Rate the last book you read

[ethiostar]

'Undress me in the Temple of Heaven" by Susan Jane Gilman.

A traveling memoir about two female recent graduates from Brown University who decided one night sitting at IHOP to backpack much of the world in 1986 starting in the People's Republic of China.

A very entertaining and witty book that had me hooked a couple of chapters into it. By the time i was half way through it i literary couldn't put the book down. I finished it in two days. Excellent, hilarious and at the same time heartbreaking book.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

After seeing the crappy movie Hostel you couldn't PAY me enough money to go backpacking across any countries anywhere else in the world.

 

[Temo]

The Gathering Storm-book 12 of "The Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan.. 9.5/10


With the untimely death of Robert Jordan,The final book(split into three separate books) was written by Brandon Sanderson.

I would try to explain the story but I would just confuse everyone..:bang2: Its a GREAT series though..

I've been reading that series since 1999 (and the first book came out in 1991, I think). Good times.

Have you tried George RR Martin's Game of Thrones series.

 

[kmp77]

Crazy Heart 9/10

Jeff Bridges was amazing, his oscar was earned and deserved. But here's the thing, Collin Farrel and Maggy Gyllenhaal were both really good too! That blew me away. Also, I don't like country music but man, the songs in this movie were amazing. Particularly the ending scene, that was one of the better endings i've seen to a movie. Robert Duval was his great self as usual. The story is pretty typical, down on his luck guy who resurrects himself but they did it in a bit different way and avoided some cliche character types/swerves which I was waiting for. I didn't think i'd enjoy it this much but I'd put it above The Hurt Locker and Avatar.

I highly recommend it.

 

[ethiostar]

Here's what I've read in the lately:

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz - Not normally a follower of Koontz's work work, but the first book in the series really pulled me in. I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Wolves of the Calla - Really not a big King fan anymore, but I've been reading the series since I was young so I am going to finish it out. I thought this was the worst book of the series so far. 2.5 out of 5.

Raising Your Spirited Child - My son fits the description to a tee. It certainly gave me some good perspective on what is going on in his little head. 4 out of 5 stars.

A Man named Dave - I after reading "A Child Called It", I really wanted to hear more about this guy's story, to see if it truly had a happy ending. 5 out of 5 stars.

If you haven't read The Hair-Raising Joys of Raising Boys by Dave Meurer i would highly recommend it.

Its a funny quick read about the author's own experience of raising two sons. Some people get turned off by his biblical references but i didn't mind them and i'm not a religious person at all. This little book made me laugh out loud several times. He doesn't really come right out and say you should do x,y, and z but at the end he does his message across, which is children learn from what you do, not from what you say.

Crazy Heart 9/10

Jeff Bridges was amazing, his oscar was earned and deserved. But here's the thing, Collin Farrel and Maggy Gyllenhaal were both really good too! That blew me away. Also, I don't like country music but man, the songs in this movie were amazing. Particularly the ending scene, that was one of the better endings i've seen to a movie. Robert Duval was his great self as usual. The story is pretty typical, down on his luck guy who resurrects himself but they did it in a bit different way and avoided some cliche character types/swerves which I was waiting for. I didn't think i'd enjoy it this much but I'd put it above The Hurt Locker and Avatar.

I highly recommend it.

Wrong thread kmp :laugh1:

 

[Khartun]

I've been reading that series since 1999 (and the first book came out in 1991, I think). Good times.

Have you tried George RR Martin's Game of Thrones series.

I was actually about to go buy that and read it since there is a movie or series or something coming out for it. Is it a good one?

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

If you haven't read The Hair-Raising Joys of Raising Boys by Dave Meurer i would highly recommend it.

Thanks for the heads up Ethio, I will check it out!

 

[Temo]

I was actually about to go buy that and read it since there is a movie or series or something coming out for it. Is it a good one?

In many ways, better than Jordan's series. It's a genre of "realistic fantasy" that I think has been long overdue. As I get older the typical fantasy tropes of good guys vs. bad guys is getting harder to buy into, and Martin kind of does away with that. To his credit, Jordan went in that direction as well, eschewing typical "swords and magic" battles for a more nuanced political orientation (Rand's reign as "King" is much more realistic than typical fantasy, which paints the protagonist-hero as infallible perfectionists).

Anyway, the one thing in Jordan's favor over Martin is that Martin has taken a very long time to write his last book (going on 3 years now). And he's a big Giants fan.

 

[Alumni2k11]

"The best that money can't buy - Beyond politics, poverty, and war" - Jacque Fresco. 9.5/10

 

[kmp77]

Wrong thread kmp :laugh1:

Son of a....can someone delete that post?

