Ooshie Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) Next by Michael Crichton Synopsis - from back of book Welcome to our genetic world. Fast, furious, and out of control. This is not the world of the future - it's the world right now. Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes, is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There's a new genetic cure for drug addiction - is it worse than the disease? We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and to test our spouses for genetic maladies. We live in a time when one fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else, and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain genes within their chromosomes... Devilishly clever, Next blends fact and fiction into a breathless tale of a new world where nothing is what it seems and a set of new possibilities can open at every turn. Next challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and the bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, Next shatters our assumptions and reveals shocking new choices where we least expect. This was another book from the Library shelf in the hotel attached to the hospital; I have read a few of Michael Crichton's books, and always find them quick and easy to read as well as being interesting. As usual for him, the book is based on scary science and instances of how it can be misused or go wrong, which I enjoy. I thought it suffered a bit by having no one strong plot line; the various characters and their stories did not interlink in any way except that they all involved genetics. The book is over 400 pages long, but I finished it in two days. I enjoyed it, and will probably read it again one day although it isn't my favourite of the Michael Crichton books I have read (that honour goes to State of Fear!). Edited February 9, 2011 by Ooshie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidsmum Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Hi Susan, I have Prey by Michael Crichton on my TBR pile have you read it & if so what did you think of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 Hi Kidsmum, sorry it took so long for me to look at my thread again! I enjoyed Prey more than Next, and I have kept it to read again some time which is always a good sign; I like the way his books always present the science in a way that is plausible to me. I'm sure a scientist would probably find things to scoff at or disagree with, but I like to have the storyline underpinned with something that doesn't strike me as just impossible! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Synopsis - from back of book Charlie Gordon, IQ 68, is a floor sweeper, and the gentle butt of everyone's jokes, until an experiment in the enhancement of human intelligence turns him into a genius. But then Algernon, the mouse whose triumphal experimental transformation preceded his, fades and dies, and Charlie has to face the possibility that his salvation was only temporary. I had read the short story version of this aged about 12 and it made quite an impression on me at that time, so I was interested to see whether I found it as touching reading it as an adult. The short answer is...yes, I did! Although it has been expanded it is still a short book (just 216 pages), but it really is a very moving read. I don't really want to say too much more about it here as I wouldn't want to spoil the story for anyone, but I do recommend it highly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer Synopsis - from book A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, however, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms: a 'blind' old man haunted by the war; and an undersexed guide dog named Sammy Davis Jr, Jr. What they are looking for seems elusive - a truth hidden behind veils of time, language and the horrors of war. What they find turns all their worlds upside down. I read Everything is Illuminated for the Rory Gilmore Book List Challenge, and am a bit confused about what I think of it. On the one hand, I kept saying I was enjoying it, and nearly every time I read it I found a sentence or phrase that I loved (e.g. my favourite curse of all time, "may his name be lost between cushions" ). On the other hand, while in small doses I found the various styles enjoyable, if I tried to read a large chunk it just started to get on my nerves. And since I was only reading it in small bits, and some days couldn't summon the will to pick it up at all, it was in danger of joining the very short list of books I have started but not finished as it was destroying my reading mojo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 "May his name be lost between cushions" I simply HAVE to read a book that has that line in it. Thanks Ooshie. Added to my wishlist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 That line still makes me laugh every time I think of it, vodkafan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 Trail of Blood by S J Rozan Synopsis - from Waterstones A lethal inheritance...China, 1938. Eighteen-year-old Rosalie Gilder flees Nazi-occupied Austria with her younger brother. Hidden among their belongings are a few precious family heirlooms, their only protection against the hard times that await them as they join Shanghai's growing population of Jewish refugees. New York, present day. Chinese-American detective Lydia Chin is hired by an old friend to investigate the recent theft of a cache of holocaust assets, thought to once belong to the Gilders. However, before she makes much headway, her friend is shot dead. Neither Lydia nor her partner, Bill, believe the NYPD's theory that his death was a robbery gone bad. Both fear they are no longer looking for a thief, but a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to reclaim the past... I found this a really good read; it was interesting and had lots of twists and turns that I didn't expect, and I enjoyed it all the way to the end. I quite often look at the end of books to find out what's going to happen , but I was enjoying this so much that I wasn't even tempted. It's part of a series featuring Lydia Chin and Bill Smith - I have read one of the others, and intend reading more once I am allowing myself to buy more books! