04 - The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid, Penguin, 209 pages, 2007
WHY I PICKED IT: Book Club
ELAPSED TIME: 3 Days
RATING: Good
This is an engrossing tale... told entirely in the first person. Changez is a Pakistani living in Lahore... telling the story of his experience in the USA to an American stranger in the market: From Princeton on scholarship, into the Manhattan corporate world, and his relationship with Erica, a girl from the Upper East Side (read: from old money). The struggle of a man from a formally wealthy Pakistani family, working hard to succeed in the USA, derided and derailed in the aftermath of September 2001 is compelling... despite written in the first person (which you would think would be hard to read).
The tale Changez tells is engrossing, but I am not sure I really understood the underlying "present day" tale that Hamid is telling us. Who is this American that sits for hours with a stranger and listens to the story? What else is going on, I really don't follow...?
This blog is a simple review of every book that I read... For all books I’ll tell you why I picked it, how long it took me to read it, and give it a rating (burn it, not good, meh, good, very good, and required reading). I ask (encourage?) all readers of my blog to post their thoughts of any of the books in my comments :). Thanks!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
2012-03 - Kiss of the Fur Queen, by Tomson Highway
03 - Kiss of the Fur Queen, by Tomson Highway, Anchor Canada, 306 pages, 1998
WHY I PICKED IT: Recommended by my friend Wendy
ELAPSED TIME: 3 weeks
RATING: Meh
Telling the story of two Cree brothers from Northern Manitoba, Champion and Ooneemeetoo Okimasis... renamed Jeremiah and Gabriel by the Catholics, and raised in a residential school (with all the horrors that entailed)... These two brothers struggle to fit - not able to understand native culture and not able to integrate into White Canada.
Despite the fact that I relate strongly to that experience (the cultural divide)... I just didn't love this book. Highway's voice as an author is too abstract... the time shifts forward felt choppy. And the "Fur Queen," as the Goddess watching down on them, was of a culture that I simply didn't understand, and Highway didn't make accessible enough (to me).
WHY I PICKED IT: Recommended by my friend Wendy
ELAPSED TIME: 3 weeks
RATING: Meh
Telling the story of two Cree brothers from Northern Manitoba, Champion and Ooneemeetoo Okimasis... renamed Jeremiah and Gabriel by the Catholics, and raised in a residential school (with all the horrors that entailed)... These two brothers struggle to fit - not able to understand native culture and not able to integrate into White Canada.
Despite the fact that I relate strongly to that experience (the cultural divide)... I just didn't love this book. Highway's voice as an author is too abstract... the time shifts forward felt choppy. And the "Fur Queen," as the Goddess watching down on them, was of a culture that I simply didn't understand, and Highway didn't make accessible enough (to me).
Sunday, January 8, 2012
2012-02 - City of Thieves, by David Benioff
02 - City of Thieves, by David Benioff, Penguin, 258 pages, 2009
WHY I PICKED IT: Saw it at the airport bookstore
ELAPSED TIME: 2 days
RATING: REQUIRED READING
Oh what a fantastic story! A gripping tale of one week of a boy's life in St. Petersburg during WWII.
He is caught looting the corpse of a German Paratrooper, and instead of being killed for the crime, gets drafted into a crazy challenge - to find a dozen eggs for a Soviet Colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Along with a deserter named Kolya, Lev Beniov seeks to accomplish this task.
Whether or not this truly is the story of the author's grandfather, it's a beautiful story of a terrible time. A tremendous coming of age story with an amazing adventure thrown in.
WHY I PICKED IT: Saw it at the airport bookstore
ELAPSED TIME: 2 days
RATING: REQUIRED READING
Oh what a fantastic story! A gripping tale of one week of a boy's life in St. Petersburg during WWII.
He is caught looting the corpse of a German Paratrooper, and instead of being killed for the crime, gets drafted into a crazy challenge - to find a dozen eggs for a Soviet Colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Along with a deserter named Kolya, Lev Beniov seeks to accomplish this task.
Whether or not this truly is the story of the author's grandfather, it's a beautiful story of a terrible time. A tremendous coming of age story with an amazing adventure thrown in.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
2012-01 - Room, By Emma Donoghue
01 - Room, By Emma Donoghue, Harper Collins, 321 pages, 2010
WHY I PICKED IT: It was selected by my Book Club
ELAPSED TIME: 8 days
RATING: Meh
An curious premise... The story of a child who is born in a room where his Mom is being held captive, kidnapped 7 years earlier. The first 100 pages of the book drags, his experience in Room is ... painful to read. His experience of escaping, and trying to integrate into Outside is very well written, but not great. I didn't enjoy this story.
WHY I PICKED IT: It was selected by my Book Club
ELAPSED TIME: 8 days
RATING: Meh
An curious premise... The story of a child who is born in a room where his Mom is being held captive, kidnapped 7 years earlier. The first 100 pages of the book drags, his experience in Room is ... painful to read. His experience of escaping, and trying to integrate into Outside is very well written, but not great. I didn't enjoy this story.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Hassan's Book of 2011
As 2011 comes to an
end, I find myself reflecting on the fifty five books that I have read...
through fifteen thousand, six hundred and fifty eight (15,658) pages. The
longest book was The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, by Steig Larsson (743
pages) and the shortest was Not a Star, by Nick Hornby (69 pages). My
most productive month was February (9 books), and my least was September (no
books at all).
