and Fire from a friend of mine who often recommended fantasy books to me, and I usually loved everything that he passed my way. So I ran out and picked it up.

This is a fantasy series that, in short, follows the lives of several different royal families and their struggles amongst themselves, amongst supernatural forces and everyone's sort of struggle for power. Every single character is relatable in some way. I would have to say that my favorite character was sort of the "bastard son" who was sent away. I thought he was kind of fascinating, and that sort of idea of being an outsider in the family was kind of appealing to me.

I haven't read a lot of books that actually gives you the perspective of the bad guy so much, that gives a human aspect to pretty much everyone. That's great; that's real life. That's how, nobody's completely one-dimensional and just bad. So it's great to see the softer side or the more vulnerable side of somebody who, from another person's perspective, seems like the devil himself.

I'd definitely recommend the series to people who may not know that they like fantasy novels, that may be put off by the whole fantasy title and wizards and dragons, and geeky stuff. Yeah, don't hold that to this series necessarily. This would actually be a good place to sort of explore and see if you like that, because it's so well written, the characters are so great - yeah, there are dragons. There are. But they're cool! I would give this series, A Song of Ice and Fire, five stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I chose to read Spot of Bother largely on the credibility of Curious Life in the Incident of a Dog that I really enjoyed. I didn't ever read any other Mark Haddon besides Curious Incident, so I thought well, I like an author; I'll try their second book as well.

Spot of Bother is sort of a — I don't want to say "a day in the life" — a period in the life of a British family that is dealing with a number of crises. The main sort of protagonist character is dealing with getting older and what he does in his transition from becoming a worker to a retiree and the pressures that are being put on him from his family.

I think the things that I enjoyed about the book are largely based on the same sorts of writing styles that I enjoyed in Curious Incidents in the Life of a Dog. Spot of Bother does a really good job of doing sort of like __________ where they tell the story from a lot of different perspectives; but instead of doing all the stories independent as chapters, the stories sort of overlap. So you almost get a sense of starting, going five paces, taking three back with a different person, going three or five more paces; and that style was very engaging.

I didn't like the fact that the book really paints pictures of people as pathetic. I mean really sort of as if they don't have any agency. They don't really have the opportunity; they sort of choose these different things in their lives. Reading the book made me very uncomfortable, and obviously the personal issues to deal with in the story is feeling like these characters are unsympathetic because maybe the cheat or because they do things that are dishonest. None of the characters stand out until about halfway to a third of the book. It was sheer perseverance that kept me reading up until that half of the book.

I would recommend the book to anyone that enjoyed Curious Life of Incident of a Dog. I'd also recommend the book to anyone that likes stories told in a multi-player format, in a way that they're being told the story from different perspectives. In this respect, stylistically, it was fantastic."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Student of Living Things

Susan Richards Shreve

"I picked up Student of Living Things on the new fiction shelf at the library, and it's a story about post-9/11 world, and I thought it might be kind of political. So I thought I would give it a try.

The book is about a family who loses a son in a terrorist attack in a post-9/11 world where terrorist attacks are very common in the United States. I loved how connected I felt with all the characters. I felt like it was really emotional, and at times I didn't even -- you know, I didn't want to read it while I was on the bus because I wanted to be at home, like in a safe place, because it was really -- you felt really connected with everyone in it.

I think someone who's looking for a political novel might not enjoy it so much. I think someone who would, would be someone who is looking for an emotional story. I give this book two and a half stars. I thought it was really good with character development and connection, but I thought that the plot could have been tightened up a little bit, and some of the threads were not really followed up on."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I am in a women's book group, and we had decided that what we would do is look at books -- not specifically one book, but we decide on a genre -- and then after we do that we specify a list of books and everybody reads one. And you can either do it in kind of a children's book report style or we will as -- if two or three of us read the same book, kind of share and banter about our opinions. So our area that we had chosen was about the Middle East, specifically because we wanted a better understanding of what was going on in Iran and Iraq surrounding the war.

The book surrounds two characters; however, it is mainly historical content, and it actually deals with issues of women's rights. The bigger focus, I would say, is it's about that defining moment in everyone's life when we make a decision and we stick by that decision, good, bad, or indifferent.

It went through a very crucial time period in the history of Afghanistan, and I think there were many historical elements that someone could get from reading that more so than from a history text to understand the time period and the relevance the western world played in shaping to some degree what happened in the Middle East.

I would recommend the book to anyone who had an interest in better understanding the politics of what's going on in the Middle East, anyone who has a sense of knowing our history, our culture. I would give A Thousand Splendid Suns four and a-half out of five stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini

"After I read The Kite Runner and was aware that there was 1000 Splendid Suns, I thought, "Oh, there can't be anything as good as The Kite Runner." But someone recommended that I read it because it's more about women's issues and women's struggles in Afghanistan, and that was intriguing to me. So I went ahead and got it, and I'm really happy that I did.

It's basically about two girls that end up marrying the same man, and so the two women are not friends at all. They're enemies, and it's kind of their struggle become friends; and at some point they're almost soul mates - I mean not in the romantic sense - but they're really family with one another. All this tragedy happens, and the fact that one of them can continue to love and give herself to her family and the world, that was probably one of the best parts of that story. I don't know if it's background or foreground, but Afghanistan is at war, and it's - the author really gives all of this information about what's going on.

I would recommend this to people who, like myself, aren't always up on current events and don't follow what's going on in the Middle East. I mean it is a novel, but there's a lot of factual information about what's going on with the government and their involvement in war and how that really affects the day-to-day lives of families.

I would give this five stars. I loved the entire book. There's not one thing I can say about it that I didn't like."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Virgin's Guide To Mexico

Eric Martin

"I read "A Virgin's Guide to Mexico" because I've been spending a lot of time in Mexico lately and just kind of wanted to get a better sense of the heart of the country. I thought that Eric Martin did a wonderful job of portraying kind of young, hip Mexico. Eric is a San Franciscan. And he got a Fulbright Scholarship to Mexico for a year. And you can tell that he just really absorbed the music, the scene, the history.