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 The Screwtape Letters by C S Lewis Synopsis - from The Folio Society In these wickedly engaging letters, Screwtape, apparatchik in the Lowerarchy of Hell, tutors his young nephew, Wormwood, in his first evil mission – to secure a young man’s damnation. Darkly comic yet deadly serious, The Screwtape Letters depicts a morally reversed world in which Screwtape presses his protégé to ever more ingenious means of temptation. Despite his nephew’s exasperating slowness, Screwtape has high hopes for his mission. As he gleefully tells us, ‘the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts’. But success is by no means certain, as their Enemy above has servants too... C. S. Lewis was one of the most distinguished of modern Christian thinkers, and The Screwtape Letters has become one of his best-loved works. Both entertaining and deeply intriguing, it will provide fascinating food for thought for readers of all convictions. ‘If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr Lewis will be among the angels’ NEW YORKER I read this for a Reading Circle group read, and wasn't too sure what to expect or whether I would enjoy it. I had expected it to possibly be a bit dry, probably preachy, and more than likely above my head. However, it is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read. Funny, entertaining, thought-provoking - and not at all preachy in its style. I read it through without spending much time on the thoughts it provoked, just for pure enjoyment, but will definitely go back and give serious thought to the points it makes about human nature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Synopsis - from Amazon Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" scandalised French bourgeois society of the time with its shocking depiction of an adulteress, Emma Bovary, and her lascivious liaisons. The 19th-century press denounced both the book and its author as corrupting influences. History has exonerated Flaubert and exposed the hypocrisy of a society that would deny the existence of such women. Emma Bovary, a young woman, newly married to a provincial doctor, is dazzled when she attends her first ball, attended by high aristocracy. With the culmination of her romantic ideals realised, her head is so filled with fanciful notions that she never re-enters reality, until the damning end:Before her wedding day, she had thought she was in love; but since she lacked the happiness that should have come from that love, she must have been mistaken, she fancied. And Emma sought to find out exactly what was meant in real life by the words felicity, passion and rapture, which had seemed so fine on the pages of the books. Frustrated and bored by her marriage, Emma embarks on a brief, rather touching affair with one young man but soon, vulnerable and exposed, she is fitting carrion for Monsieor Rodolphe, a serial womaniser. Soon, Emma has not only ruined her own reputation but destroyed that of her husband in her ruthless bid for wealth and recognition. The cast of characters, from passers-by to the shopkeepers who take her money, act like the chorus in a Greek tragedy. Seen through their eyes and their reactions to her, Emma's downfall is recounted but also society's intolerance. On the surface, Flaubert provides a melodramatic morality tale. Slyly, underneath it all, he is laughing. Through his voyeuristic tale, with each salacious detail recounted, he is wilfully subversive as he points the finger not only at the guilty but at those who would dare to judge. Well, this the second time I have read this book, and I really can't find anything good to say about it. None of the characters are likeable, and the writing just seems dull. I am reduced to thinking I must own a poor translation and that it must be wonderful in the original French, as I read so many good things about it. I have read plenty of classics, so it's not just that the style is different to what I am used to reading, but I honestly couldn't recommend it to anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brida Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer I agree with everything you said in the posts quoted above. The Sea, The Sea (as you probably know) is one I have yet to finish But what I have read (150ish pages I think) of it was interesting, and yes, needed a bit of effort to get through (especially the beginning). The story (what I' ve read of it ) was great, full of great descriptions (though some times too long), and the characters were excellent, so strong. Interesting to say the least. And it did seem like there would be twists, so I'm looking forward to that too. Everything is Illuminated - have that one at home, and was going to read it in February with you guys, but didn't manage to. I have skimmed through the first few pages and it seems to me exactly like you described it! Looking forward to the funny stuff, my friend told me she was thrilled with the book, and how the writing (style and use of words ) were very unusual, and that it was one of the funniest books she's read. Another one on the TBR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidsmum Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Hi Kidsmum, sorry it took so long for me to look at my thread again! I enjoyed Prey more than Next, and I have kept it to read again some time which is always a good sign; I like the way his books always present the science in a way that is plausible to me. I'm sure a scientist would probably find things to scoff at or disagree with, but I like to have the storyline underpinned with something that doesn't strike me as just impossible! Sorry Ooshie just discovered your reply good to hear you liked Prey I'm sure I'll get round to reading it soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidsmum Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse Synopsis - from book 'Do you believe in ghosts?' It's 1928. Freddie Watson is still grieving for his brother, lost in the Great War. Driving through the foothills of the French Pyrenees, his car spins off the road in a snowstorm. Freddie takes refuge in an isolated village and there meets a beautiful, captivating woman. They spend the night talking of love and loss and war. But by daybreak, Fabrissa has vanished and Freddie realises he holds the key to an ancient mystery that leads him deep into the mountains, to a cave that has concealed an appalling secret for 700 years... I had enjoyed Labyrinth (by the same author) so was looking forward to this book, and I wasn't disappointed. Quite short, at 240 pages, I read it in a day and was glad it wasn't any longer as I wouldn't have wanted to put it down to sleep! In December I had enjoyed a book of