The One from the Other: A Bernie Gunther Novel (Bernie Gunther Novels)
from Penguin (Non-Classics).
I loved the first three Bernie Gunther books and started this book with relish but gradually became disenchanted with it - where had wise-cracking hard-boiled Bernie gone? The First three books were quite darkly comic they absolutely crackled with metaphors and one-liners that that made the books...
If the Dead Rise Not (Bernie Gunther)
from Putnam Adult.
Book arrived on time and in the condition stated in its description, I'd use this vendor again.
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Myths)
from Canongate U.S..
This was a really lovely audiobook for a long drive -- there was a very sweet simplicity to the prose that paired well to the medium of listening to it, and I thought that it really added something to have Pullman read it himself. I really enjoyed listening to it.
For the story itself, it was a...
A Quiet Flame: A Novel (Bernie Gunther Novels)
from Penguin (Non-Classics).
Bernie Gunther at his wise-cracking, sentimental, sordid secret uncovering best. This book has history, mystery, charm, personality, excitement, great descriptions, setting, and little known information. Set in 1934 Berlin and 1950 Argentina - rife with escaped Nazis - it is both a prequel to Philip...
Berlin Noir: March Violets; The Pale Criminal; A German Requiem
from Penguin (Non-Classics).
The book is exactly what was ordered. So I would rate the merchandise AOK. The seller, however, took a week to ship the book, and I received the book 3 weeks after purchase. Won't buy from seller again.
Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick
from Pantheon.
I might as well admit this at the beginning of the review: I am not generally a fan of short stories. I'm not making any sort of universal statement here so much as saying that I think the form tends to elevate shallow writing that is built around some sort of twist or reveal at the end. Bradbury is...
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
from Zondervan.
This is the third book I have read by Mr. Yancey. It takes an intence and complicated subject and makes various opinions understandable. I have never finished any other book about prayer. He allows for Christians of all levels to learn about one of the most important topics in all of our lives and...
Portnoy's Complaint
from Vintage.
Quick read, rather bawdy; great excuse to say 'No, Thanks!' to Mom's liver dinner. Should be required reading for mothers of boys.
Collected Poems
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
I was curious about Larkin because I kept hearing that he wrote salty poetry, and managed to be famous at the same time. None of the poems I ever heard seemed particularly blue, but my curiosity finally got the best of me. What a surprise. Plain spoken, carefully crafted, clearly the work of a...
Best of Philip K Dick
from Del Rey.
If you've never read Philip K Dick, this collection of short stories is a great place to start. The first two stories in the collection (his first 2 published stories) aren't the greatest, but from the third story on it's one brilliant gem after the other. I read this book 3 months ago and it's...
Philip Dru: Administrator, A Story of Tomorrow, 1920-1935
from Wildside Press.
Fiction becomes fact in the tale where truth is presented with fictional audacity and a excellent example of how such audacity has been blatantly slapped across the face of everyday unassuming Americans without recourse or without a clue of what is truly revealed in this book. A very good read and...
What's So Amazing About Grace?
from Zondervan.
This book really made me think and rethink. I have passed it around and everyone who starts reading it can not put it down. It helps adjust attitudes and helps one understand the God we serve a little bit better.
American Pastoral
from Vintage.
I've read most of Philip Roth's novels but not in order of publication. I came to this one late and find it hard to understand why it received so much praise. The writing is overblown and pompous. The allegorical drive to make the characters stand for the underside and disillusionment of America in...
Indignation (Vintage International)
from Vintage.
As a child growing up in the area around Newark, NJ in the 1950s, I related to Marcus, the main character. On the surface, his home was peaceful and loving, but just below the surface, the world was in a turmoil about which his parents never spoke. Marcus leaves the familiarity and comfort of home...
The Jesus I Never Knew
from Zondervan.
What marginal value can be added to the critique of a book with 185 reviews? Probably little, so I'll keep this brief.
I found this book amazing, boring, thought-provoking, predictable, startling and mundane. That's partly because I read it at the rate of a chapter a month over the course of a...
Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 years
from HarperOne.
the book brings up a big issue. organization. why do i read books? what do i expect to get out of a book? why is it important to organize your reading so that you can remember it?
from the top down.
big overall organization, in this book, chronological.
big take home themes, here,...
Riverworld: Including To Your Scattered Bodies Go & The Fabulous Riverboat
from Tor Books.
I've never been a big science fiction fan, but this series was the best I've read in years. I highly recommend it.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
from Del Rey.
Having seen the move "Blade Runner" many years I had been meaning to read this for a long time.
I knew the book was different then the movie in important ways, but it was only when I finally got to read it did I realize how much better the book is, just like every other movie adaptation of...
What Work Is
from Knopf.
Philip Levine's "What Work Is" represents one of the most powerful reflections on labor in modern American history, comparable to some of the great Walt Whitman's own compositions on the lives of those defined by the sweat of their brow and the strain in their backs.
Levine's words are at once...
The Philip K. Dick Collection
from Library of America.
This is the first time I bought Library of America titles. Before this I have been collecting Everyman's Library series. I still do but am glad that I have given LOA a try. The one I have bought from Amazon was the Philip K. Dick box set. The paper is in a slightly thinner quality if you compare...
