Just finished - "Rex Appeal , (The Amazing Story of Sue , the Dinosaur That Changed Science , the Law , and My Life.)" by Pete Larson and Kristin Donnan .
Up next , "Tyrannosaurus SUE (The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest , Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found)" by Steve Fiffer .
Night time , put-me-to-sleep reading has been "A Users Guide to the Brain" by John J Ratey , M D . It's great for a pick up / put down .
er, bump.
Just finished: To The Poles Without A Beard, by Catharine Hartely and Ying Shang - story of the joint first British woman to reach both poles on foot. An amazing feat made even more so by the fact that she was a media bunny and drunken party girl who needed to do something incredible to give her confidence.
Also just finished: Hippopotamus by Stephen Fry. Was really tired when I read it and maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as The Liar or Paperweight, but it did make me laugh out loud a few times.
Now: any suggestions?
Originally posted by mosquitorespectNumber 9 Dream by David Mitchell
er, bump.
Just finished: To The Poles Without A Beard, by Catharine Hartely and Ying Shang - story of the joint first British woman to reach both poles on foot. An amazing feat made even more so by the fact that she was a media bunny and drunken party girl who needed to do something incredible to give her confidence.
Also just finished: Hippop ...[text shortened]... The Liar or Paperweight, but it did make me laugh out loud a few times.
Now: any suggestions?
Originally posted by mosquitorespectPublisher Weekly Review:
What sort of book is it? I am being badgered by a friend to read Hyperion at the moment, so that might be next if I can find it in my local library. I fancy a bit of fiction.
A young Japanese man's quest to find his estranged parents throws him into a bizarre world of mobsters, dream villains and cyber-tricksters in Mitchell's second novel (after Ghostwritten), a hyperactive, erratic sprawl of a book that begins when narrator Eiji Miyake finds himself out on his own after his twin sister, Anju, dies: his alcoholic mother had had a nervous breakdown and left her two children with their grandmother when they were very young, and they have never met their father. Miyake makes the move from rural Japan to Tokyo to stake out the company where his father is a powerful executive. But his search lands him in a nebulous yet dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with an equally powerful Japanese mobster who uses Miyake's need to find his parents to kidnap and threaten him in a series of malevolent and nearly inexplicable scenes. The most coherent sequence in the narrative takes place when Miyake is contacted by his grandfather, a former seaman who gives Miyake his diary, a poignant account of his stint on a submarine in the final days of WWII, as the Japanese frantically scrambled to deploy a new undersea warhead. Miyake eventually manages to meet his parents, but those potentially affecting scenes are overwhelmed and overshadowed by Mitchell's relentless tendency to spin out futuristic, over-the-top scenarios in which Miyake is whisked away into strange settings and then abused as if he were the hero in a deadly video game.
My Review
Ignore everything they say up there, they've totally missed the point of the book. Yes Eiji is trying to find his father, but apart from that, everything they say above is completely lacking in any imagination or context. Mitchell actually fuses the dream sequences, memories, letters and thoughts of other characters seamlessly and it is both surreal, wonderful and entirely edible way (a bit like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). It is a beautiful, joyous, seamless piece of writing with one of my favourite sentences ever, from any book, in it. I was hooked to mitchell by this book and I really think you'd enjoy it.
Originally posted by StarrmanSounds pretty good, they've got it in one of my local libraries so I'll pick it up on Saturday.
[b]Publisher Weekly Review:
A young Japanese man's quest to find his estranged parents throws him into a bizarre world of mobsters, dream villains and cyber-tricksters in Mitchell's second novel (after Ghostwritten), a hyperactive, erratic sprawl of a book that begins when narrator Eiji Miyake finds himself out on his own after his twin sister, Anj ...[text shortened]... from any book, in it. I was hooked to mitchell by this book and I really think you'd enjoy it.[/b]