In "A Virgin's Guide to Mexico," it's a story of Alma who lives in Texas, and her mother is Mexican. And Alma is sort of a kind of unattractive, high school senior who doesn't really fit in under anywhere. And she's a bit rebellious. Her mother on the other hand is this, sort of perfectly great housewife who married very well, and is always wanting Alma to do you know just the right thing. Alma sort of, instead of going to Harvard takes off for Mexico in search of her mother's roots and you know essentially, what it means to be a Mexican-American.

She, in order to sort of get by cuts her hair, puts on men's clothes and is able to sort of become assimilated into the culture and able to travel freely, as a woman by dressing as a man because it's really hard in Mexico to go around by yourself as a woman. Meanwhile, her mother and her father are trying to sort of track her down. And so, it's kind of an on the road book and very much a book about Mexico."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

A Wedding in December is a book that I wanted to read because I'm in a book club and it was our selection. Plus, I love Anita Shreve; I'm actually one of the ones who recommended it. So that's my reasons for wanting to read that book.

The book is about a group of people that reunite for a wedding of some high school friend. They, over a time, lost touch and found each other again and decided to get married in a friend's inn; and I think it's in New England or something; and they get snowed in. And turns out that the woman is dying, and so they're trying to get married and preserve whatever little time they have together. But while they're locked in this inn because of this snow storm, they start finding out things about each other, who has secrets. The innkeeper's been in love with someone from high school, who is happily married; and they're both there. Just a lot of secrets and lies. And they get to know each other a lot better than they thought they would.

I enjoyed it, but I thought it had a really slow start. And other Anita Shreve books that I've read start right into the story really fast, and they capture me from the beginning and I don't want to put it down. This one I had to put down a few times. I like the aspect of reunited with people that you haven't seen in a long time. I'm kind of going through something like that in my life now, and it's a really - it's just a really interesting thing to go through.

I'm not so sure who wouldn't like the book; but I would recommend it to anybody who's an Anita Shreve fan, but also for book clubs because it made a lively book discussion for us. I would probably rate this book a three, three stars; and the reason being is because it took a while for me to get into the book. And if it wasn't a book club selection, I don't know if I would have finished it.

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

""This book was given to me by a boyfriend at the time that I read the book, and I actually thought that it was called A Year in Provence. I was so un - not ready for this book. So then I figured out that it was A Year in Provence. He gave me the book to read probably because he had heard it had gotten rave reviews as a good traveler's book, and he knew I liked to travel.

A Year in Provence is about an Englishman's time in France. He interacts with the locals as an Englishman, and he learns then the ways of the French. It's a humor that is maybe sweet and refreshing; maybe that's how I would describe this, or - and sometimes it can be punchy, but not always. It's definitely for a reader who is interested in travel or interested in encountering other cultures and respecting those cultures while also maintaining the sense of your own, and perhaps at the time that I read it, I didn't appreciate that as much. I think now - I read it about five years ago, actually maybe ten years ago - and I re-read it recently. And it struck me very differently than it did ten years ago, and that's probably because I have come to appreciate that kind of thinking and that kind of writing.

I would also recommend this book to people who like maybe just light-hearted writing; but there's a part of it, too, that's poignant, so it's not simply light-hearted. Ten years ago, I probably would have given this book maybe a two or a three based on my own - just based on how I understood the world at that time or what I was interested in. Now, though, I think I would probably rate it at least a four. It's good writing, its smart writing, it's funny; and if you're interested in travel and the lessons that we can learn from other people as travel, it's definitely a good book."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I chose to read Absurdistan 'cause I'd somehow heard a good buzz on it, just like it had been popping up in magazines and things like that, and I was in the mood for a satire; I was in the mood for something kind of light but that also had a reputation of being a little smarter, and I also like contemporary fiction as much as possible.

Absurdistan is more or less about a fictional country called Absurdistan, which is located next to Iran and next to Russia. And this guy, Boris Vainberg, who is trying to defect to the United States after having lived there as a youth for a little while and getting a taste of the country. Luckily he's the son of a very rich Russian mobster, but his life goes haywire when his father is killed; and in order to get to the United States he has to go through the country of Absurdistan, and all these wacky situations befall him. But basically, it's just an interesting satire on how a country would react to be next to Iran having a lot of oil in it and United States involvement.

The thing I liked most about Absurdistan was piecing together as I was reading the similarities between Absurdistan and the situation in Iraq. At first I was charmed by the characters and their vulgar, obscene situations and how American this Russian seemed to be where he'd just throw away money and consume everything in his path; and then at the same time realizing that he was kind of a power player in a country similar to Iraq, thinking about how Iraqis are possibly reacting to United States involvement there. Taking the Iraq picture and looking at it from a different perspective was a real trip; it was a lot of fun.

I would recommend Absurdistan to people who can take a joke about contemporary politics. I would give Absurdistan a three, just 'cause I want to be a tough grader; but it was a lot of fun, even at 3.5.

"

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I read it because I had read The Seven Daughters of Eve, and this is the other side of the picture. You can use the Y chromosome if you can find it to trace back through the family tree back to the Y chromosome Adam.

It turns out that the Y chromosome Adam goes back to only about 59,000 years, and that has to do with the fact that the sperm that a man carries in his scrotum are removed from the body because they need to be kept at a cooler temperature. But that means they're exposed to cosmic rays and therefore subject to mutations, which are almost always harmful.

Sykes believes that another thing that's happening is that the Y chromosomes themselves are deteriorating, that there are more and more of these 27 genes in the chromosomes that are being destroyed, so envisions a world in which - and he puts it at 125,000 years from now - there won't be any men left.

I think that I would recommend it to anybody who has some knowledge of genetics. I think I would recommend it to anybody, provided they first read a book about basic genetics before they read it. I'll give it four stars because three is neutral and I think it's a much better than neutral book. I would take a star off because of two things: One is the way he carries this idea of purposeful action of genes and being selfish a little too far, and because I think he's not a very good prognosticator about what will actually happen. And that's reflected in the very title of the book, Adam's Curse."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star Gazer

Sena Jeter Naslund

"Ahab's Wife I found out about I believe while browsing discounted remainder hard covers that were nonetheless sort of prominently displayed. I loved Moby Dick; I had a feeling that this book, Ahab's Wife, might appeal to some other sides of me - even other sides of me that were - or that are much better developed here in my early thirties.