I have encountered three
books that absolutely sucked (that I didn’t finish),
Two books that were
quite simply “Not Good” (one of which I didn’t finish),
Ten books that were
just “Meh” (another one not finished here),
Twenty one books
that I considered as “Good,”
Seventeen books
that were “Very Good,” and
Seven books that I
would recommend as REQUIRED READING:
- True Notebooks, by Mark Salzman
- Little Princes, by Conor Grennan
- Microserfs, by Douglas Coupland
- Finnie Walsh, by Steven Galloway
- One Day, by David Nichols
- The Long Walk, by Slavomir Rawicz
- The Myth of You and Me, by Leah Stewart
Microserfs, Finnie Walsh, and One Day are all great books, but were all
re-reads from previous years. I highly
recommend all of them for having characters that you will carry with you... but
none of them can fairly qualify for Hassan’s Book of 2011.
- True Notebooks is stories and writing of children in the LA prison system, by Mark Slazman (a writer, and their instructor).
- Little Princes shares the experiences of Conor Grennan in his quest to free children and return them to their families in Nepal.
- The Long Walk is the tale of Slavomir Rawicz who escaped the Russian Gulags ... on foot.
- The Myth of You and Me is the story of a friendship.
If I were going to
recommend just one of these, I would have to say that the amazing experience of
Mark Salzman and the writing of these children who have made mistakes and find
a system more focused on retribution than rehabilitation sucks you in and doesn’t
let you go. The Hassan Book of 2011 is
True Notebooks.
A LOOK BACK
- Hassan’s Book of 2010 was Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden
- Hassan’s Book of 2009 was The Help, by Kathryn Sockett
- Hassan’s Book of 2008 (and of the decade) was Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Friday, December 30, 2011
2011-55 - My Other Life, by Paul Theroux
55 - My Other Life, by Paul Theroux, 456 pages, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996
WHY I PICKED IT: Recommended by my friend Tony
ELAPSED TIME: 4 days
RATING: Very Good
This is the (admittedly fake) autobiography of Paul Theroux... this tale follows the 35 years of Paul's life, from 15 to 50. Rather than telling us just what's going on, he tells the story through the major influences in his life at different stages, his uncle, his boss, his benefactor, his best friend, etc. It's a great read (if not a bit long in the middle), but a bit too melancholic for my tastes.
Minor spoiler alert (consider not reading): If I were going to fabricate my autobiography, I'd make it just a bit more upbeat at the end... rather than conveying all kinds of contentment in the middle and discontent at the end, wouldn't you?
WHY I PICKED IT: Recommended by my friend Tony
ELAPSED TIME: 4 days
RATING: Very Good
This is the (admittedly fake) autobiography of Paul Theroux... this tale follows the 35 years of Paul's life, from 15 to 50. Rather than telling us just what's going on, he tells the story through the major influences in his life at different stages, his uncle, his boss, his benefactor, his best friend, etc. It's a great read (if not a bit long in the middle), but a bit too melancholic for my tastes.
Minor spoiler alert (consider not reading): If I were going to fabricate my autobiography, I'd make it just a bit more upbeat at the end... rather than conveying all kinds of contentment in the middle and discontent at the end, wouldn't you?
2011-54 - The Myth of You and Me, by Leah Stewart
54 - The Myth of You and Me, by Leah Stewart, 276 pages, Three Rivers Press, 2005
WHY I PICKED IT: Picked it up in Powell's Books in Portland
ELAPSED TIME: 2 days
RATING: REQUIRED READING
Cameron meets Sonia when she was 15, and they became best friends... from high school, college, and starting their lives. Now, 8 or 9 years later, they've not spoken since just after college ... this is that story. The friendship between two women, the reasons they broke up, and the paths that their lives took.
A brilliant tale that sucks you in and reminds you of your own faded friendships... so much so that the author has a place on her website for just such stories (some of which she includes in an appendix to the book).
(as an aside, how much of enjoying a book is being in the right frame of mind to enjoy it? how many "bad" books were simply because I was a "bad audience" when I tackled it? how many brilliant books are simply the right message at the right time?)
WHY I PICKED IT: Picked it up in Powell's Books in Portland
ELAPSED TIME: 2 days
RATING: REQUIRED READING
Cameron meets Sonia when she was 15, and they became best friends... from high school, college, and starting their lives. Now, 8 or 9 years later, they've not spoken since just after college ... this is that story. The friendship between two women, the reasons they broke up, and the paths that their lives took.
A brilliant tale that sucks you in and reminds you of your own faded friendships... so much so that the author has a place on her website for just such stories (some of which she includes in an appendix to the book).
(as an aside, how much of enjoying a book is being in the right frame of mind to enjoy it? how many "bad" books were simply because I was a "bad audience" when I tackled it? how many brilliant books are simply the right message at the right time?)
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