Monday, November 10, 2008

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Lump of coal

And...another one

Kuh-MON!

Let's go change the world

My fellow prisoners

Politico, hot or not

"Hahhhhhhhn? Hehhhhhhhhn?"

McCain, old guy

McCain, goof machine

McCain, actually human

Olbermann, blowhard

Mt. Si

Mt. Si from Nicrosoft picnic

Grim Rooper

Grim Rooper
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
My least favorite of the seven books, if for no other reason than the first 150 pages could be captioned, "For those of you who didn't read the first book, I'm going to weave in a complete recap in the first 150 pages of this one." Ugh. The story is good, but it's definitely not my favorite by far.

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Sanctuary Sanctuary by William Faulkner

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Even Faulkner's nonmasterpieces can be great. Sanctuary is a good example. Faulkner claimed that he wrote the book just to generate some money, but I'd say any author on the planet would give a couple of limbs to write a book like this one just to make a little dough.

Love this sentence from the Amazon product description: "A sinister cast peppered with social outcasts and perverts perform abduction, murder, and mayhem in this harsh and brutal story of sensational and motiveless evil."

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Light in August Light in August by William Faulkner

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another Faulkner gem. If you want to understand the nasty underbelly of racism's effect on society and individuals, this is a great depiction. People tend to find this book the easiest to read of Faulkner's "four masterpieces" (As I Lay Dying; The Sound and the Fury; Absalom, Abasalom!; Light in August), so it might not be a bad place to start with Faulkner.

Here's a good brief review from an Amazon reviewer: http://www.amazon.com/review/R....

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The Sound and the Fury The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Benjy is one of my favorite characters Faulkner ever created. He sees the world in the way I imagine a dog does, which is not to slander Benjy. It's just who he is. And it's fascinating.

This book is not an easy read. It has time shifts, narrative jolts, and thought streams you can't always string together. But that's a big reason I love this book. It's not easy. It requires you to really engage with the text and the characters. And the writing is just stunning. Faulkner was one of the "twentieth-century Shakespeares" in my book.

To read an excellent short review of this book, see the first Editorial Review at http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Fu....

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As I Lay Dying As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Humor, tragedy, and all the organization of a wrecked beer truck. But I love it.

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Absalom, Absalom! Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This nearly impenetrable tome will madden and amaze you. Faulkner was such a great writer and his mind was not somewhere you'd want to live.

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