What's unique, or at least very unusual about this particular novel is that it gives you the feeling of being an historical novel, not only set in a time period, but it gives you the feeling about being about a real person, a real historical character, by virtue of its tight connection with Moby Dick.

Perhaps as I read it, I felt that it could have been somewhat shorter. I've heard similar comments about Moby Dick and many other 500- to 1000-page or longer novels. It felt a little bit self-indulgent at times. But it's funny, I think that as soon as I say that, as soon as I realized that I have that feeling about the book, I realized that's actually a statement in favor of how well written the book is, because it actually gives you the feeling that this person actually existed and actually wrote this book.

I would give Ahab's Wife five stars, particular because it puts itself into a genre that existed many, many years ago. It really seems to stand as a 19th century work of literature, even though it was written at the very end of the 20th century, and that's a very unusual kind of achievement."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

All Over Creation

Ruth L. Ozeki

"I had some friends who very enthusiastically recommend "All Over Creation." "All Over Creation" is a kind of comic and dramatic novel about a young woman who's name is Yumi Fuller. People call her Yami. And she's kind of a prodigal daughter of Idaho farmers. She had run away from home. Her father, when she was young, her father now is older. She's in her late 30's. And he's growing ill and her friend called her back to help with his care.

This story collides with some environmental activists who identify the father as a kind of a guru, even though he's a curmudgeonly old conservative man because they have a seed catalogue that they send out and he puts these diatribes against genetic engineering and things like that. And then another person colliding on the scene is an old teacher of hers who had an inappropriate affair with her in high school when she was in high school. And he's a PR front man for the biotech industry.

What I liked about "All Over Creation," although it was very topical, very light and comical, it had a story that really worked emotionally. That Ruth Doseki spent time on the characters, made that very genuine.

I would recommend "All Over Creation" to anyone who is looking for a light, fun read, but not complete fluff, who wants to feel like they've been through something, when they read something. But, also have a lot of fun. I would give this book, five out of five stars. It's one of the best books I've read in a long time."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

All Too Human

George Stephanopoulos

"I decided to read All Too Human by George Stephanopoulos because I'm interested in the upcoming election, and so it's a very candid look at the Clintons in the White House from just a very unique prism.

The book is after Stephanolopoulos leaves the White House. The Monica Lewinski story broke while he was writing it, so there is this reflection of his time in the White House originally with sort of this happy ending; and it was just a very young, inexperienced team when Clinton came into the White House.

They are a power couple; they are clearly a team. It's a much more complex view of how you have to operate in the modern White House, the complexities, the deals you have to make, and his view and his view and his response to both Hillary Clinton and the President.

It's fascinating. It's really good. Now we are - I don't know - ten or 15 years later, and some of the same people are in this political scene, including the Clintons. So it's good; and I think it's just interesting to look at 10 or 15 years before if you're interested in political context. Plus, I mean Hillary Clinton, everyone wants to know about her, and here's another view of that. 4½ stars for this book.'

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

All the Pretty Horses

Cormac McCarthy

"I'd heard the title of the book, and I was wary for a long time because I figured it would be just kind of like a corny best seller. So I was really hesitant to read it for a number of years, and then I had heard that actually — a close friend of min said, "Ignore that. It's actually one of the best pieces of contemporary fiction."

The story is kind of like about these two young men that go into — down into Mexico. They kind of leave their hometown, I believe, in Texas for various reasons. I think they're unhappy getting older, just kind of getting restless; and they go down into Mexico to sort of have some adventures or try to make some money or something. All kinds of complications ensue.

I'd say it's a book that is less based around a really dramatic plot but more just about the style and quality of the writing. The protagonist in the story is kind of carried — he has this overriding love and sort of obsession and fascination with horses, which for me is like, I was one of those kids that was totally obsessed with horses. Like just the archives of any of my child drawings are just stacks and stacks and stacks of drawings of horses.

I did really like the writing, but at times I felt like it was a little bit too dramatic and caught up in its own poignancy. I think this book can have appeal to a variety of audiences if you need a lot of twists and turns and drama and action. Maybe I wouldn't recommend it, but there's enough to kind of keep you satiated. I would give it — well, I'm a teacher, so 3½ stars makes it 70%. It's not a C book. I guess it's a B. I guess I'd give it a B, which is four stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"The reason why I wanted to read America (The Book) was pretty simple. I mean, I love The Daily Show. I think Jon Stewart is completely hilarious.

America (The Book) is a strange and completely skewed view - or guide - from America's inception, from our founding fathers, to modern politics; but the same time, basically throwing a blind eye to facts, logic, and truth. It's written in the same style of prose as it would be of a high school yearbook - or text - and I was like, "Oh, wow!" It's really well translated into the book; I was kind of wary of it at first, because that was just like a cheap kind of tie-in, but no, it's consistently funny. There's so many just silly things within history that can just be used as humor that I think they decided to take up the ball and go for it.

I wouldn't even just recommend this to liberals, 'cause the ideas I mean, it doesn't just - I mean, it skews basically everybody. I would recommend anybody just - anyone interested in politics that just kind of wants just kind of like a silly read, because at the same time it's like - it's silly, but I mean it's like a 300-book tome. It's like, there's a lot of stuff in there, it's like a lot of subtle, wry stuff in there. People that are - people that like comedy to maybe try _____________ maybe kind of like political humor. I would give America (The Book) three and a-half start out of five. Or four stars out of five."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

American Pastoral

Phillip Roth

"American Pastoral by Philip Roth is - I actually didn't want to read it because I don't like his books. I've read a few of his books, and I generally don't like them; but somebody told me it was different and it was better, so I picked it up.

The general theme is this guy who kind of has it all, the son of an immigrant; and it's like the American Dream and what happens when it goes wrong. Philip Roth is a very stylized writer I think, and he writes to a specific audience. And so people who like him, they expect that kind of writing.

What I liked about the story is that it's a little bit more of a departure than he's done before. His women characters tend to be really shallow, I think. This book is different I think in the sense that with his daughter, the character of Mary, he gets deeper. And maybe it's because she's not - he can't understand her - that he actually spends more time as a writer trying to illustrate her character. She personifies that age of the 60's when people were rebelling against convention. And I think everyone can - well, I can. Most people identify with this feeling of wanting live outside of society and reject these values. And why does everybody have to get married, and have children, and have these typical lives? I identified with that character. Even though the character's drawn in a kind of a negative way, for me it was kind of a positive character. Apart from the, you know, terrorism and stuff like that - I wouldn't want to identify with that - but the rejection of your parents' values and the questioning of what people should be doing with their lives, I identified with that."

