Book Reviews #1

[vivien_sivvus]

Since this week has been half term I've spent a lot of time reading books from the big stack in my room. Three were good, one was outstanding.

"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See is one of the most poignant books I've ever read. I read it in one go and cried for the last hundred pages.

It's set in nineteenth century China, but looked at

Comments

[girl_called_sun]

Wow, I'm impressed by your industry! Isn't it great when you have a pile of books, and some time to read?

I've read Birdsong, fairly recently, and I did like it. I agree it gets better as it goes along; the descriptions of the trenches and the conditions the soldiers lived and fought in were detailed and affecting. I wasn't convinced by Elizabeth (Stephen's grand-daughter), though; her character was flimsy and she felt like a plot device to me.

If you want laugh out loud war memoirs (which seems a bit of an oxymoron) try Spike Milligan's WWII books. They really place emphasis on the camaraderie and friendship between the men, which is what kept them going. Spike was invalided out with shell shock and later suffered from manic depression, so not all fun. They are a bit coarse in places, I'll warn you now.

I've only read The Shining out of all Stephen King's work, but I must read more, I think.

Sorry, I'm a dreadful book bore when I get going. If you're not too appalled by my ramblings, do you mind if I friend you?

[vivien_sivvus]

Ramble as much as you like, it's interesting! And yeah, you can friend me if I can friend you

[girl_called_sun]

Thanks for the recs! I think I'll try Misery next.

There was little real friendship in Birdsong, most relationships were of necessity or proximity, like Michael and Stephen. Jack did love Stephen though, and his (Jack's) story did touch me.

Have friended you back :)

[anait]

I haven't read any Stephen King, but Shawshank Redemption is a wonderful movie; even if they did leave a lot out, I didn't miss it!

I haven't read those particular war novels. I don't often read war novels or watch war movies (upsetting, bad for my mental health), but I do have one set during WWII for you that is quite good. The Caine Mutiny is An American War Novel, emphasis on the Novel part. It shows the middle-class American everyman serving on a Naval minesweeper on the Pacific Ocean in WWII. Herman Wouk definitely has a modern agenda as a novelist: to show the futility of personal heroism under the massive bureaucracy of the war machinery. Also: human nature is flawed, and readers will laugh and wince as the author shows the absurd poignancy of human conflicts and egos and the idealistic misconceptions of our naive protagonist. That kind of thing. It's very well done, and a great story, as well as a being the snail's-eye-view of a slice of WWII life that I'd never dreamed of. I've read it a bunch of times and I always

[anait]

doling it out in chunks that are not quite large enough to keep the interest going.
In order to keep the interest going, I meant to say. :p

[girl_called_sun]

The Scott Lynch book sounds great, I'll have to look out for that.

[anait]

There's two Lock Lamora books out now (by Scott Lynch). They're not my favourite series ever, but they're very imaginative and entertaining to read. I read the first one on a book review by mistful, and she usually has good taste in books.