The Long Walk by Stephen King (Richard Bachman)

October 29th, 2007 · No Comments

Synopsis:
100 young men begin a walk that will not end until there is only one survivor, who will win everything he wants for the rest of his life.
Review:
I’ve read The Long Walk a bunch of times. It’s one of the best of the books Stephen King wrote under the name of Richard Bachman, a [...]

Popularity: 31% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

October 14th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Synopsis:
The epic tale of Adam Trask, cuckolded husband to a whore and father of twin boys, one dark, one light.
Review:
I’m rather embarrassed to confess East of Eden is the first Steinbeck I have ever read. Big deal, you say–except I majored in American Studies in college with a focus on how literature and popular [...]

Popularity: 22% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Unhooked by Laura Sessions Stepp

September 15th, 2007 · No Comments

Synopsis:
A dissection of hook-up culture on college campuses and in high schools, including anecdotal accounts.
Review:
More hand-wringing than Last Night in Paradise, less high-minded than Unprotected, Unhooked is more likely than either to provoke fear and consternation in the hearts of parents of teenagers across America–particularly if they’ve read I Am Charlotte Simmons and their daughter [...]

Popularity: 31% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

Tin Angel by Shannon Cowan

August 6th, 2007 · 4 Comments

Synopsis:
Accused of murdering her family’s benefactor, a teenage girl caught in the legal system explains what led to her arrest and indictment.
Review:
Author Shannon Cowan has done a remarkable job researching the Canadian legal system viz. young adults around the time that Tin Angel takes place (late 1960s). However, the emotional component of the story [...]

Popularity: 41% [?]

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Tags: Canadian Literature

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

July 22nd, 2007 · 6 Comments

Synopsis:
Harry Potter braces for his final battle with evil Lord Voldemort, knowing that only one of them will survive.
Review:
My biggest criticism of Harry Potter has always been his passivity. In the first few books especially, he spends most of his time being rescued or protected, simply because he’s “The Boy Who Lived.” And [...]

Popularity: 52% [?]

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Tags: British Literature

Beauty Junkies by Alex Kuczynski

June 20th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Synopsis:
An investigation into cosmetic surgery, mainly in America, with a focus on the extremes to which people have gone.
Popularity: 36% [?]

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Popularity: 36% [?]

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Tags: American Literature

After the First Death by Robert Cormier

May 2nd, 2007 · 4 Comments

Synopsis:
The fates of two young men collide on a bridge when a group of terrorists take over a schoolbus filled with children.
Popularity: 30% [?]

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Popularity: 30% [?]

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Tags: On Reading

Emotional Reads

April 23rd, 2007 · 1 Comment

I like to be moved by literature, which is why I don’t go crazy for metafiction or postmodernism or overly intellectual fiction (Don DeLillo, Thomas Pyncheon, etc.). Such was the book I read yesterday for work.
Otter asks,
What are the five books in your library (or memory) that stirred the greatest emotive reaction in [...]

Popularity: 36% [?]

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Tags: On Reading

The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine

April 21st, 2007 · 5 Comments

Synopsis:
A woman haunted by the uncertain onset of a genetic disease sees a woman from her past, and struggles to fill in the gaps between truth and lies from a time in her life marked by violence and murder.
Review:
House of Stairs is yet another knockout from Barbara Vine, the British crime writer who pens the [...]

Popularity: 61% [?]

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Tags: British Literature

Winterwood by Patrick McCabe

April 6th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Synopsis:
Entranced by the folk tales of an old mountain man, and repulsed by the same man’s grisly crimes, Redmond Hatch struggles to narrate the events which led him to bring his beloved wife and daughter to winterwood.
Review:
I was upset by the way Winterwood seduced me. I did not want to be reeled in [...]

Popularity: 98% [?]

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Tags: Irish Literature