I would give this book a five. I mean, it's the best Philip Roth book I've ever read, and like I said, I'm not predisposed to like Philip Roth.

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

American Tabloid

James Ellroy

"I wanted to read American Tabloid, in large part, because I've been a large James Ellroy fan for a pretty fair amount of time. It follows, sort of, three main characters, and it goes from about the late fifties, to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. And so it takes a very large picture and then uses a few main characters, to really interplay all of these various conspiracies that are going on around the death of Kennedy, around the Bay of Pigs, various personal interests, as well as, you know, group and institutional interests around those events, and really uses good characters. It uses characters that are really either super empathetic, and you love them, or you love to hate them. What I liked most was the picture it paints of that era. I was not, obviously, even alive in the late fifties, early sixties, but it paints a picture of the way I sort of want to imagine it.

The one thing I disliked about the book, and this is my own personal thing with Ellroy, is that they end up not being the full story. Like, in fact, this is part of a three-part series, and the third hasn't been written. Without being too simplistic, I'd say that, you know, boys will really like this book. I don't want to generate and say that women wouldn't enjoy it, but in general, it's like, you know, the - good fellas. It's like all the sort of movies that guys tend to like. I would give this book four out of five stars, and that's not because I don't think it's the best of the best books, but because I, personally, have a lot of trouble giving fiction five stars, cuz fiction is very subjective."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore

"I originally found out about An Inconvenient Truth when it was advertised as a movie, and I was familiar with Al Gore's previous book, Earth in the Balance. It's about global warming, the fact that global warming is going on right now. It's not just something that's coming up; that there is a potential for catastrophic effects.

I've sort of been neutral in terms of the industries I work with to the extent that industry is causing the problem - and perhaps I've been part of the problem. I felt that it tells the truth, and I didn't mind that it was "an inconvenient truth" to some people. It's very well laid out. I think it was targeted for the average person.

I think its main weakness, as I said before, is the fact that its author is identified with the Democratic party, which in turn is identified with liberalism, which makes it difficult for the people who regard global warming as an inconvenient truth to accept it.

I think this is probably the most powerful book that I've read, in the sense of the strength of its message, the urgency that it carries, and the number of people that it will reach. I think I would give it five stars because I think no other book that I've read on the environment has equaled this in power and impact."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore

"Well, I read An Inconvenient Truth some time ago, actually before I saw the movie. I saw the movie only recently. I've cared about global warming for a long time. As a science educator, I care about it very deeply.

What is An Inconvenient - well, it's about a very inconvenient truth, and it's bold and kind of very charming of Gore to use the word "truth" and not be afraid of saying that. It basically, as a book, is his attempt to take these PowerPoint presentations or versions of his PowerPoint presentation that he's been touring around with, which you get to see a lot of in the documentary, and put it into a book form.

I was interested in reading the book whether I would find out something new to me scientifically or whether it would just give me more of a perspective on what I already felt is pretty strongly - pretty clearly the case. Whoever you are listening to me here, who knows where you're coming from politically, but global warming doesn't have anything to do with politics in the end. One is a fool if one persists in pretending to oneself that it does. It's the reality we all live in.

The way I read it is much more personally his - essentially his faith, his orientation towards his family is, compared to a lot of people not very difficult but still very real and emotional and true experiences that he's been through, relating all that to how he deals with having been a politician and now moving into this sort of meta-politician. It's certainly attempting to reach more of a mass audience.

As I recall, he ends the book by, as you might expect, with a section, "here's what you can do, some online resources and specific ideas." It might be ten - a sort of ten ways you can help to save the planet kind of section. So overall, I think it's hard not to give this book five stars. This is a book that everybody has to read."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

An Italian Affair

Laura Fraser

"My name's Laura Fraser. My last book is called "An Italian Affair." "An Italian Affair" is the story of what happened to me after my husband left me.

I was heartbroken and so in order to get over my feeling of devastation I went to Italy to recuperate. And there I kind of found that sorrow followed me wherever I went until I landed on this island called "Isquire." And there I met a french professor who spoke Italian. And we had three amazing days that just sort of brought me back to life.

We wrote to each other and then saw each other again, about every six months over the course of the next three years, in Morocco, London, San Francisco. One of my, one of the favorite moments for me in "An Italian Affair" was not in Italy. It was actually in San Francisco. And that had to do with falling back in love with my city. Because I had been very disillusioned because the dot.com explosion kind of made all the rents go up and all these artists had to leave town. And San Francisco really changed. And when my friend, the French professor came, I began to appreciate my city anew.

I think anyone who's gone through some sort of heartbreak just has to know that there's a good meal coming. I have read "Eat, Pray, Love," and a lot of people have compared "An Italian Affair" to "Eat, Pray, Love." In some ways, I feel like my book was the sort of spiritual big sister to that book.

I would recommend "An Italian Affair" to people who love food, people who love Italy, women's husbands just left them, and anyone who just kind of appreciates the sensual pleasures of sitting on an island with very little to do but eat, drink and swim, and make love.

I can't rate my own book. But I have to say that I love that book. I do. So, I'll give it all the stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

The Anansi Boys

Neil Gaiman

"I love Gaiman, Neil Gaiman, and I picked up his Sandman, that was an epic. And I read American Gods because - well, I first read Neverwhere, and then American Gods, because it was like, wow, he's branching onto actual books.

So I saw Anansi Boys, like, it was a - I was working at Borders at the time, and it was on display, so I just decided to pick it up. A lot of things about like, you know, the comic writers I like is that they take these cliché characters and make like deep, rich backgrounds of them. So I love the characterization in the book.

Neil Gaiman has this whimsical style, and he'll be writing along and all of a sudden a joke will pop up. You don't realize it, so you just laugh. It just comes out of nowhere. It was just a very amusing, well-done read, and he goes into a lot of philosophy, like old gods and religion, which I kind of like, so it was a good book.