 

[ethiostar]

I just got through reading 'Confederacy of Dunces' by John Kennedy Toole, this was my third time reading this book. Easily in the top five of my favorite books. It is one of the funniest and gut wrenchingly sad stories i've ever read. It literally makes me laugh out loud and brings tears to my eyes within the same page. The main character is Ignatius Reilly, a fat, delusional, over-educated, selfish and arrogant 'writer' who lives with mother and stays home almost all the time until circumstances force him to find a series of odd jobs in the French Quarter which brings him in contact with a whole bunch of interesting supporting characters.

If you haven't read this book, it is quite simply a MUST READ. You will hate Ignatius Reilly while at the same time you laugh at him and gradually learn to feel for him.

On a side note, the author committed suicide in 1969. His mother found his hand written notes for this book and managed to get them published after his death. I'm so glad she did.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Stalin's Children -- 8/10

Great book, but the ending is terribly anti-climatic. All the battles these 2 fought to be together, and it turns out that it was just a fling because they ended up hating each other. Not hate, but one of the protagonists wanted his wife to run off with another man in the end.

 

[YosemiteSam]

Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner

Rating: 10 / 10
This was a wonderful and enlightening book about one not just one of America's forefathers, but one of the greatest men in American history.

This book doesn't just paint George Washington as this indestructible man who was the General of the entire US army during the revolution and the first US president. It describes him as he really was. An intelligent, but very inexperienced man who made many mistakes while serving the American people due to that inexperience. It also speaks of how influential Washington was. He obtained his heightened status due to that charisma even when he would protest against taking such positions that were offered to him. His charisma was so overwhelming and the American people loved him so much that when political figures would attack him personally, the American people would revolt against the attacker.

This book is actually composed of several of James Flexner's biographies about Washington. Originally he was going to write a Washington biograph, but compiled so much information early on that he decided it would take to long to do a complete biograph and only made one about the first part of Washington's life.

As he went on, he wrote other biographies about other portions of his life. One he completed all the biographies over many many years, he decided to compile them all into a single master volume. It was done perfectly as he removed duplicated information / references form the other volumes and only kept the fresh information. This allowed the slimming down the book from the size of all the volumes compiled together.

If you love American history, this book is a must read.
​

 

[zrinkill]

The Ghost King

7 out of 10

Seemed like Mr. Salvatore was trying to quickly end the last book in his trilogy.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker 8/10

An intriguing exploration into nihilism, the meaning of sensory experience, and sadomasochism. The film adaptation, Hellraiser, is similar, but presents the putative monsters, the Cenobites, in a different light. In the book, they're merely seekers of extreme sensation with absolutely no concept of the difference between pain and pleasure. In the film, they're genuinely evil and willfully malicious.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

I've read quite a few in the last couple of months. In order:

'The Long Walk' by Stephen King - 7/10 It was a good, quick read. A bunch of teenage boys have signed up to do this long walk and the last one standing at the end gets a prize. The prize is always referred to vaguely, but the punishment for stopping your walk is a pretty big one.

'The Dark Tower' series by Stephen King - 9/10 It's seven books. I would put the first four of the series above the last three. Although, the ending of the series could not have been any better in my eyes. I loved it. The fourth book was my favorite. Roland, the gunslinger, was my favorite character and the fourth book was mostly his backstory.

'A Boy's Life' by Robert McCammon - 8/10 This was recommended by a coworker as one of his favorites. It's not really one of my favorites, but I read it in between a couple of different book series and it was a nice single book read to break up the long-haul on those. It's about a small town where some pretty fantastical things happen over about a year period.

'The Black Jewels' trilogy by Anne Bishop - 9/10 Maybe I should give it an 8.5, but I'm rounding. I wouldn't put it up to the depth of story of say 'The Dark Tower' series, but these three books just flew by. There were no wasted pages. All of the characters of very strong and memorable. It's got magic, demons, witches, etc. I mean, it's definitely fantasy, but it has some pretty cool twists on it.

And I just started 'A Game of Thrones'. I'm 200 pages in and I'm loving it. There's a certain depth of story here that I think is going to make it a favorite of mine.

 

[kmp77]

'The Dark Tower' series by Stephen King - 9/10 It's seven books. I would put the first four of the series above the last three. Although, the ending of the series could not have been any better in my eyes. I loved it. The fourth book was my favorite. Roland, the gunslinger, was my favorite character and the fourth book was mostly his backstory.

I'm contemplating getting into this series. But 7 books...ouch.

 

[vta]

'The Dark Tower' series by Stephen King - 9/10 It's seven books. I would put the first four of the series above the last three. Although, the ending of the series could not have been any better in my eyes. I loved it. The fourth book was my favorite. Roland, the gunslinger, was my favorite character and the fourth book was mostly his backstory.

I only read the first 3 then stopped and haven't really been moved to get back into it, but I have read The Gunslinger multiple times. It can stand on it's own as a great story.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

I'm contemplating getting into this series. But 7 books...ouch.

It's worth it. I think book 6 is by far the weakest and even that one isn't bad. It's just a bit slow in spots.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

I just finished The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

As the song by Evanescence goes "I know the truth now". Religion is now clear to me.