Everybody that was into Gaiman's Sandman, follows - fans of Gaiman, yeah. People that like mysteries, you know. It was a good plot twist. People that are into mythology, definitely; he mines it very richly. And fans of Douglas Adams and maybe Terry Pratchett would definitely be into Neil Gaiman's work.

I would give this five stars. It's better than American Gods. It flowed so well, I read it in like four hours in one night, you know, and it kept me engrossed the whole way."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Ancient Ones

Kirk Mitchell

"Well, I've discovered Kirk Mitchell, and I've been reading my way through a number of his mysteries. This is one that I found particularly interesting. Many of his mysteries are set on Indian reservations and deal with some - they're based in some event in recent history that is true, and he uses this situation as a springboard to write mysteries.

This one is interesting because if anybody remembers maybe 15 years ago, a skeleton was discovered in Oregon, and when the skeleton was unearthed, it was carbon dated and it was 9,300 years old. Well, so what? There are plenty of old skeletons around. Well, the mystery about this skeleton is that to the experienced anthropologist's eyes, it appeared to be Caucasian. So what on earth was a Caucasian doing in Oregon 9,300 years ago? Kirk Mitchell took this event and turned it into a mystery novel. He has a mysterious skeleton unearthed somewhere in the Northwest, and the anthropologist and the local Native Americans at odds with each other as to how it should be dealt with.

Kirk Mitchell includes extreme violence, and this novel is no exception; and he oftentimes draws on practices that Native Americans actually employed against their enemies. So his writing is not for the squeamish, nor is it fore anyone who wants to consider Native Americans as noble savages.

I think people interested in physical anthropology and the history of human migration would be very interested in this particular novel. Well, at least a four. It's one of my favorites of the ones he's written, so for me, maybe a five."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Angela's Ashes

Frank McCourt

"I had heard about it. Frank McCourt's - I'd heard about the movie; and it had to do with Irish history, and I knew it was a memoir - and I love history. So my mom's Irish, her whole family's Irish, so I just really wanted to read about the history of Ireland back when my grandparents would have been there.

The story is about Frank McCourt. He was born in Brooklyn in 1930 to Irish immigrant parents; and when he was about four, they moved him and his then two younger brothers back to Ireland because they couldn't afford to live in Brooklyn. They were very poor. It was about his life growing up in Limerick, Ireland.

He takes a very sad story and makes it happy. I don't think of it as a sad story at all, even though people are - when I tell them I've read the book - "Oh, it's so depressing!" No, it's not depressing at all. I mean, if you think about the story, it is; but the way he writes it in that typical Irish storyteller charm, it's very, very, very moving. His father had run off all the time 'cause he was an alcoholic, and that wasn't my situation, but you just - single mother trying to make ends meet, that's pretty much how I can relate to it.

I liked everything about it. I liked the way it was written, I liked the characters, I liked the way he described them and whether it was a good situation or a bad situation. Anybody who's a history buff, anybody who likes knowing that something is real that they're reading on paper. I would give this book five stars. It just teaches you about yourself, I think, a little bit."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Angels and Demons

Dan Brown

"The book, Angels and Demons, is the original book written by Mr. Brown, of the same author of Da Vinci Code. A lot of my friends who were reading Da Vinci Code told me how great it was, but I'm the only person that likes to read things out of order. What I really liked about the book was taking true history and fictionalizing it. Only thing I disliked about the book was small print. I shoulda probably got a book with a little bit larger print. Compared to the Da Vinci Code, it is actually a better book for people to read. You're able to use more of your imagination. I would give Angels and Demons four stars out of five. I think it's a very wellwritten book. I think it keeps you caught up in the story, wondering where the next step is, even though you can kinda step your way through it. But you don't know the true answer, and you can definitely be surprised as the story unfolds."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Angels and Demons

Dan Brown

"The book is Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I liked that it was so action-packed and also that it had a hint of reality in it, in that like all the different clues are things that actually exist, they're just a different way of looking at it.

It's this big adventure that's like going all around Europe, and it's really fast-paced, so it keeps you involved in the story line, and the characters are really interesting.

I think it's really appropriate for all levels of readers, maybe not young kids, but certainly like teenagers through any age of adults. It's an interesting read. I know a lot of different people who have read the Da Vinci Code and/or Angels and Demons, and liked it a lot."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I wanted to read Angle of Repose, actually in part because of the cover. The photo on the cover is - or the Penguins Classic copy that I had - is this view out of a little window of this steep, rocky mountainside that looks like somewhere in the Rockies. I've just always liked the Rockies; I've been out to Colorado a lot.

Angle of Repose is about a kind of an aging old man who's in a wheelchair. His name is Lyman Ward, he's a former college professor; and he has moved back to this house in Grass Valley, California, and is studying his grandmother, who is this amazing woman who came out to the west.

I read the book really slowly, and I appreciated a lot of different parts of the book. It wasn't a book that I wanted to rush through and get to the end to find out what happened. He discusses so much in his entire family history and his own history and his relationship with his son that it's amazing. There's a bunch of - it covers so much. I recommend this book to everybody. I always recommend it to my friends. It was - it's a lot more mature of a book than I normally read. I would give Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner five out of five stars. It's one of my favorite books; I think it covers so much. There's just a lot of history, a lot of relationships, how relationships between family and between married couples and work. I think there's so much to the book, and I loved it."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I've read quite a few of Wallace Stegner's books, and I've always found him kind of a painful fiction writer. His style is awkward, and you can hear the struggling writer in there. He's a writing teacher - he was a writing teacher - and a very good one, according to what I've read. His nonfiction work is so rapid-fire and concise that I thought, well, he should be a good fiction writer; but in my opinion, he wasn't. So I decided to read some of the fiction.

Angle of Repose is a complicated story, but essentially it's a man looking back at his ancestors' lifes to kind of put his own life into perspective. So he dictates some sort of a memoir of his own life and also an examination of I think it's his grandmother's life; and he doesn't understand his own son and thinks his own son doesn't understand him and that people his age - his son's age - don't have any idea what life is really about.

There are a lot of things I liked about this book. I liked the way Stegner drew the characters because he's very sympathetic without having to say very much. This book ends up in Grass Valley, California, which is not far from where I live, and there's a big segment of the story that took place in Almaden Valley, in the San Jose area, also near where I live; and I loved seeing somebody from a way-distant time period roaming around in the areas that I know. I found it really hard to follow a lot of the time. He was experimenting with a time shift, trying to figure out how to tell a story from the 1840's in the 1970's, and some of the techniques he used left me feeling really disconnected. I'd give it a three."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Animal Dreams

Barbara Kingsolver

"Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. It primarily focuses on one girl, I think she's about 30, and kind of her return to her childhood home, a little town called Grace -- more of a village in kind of the mountains of Arizona -- and she comes home rather reluctantly. She grew up there with just her dad as a single father, and he was not very emotionally available during her entire upbringing. He had to raise her and her twin -- no -- her younger sister pretty much by himself; and he had strict rules, and they just didn't really emotionally bond. So she returned rather reluctantly because he seemed to be either getting dementia or schizophrenia -- he was not doing well. So she came to sort of babysit for a while.

It's her journey of kind of reacquainting herself with her past, some of which she had suppressed, looking at herself kind of through the eyes of others. She's the kind of woman who -- or person, rather -- who's lived her life looking over the next horizon, never looking around or being comfortable with what she has but always willing to move and look for her happiness somewhere else. I kind of identified with that, because I feel like the last 15 years I've been doing a little bit of that. I've always been looking for something else. What am I missing? What else should I be doing? And it's only recently that I've kind of pulled back from that and I'm learning just be happy with what I'm doing and the grass is not always greener elsewhere. She had to go through the journey of learning that for herself.

I think this book is probably geared more towards women, and that's prime -- just 'cause it's written from a woman's perspective, and I think she writes it assuming some basic facts about women. She talks about her lovers, she talks about things like that that men won't necessarily grab onto, so I think it's definitely written for women. I was kind of excited just because I'd never read anything by Barbara Kingsolver and I'd always heard that other people I knew had really enjoyed her books. I would give this book 4.25 stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"Well, Animal Farm is a book that we were made to read in junior high school; but I like Orwell a lot, and I went back to it and read it again last year. Just for - the nature of the stories he tells are very powerful.

Animal Farm is an allegory for greed that's present in human society and the way it determines relationships, human relationships. It's about talking animals; so for a young person, for a kid, there is a parallel to Walt Disney I suppose, except it's obviously a lot more serious. Reading it as an adult, you don't notice the nature of the allegory so much. You're not so struck by the fact that these are talking animals because the rest of it is so recognizable. As an adult, as someone who's been out in the working world, you realize that in actuality we are all barnyard animals working for a bunch of greedy pigs. And so it's very telling.

I think all of Orwell's books are a sort of dark prediction of the future or a dark assessment of the present. I think people who are critical thinkers, people that want something that's fairly challenging - I mean, it's not the language that's challenging - but certainly thematically, this is not fluff. The cute animals are kind of misleading. It's thought-provoking. I'm tempted to give five stars to Animal Farm. It's a good one."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I have long been interested as a teacher in the impact of nutrition on children, and I have been very involved in the food equity movement. Animal, Vegetable and Miracle was about how Barbara, her husband and her two daughters left their home in Arizona -- I believe it was Tucson -- and went to live on a farm that they had apparently inherited over years. And it had been quite run down; they had to go back and fix it up, and it was her family's year of literally as much as possible raising the food that the ate, meaning that they had to store it and keep it for other seasons when it was out of season, and that they made a firm commitment to eat as locally as possible.

When the author talks about why bananas are not considered a local food and the cost of getting the bananas here, I've taken that into consideration about how I eat and going to local farmers' markets. I liked how Barbara write about her -- both her enjoyment and her sadness at different aspects of living on a farm, so she took great joy in the gardening, and it was clear and evident from the richness of her writing.

I think this book is appropriate for anyone who has an interest in really going back to living a real life as opposed to a forced life of owning things because this book was about owning experiences. I would give the book five stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I chose to read Ask the Dust because I heard a lot about John Fante from college professors and also from other authors such as Charles Bukowski.

The book is about Arturo Bandini; he's an immigrant from Colorad - he's Italian, so he's from Italy - but he moved to Colorado, and it's a story just basically about his struggle with writing, addiction, moving to L.A., and just trying to live in Los Angeles around 1930, I believe.

I loved the story. I love how it just - it tells the time of an era about the early 30's in L.A. and how things were different, work was different, there was no rights for workers, and the boss had all the power. I really like that, and how everyone just seemed to struggle to get by. I'm a struggling musician, and coming to the Bay Area, trying to have my music heard and have everyone know who I am, I can relate to that definitely; and it's really hard, especially struggling as a musician, to make money off that. So I think writers and musicians have the same kind of goals and the same problems in live.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It has a really good story, it's - there's nothing, no bad language in it, everything is good. So young kids, older people like enjoy this book. It's almost like reading Hemingway. It's very simplistic to the point, but there's so much more in depth behind what he's actually saying. I would rate this book as five stars out of five."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

At Risk

Patricia Cornwell

"I wanted to read At Risk, because I've read a lot of Patricia Cornwell's novels and this one kind of involved - I've read most of her Kay Scarpetta series and this, actually, involved a new character and seemed like it was a very interesting story line so I was kind of intrigued just by the description of the book.

The book is about a detective who is kind of under the thumb of this very ambitious female DA and they get caught in a conspiracy to impede her political career. It almost plays to the CSI audience. It goes into a lot of forensic science, which is what I find interesting. There's a little bit of mystery and intrigue.

It did a really good job of developing characters in a short period of time. Like, I felt interested in what was happening to them; not just kind of to see how the plot of the story played out, but to kind of see how it impacted them or to try and figure out why people were reacting to things the way they were in the book.

I would give At Risk either three and a half or four stars. It's a real fun read. It's quick and easy and I like the characters. Totally worth it, but it just is, it's a light read, so it's not a book that's gonna, like, revolutionize your world."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

"I read Atlas Shrugged because my best friend made me promise to read it and gave me a copy. It was when I was leaving for one of those kind of year abroad things, and he says, "You have to read this book; it's life changing." I said, "Wow. All right."

So at some time I started really associating with the characters. There was a couple of characters that you love or hate or you feel similar to, and I think once you started to get to know them - and she took a long time to kind of develop them - but that's when you could really - that's when you really wanted to find out. That's when I would stay up most of the night 'cause I couldn't put it down. I don't know if I dare say this, but the strong woman in it as well is pretty - you're always cheering for her. I don't want to say I related to her, but I guess I did.

______ book is really about is how markets and people that are outside of free markets things interact with each other, and what works and what doesn't work; and I also liked that - who is portrayed as causing all the problems are for me personally are the people that I don't think we need - and that would be kind of - just to put a short word would be politics.

I think I'd recommend it to anybody, because if you have the time to read it, you're gonna remember it; and later on, you're gonna hear and learn things that speak to you. I would have to give this book 4½ out of 5."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I wanted to read this book because I had read a wonderful book review of it in the New York Times, and my father highly recommended the book; and he often has wonderful recommendations for me.

The book, as its title suggests, is really I think about atonement - one woman's atoning for what she perceives to be one of the greatest life mistakes she had ever made, and a real betrayal of her sister and a betrayal of love, the love between her sister and a man. I think everyone has a moment in their life that they wish they could go back and change if possible, change the path of their life, the direction. Of course, we're all sort of I think conditioned to think that regret should not be - there should be no regrets. People say, "Oh, you should live your life as if there are no regrets." And we all try that, I think; we try to live like that. But the great redeeming power of art, and of literature, I think, is a study of those mistakes that we've made, and a study of the feelings that we feel.

This book is, I think, a very contemplative book and a very powerful book; so anyone who wants to go through an emotional experience while also having a great time reading - I mean, it is; it's a wonderful read - should pick up this book, and I highly recommend it.

I would give this book five stars, absolutely. This is a masterpiece."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I first decided to read Atonement by Ian Mcewan because I'd seen commercials or previews for the movie and not a big fan of the main actress, so I said, "Hey, that looks like a good story. I think I'll read it instead."

Atonement is set in the 40's in England, and it's about a — it's based around a small family that's well-to-do, lives in the countryside; and the daughter witnesses sort of the first instances of lust between her older sister and somebody who's always been a friend of the family, but he's kind of a servant's son and interprets it wrongly, interprets it in terms of as him attacking her. It leads to this whole accusation and really changes everyone's lives really for the worst. What you hear from the plot really kind of tells the whole story, so you can't go into this expecting moment-by-moment changes or events; but what's interesting to me is when they show the boy's life in the future — Robby Turner — they show him in the war. He's over in France, and they're retreating, and it really shows — vividly, I think — what's happening in a war, and the destruction, and the loss of human life, and how casual it becomes. For me, I guess that would be my favorite part is that part. It's just set aside from what you would think the story's about. It just seemed very vivid and real.

Reading Atonement, I would pick up other things by Ian Mcewan. I honestly don't know if I've read other things by them because I don't always pay attention to the authors unless it's a series that I really get into. I'm not sure if — I think it was written recently, kind of turn of this century, but it felt more older, kind of Jane Eyre kind of thing like that. So at first, I — it was a slow read; you just have to really let yourself get involved in the details. I feel for some reason that women would enjoy it more. I don't know — I think it's 'cause I know more women that read and have more patience for stories that aren't all about actions; but I'd recommend it to anyone. I would give it 3½ to 4 out of 5 stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I teach school, and so it's hard for me sometimes to read full novels during the school year as I re-read all my books that my students read. So a number of years ago, I stumbled just by chance -- this is maybe seven, eight years ago now -- upon one of her earlier collections of short stories; but there was something about her writing that was stunning. An ability to, as I guess great short story writers do, draw you in right away. Her characters in all the short stories that I had read were contemporary, urban people kind of in my age and demographics.

The other part, too, is that in her writing she brings a level of sexuality or eroticism in a way that is not -- it blends in. It's not kind of a tawdry kind of thing to be tossed in for just to sell books and stories. It's a departure from her earlier writing; it's a full novel, but this is actually a story set not in modern times but set in the kind of mid- maybe early to mid-1900's about a young Russian woman who comes to the United States. It's an immigrant story. It's coming to America, coming to New York, struggling; she had left her home in Russia where her family was killed in a pogrom. She was led to believe that her daughter had died as well.

She comes to America and is immediately thrust into sort of the kind of idyllic -- it sounds kind of funny -- idyllic kind of urban immigrant life in New York. She finds out from a neighbor of hers, or a cousin, I believe, who comes to America as well, that her daughter in fact is not dead but is alive. The rest of the plot is her attempt to get from New York to Alaska to find her daughter.

I really found it to be an outstanding book. In fact, I like to sort of predict sometimes what might be among the nominees for Pulitzers and National Book Awards and things like that. This was among the finest books I've read in the past year. I'd rate this five stars out of five. I thought it was outstanding."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre

H.P. Lovecraft

"I read H.P. Lovecraft's best of book because a friend gave me a copy as a gift.

The book is a series of short stories collected throughout his short career; H.P. Lovecraft didn't write for too long of a time before he died, so there's quite a broad range of different horror stories throughout the book.

I don't read too much horror-wise; it's just usually not a genre that I'm very interested in, but after picking up this book, I'm definitely more interested in reading more horror novels. I think why this author grabs my attention is that his history of back in the early 20's, he was considered a grotesque writer and people couldn't stand the stuff that he published; and I kind of like those people that are considered the black sheep. His expansive imagination is what really fascinates me with this author.

The only thing I could say that I didn't care for with this book or was a little difficult at times is maybe some of the older terminology that we don't use today because of how our language has kind of evolved over the years. I would recommend this to anybody who's interested in reading horror novels for the first time. You can pick it up, read a couple of short stories and then put it down. I would give this book a four out of five stars."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Baby Bargains

Denise Fields

"Well, I chose to read Baby Bargains when my son was nearly born. I found it to be just the best friend to have around for my shopping experience.

Baby Bargains goes through items like cribs, and car seats, and strollers, and there's sections on nursing clothes and all the different tools for feeding, and even childcare options, actually. It's a book that is released regularly so that the information stays very current. It can be difficult to get safety information about things like car seats if you don't have a source like Denise and Allen Fields to tell you that you really should never buy a car seat from a thrift store because you never know if that car seat's been in an accident and is maybe not as safe as it could be.

I would recommend this book to any pregnant mom or parents who are expecting a child, especially their first child, because you really don't know what to expect and it's difficult to make decisions about preparing for your coming baby. I would have to give this book five stars because I could not have -- I absolutely needed it in the process of preparing for my baby."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Bangkok Haunts

John Burdett

"I had read the previous two installments of the Bangkok Trilogy by John Burdett and loved them and essentially was waiting 'til this one came out.

This book is a murder mystery, but like the previous books, it's got some twists to it. So the woman who has been murdered is a young prostitute who works in a brothel, and she also happens to be the former lover of the cop who is investigating the crime. She also happens to be a ghost, who turns around after her death and continues to haunt the different men that she had relationships with.

The series follows the character Sonchai Jitpleecheep - I believe is how you say it - who is a copy in Bangkok's Eighth Precinct, which is so happens to be the place where most of the red light district brothels are. Sonchai is also the son of a woman who owns a brothel, and so he has the interesting relationship with the underworld of Bangkok.

What I liked best about this book is the way John Burdett is able to just completely immerse me in Thai culture and this seedy underworld of Bangkok itself. I don't think there was anything I didn't like about this book. I read Burdett's books for pure enjoyment. It's my break from literary studies so to speak, and not that there aren't literary aspects to the that are done very well - I mean the stories are engaging and the characters are well painted - but for me, it's just fun reading. I would give this book a four stars out of five."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"Bats on the Beach is about bat families enjoying a beautiful day at the beach; and because they're bats, they're going at nighttime and enjoying the same type of day that any family might enjoy. It just happens to be at night, and they're eating bugs instead of snow cones and picnicking on all kinds of interesting things. So it's a lot of fun, and you learn a little bit about bats, and I think demystify something that might be scary to other kids.

When you have children that you read to every day, you tend to read books, in particular favorite ones, over and over again; and that's one book that I don't mind reading over and over and over again. It's got beautiful illustrations, and the written word is very beautiful and prose like. My youngest isn't quite one yet, but he enjoys eating books. My daughter is four and enjoys reading books tremendously. I think they like the part at the very end when the bats come home after a day at the beach and they're really tired, and they're snuggling up with their parents and going to sleep, which is essentially what you're doing usually when you're wrapping up the end of the book, which is sweet.

It's a really great book on many different levels. The illustrations are incredibly beautiful, and even without the fun text that tends to be rhyming and very clever, you can just look at the pages and enjoy it. So it's a great book for all ages. I'd give this book five stars out of five for sure."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Beach Road

James Patterson and Peter de Jonge

"Beach Road is about a murder, and it's kind of an execution-style murder, and it's, I guess, a classic "Who Dunnit". What I like most about the book is the way the writers - I believe they are co - yeah, co-writers, do the point of view. The one thing I disliked about Beach Road is, it's pretty violent. Lots of people die, and the deaths are bloody. It gets - the contemporary world - It gets it right. It's as if it were written last week - the music, the tattoos and piercings, the names of current figures in politics. I mean it has Bill Clinton - the ex-president - shows up at some rally. So it rings true right now.

I would recommend Beach Road to somebody who likes a good page turner. It's - to the end. It has twists and turns. You think, you know, you think its ending. Something else happens. It's full of surprises. I would give this book - If five stars is the best, I would give it four. I think it has some stylistic problems, there - kind of howlers, you know, that need some editing, but it's real close to a great read. It's a page turner. It's entertaining. The dialogue is - it really rings true - so I'd give it four out of five."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Bel Canto

Ann Patchett

"It's about a poor nation which is trying to woo a Japanese industrialist, and the only way that they've been able to - 'cause he's sort of a recluse and he has very specific tastes - the only way that they've been able to woo him and bring him to this country is to hire his favorite singer to come to a birthday dinner. So it's a birthday evening event, and all hells breaks loose. They are held hostage.

I do think you're either gonna love it or hate it because the subject matter is very, very specific, and it's about - it has a lot to do with music; the person who wrote it obviously did their research, and they know a lot about music. Music is like a language, so if you speak that language, then you can read the book. If you don't speak the language, it's not going to probably engage you in the same way.

I wouldn't say it's totally gripping, I think it loses momentum about halfway through; but it's a romance, and I have a little soft spot for romances - not on the sort of florid terms, but when there's a genuine attraction that by definite is a difficult attraction, I like that.

I appreciated that it was about music and that the focus was about music. I felt like some of the peripheral story was a little weak. The writing is good, but it's not amazing I don't think. It's unbelievable, but I'd give it a 3½ star rating."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

"I think I read that it was a winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, which is a prize in England awarded to female authors. I'm pretty sure that's like how it caught my eye. I'm now a big Ann Patchett fan, though.

Bel Canto is loosely based on a true crisis about ten years ago in Peru; there was a bunch of dignitaries and foreigners taken hostage at like an embassy party. For nine months, these very unlikely roommates end up becoming closer and closer as the standoff just drags on and on and on, and the government doesn't actually storm the house. It tells the story from both perspectives of hostage taker and hostage, and you end up seeing that after the first few weeks when the — whatever they are — the soldiers start not wearing their hats. Half of these soldiers are teenagers; a couple of them are girls. They're all like from such poor little villages, some of them haven't even like watched TV or used a bathtub in their life; and it really kind of opens your mind to the situations that even create these paramilitary groups, that why these things even happen.

The most beautiful part of the story is how, when the initial violence stops, once they've just been corralled in this space for months and months, people start making friends with the enemy. There even are some love stories between like soldiers and hostages, and people that you'd never expected to care about each other actually start caring about each other. When it comes to the end when maybe their situation will finally be put to a stop, the very people who were afraid of the soldiers in the beginning are actually hoping to protect them.

It's not a fast-moving book, so I'd recommend it to people who really like authors who include a lot of introspection. I think the Epilogue was unnecessary. When the compound is stormed, that should be the end of story. I would still give it five stars, just disregarding the last two pages. I still loved it."

© Copyright 2007, 2008 Pacific Book Exchange LLC

Beloved

Toni Morrison

"I wanted to read Beloved because I like Toni Morrison. But also because this is like one of her greatest books, and also, I think the subject matter is, it's this kind of like the wounds of slavery. So as a political person I would want to read a book like that.

The book, it's hard to say what the book is ab