short ghost stories, and that had left me in just the right frame of mind to fully enter into the spirit of the tale. I'm sure I could find things to criticise about it if I wanted to, but I'm not even going to think about that! A mixture of love story and ghost story, mixed with descriptions of the French countryside in winter, I found it just right for reading by the fire on a cold, wet and windy Saturday in January. I just picked this up today in the charity shop so it's good to read you enjoyed it so much, don't think I'll be able to read it in one day though, you must be a fast reader The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch Synopsis - from The Folio Society Taking his cue from The Tempest’s Prospero, playwright and director Charles Arrowby leaves London for retirement in a coastal village to ‘abjure magic and become a hermit’. Both seduced and unnerved by his new setting, he begins a journey of self-discovery by writing the story of his colourful theatrical life. Finding himself in the same village as Mary Hartley, the first love of his adolescence whom he perceives is now locked in a brutal marriage, he becomes obsessed with the idea of forcing her to elope with him. Arrowby’s journal forms the narrative – a master - stroke that enables Murdoch to revel in her character’s egocentricity and fussy, florid language. It is testament to her enormous talent that she conjures up a true monster of modern literature, yet one who remains strangely sympathetic. As Arrowby’s schemes unravel and his memoirs evolve into a chronicle of strange events and almost gothic terrors, he comes at last to gaze ecstatically into ‘the vast soft interior of the universe . . . in calm of mind, all passion spent’. But just how far along the road towards realisation has Arrowby actually come? I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although I found it did need a bit of effort; if I was feeling particularly tired in the evening it was my easy paperback I reached for rather than this! Few of the characters appear particularly likeable, many of them are quite pretentious and bitchy, but the characterisation is superb and I really got into the story quite quickly - the first twenty pages or so seemed a bit dull, but after that I was hooked. I don't always visualise what I am reading, but the descriptions of the sea, the countryside, and Arrowby's house really came to life for me. There are twists and turns that I didn't expect all the way to the end, and it was a book I was very sad to reach the end of. I have this on my TBR pile I don't think I've read any Iris Murdoch before so it was good to read your review I see I shall have to visit your thread more often as we have similar tastes in books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 I have the feeling I will end up pinching some ideas from you, too, kidsmum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kidsmum Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I have the feeling I will end up pinching some ideas from you, too, kidsmum! Feel free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weave Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Great reviews Ooshie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Thanks, Weave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham Synopsis - from back of book Beautifully written, sweetly melancholic and sharply observed, A Home at the End of the World is the story of people living life without a blueprint. They are outsiders, misfits in several ways: Bobby, kind and open, but haunted; clever, gay Jonathan, unhappy with his directionless life; and fiercely independent Clare, searching for a future to match her dreams. Could it be that together they might make a life for themselves, and perhaps even find love, of a strange kind? I was looking forward to reading this for the Reading Circle, but I didn't enjoy it. The characters all seemed written in the same tone and I really just found it dull. I can't even think of anything to write about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brida Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 ^^Sorry to hear you didn't like it :/ I added it to the TBR list a few days ago, it seemed intriguing. And I thought I might like this since I enjoyed The Hours as well. Was this your first Cunningham? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri Synopsis - from back of book The goats of Vigata once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers and prostitutes of every flavour. But their discreet trade is upset when two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture. The coroner's verdict is death from natural causes - refreshingly unusual for Sicily. But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case - even though he's being pressured by Vigata's police chief, judge, and bishop. Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, delicious meals, vendetta firepower, and carefully planted false clues, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter. The Sunday Times quote on the back of the book compared Andrea Camilleri to Michael Dibdin and Donna Leon, and as they are two of my favourite authors I had to give this book a go! I couldn't say I quite put it on that level, but it was an enjoyable story, quite short and an easy read. It is the first in a series, and I have two more (they came in a pack of three) which I will look forward to reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickle Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri Synopsis - from back of book The goats of Vigata once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers and prostitutes of every flavour. But their discreet trade is upset when two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture. The coroner's verdict is death from natural causes - refreshingly unusual for Sicily. But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case - even though he's being pressured by Vigata's police chief, judge, and bishop. Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, delicious meals, vendetta firepower, and carefully planted false clues, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter. The Sunday Times quote on the back of the book compared Andrea Camilleri to Michael Dibdin and Donna Leon, and as they are two of my favourite authors I had to give this book a go! I couldn't say I quite put it on that level, but it was an enjoyable story, quite short and an easy read. It is the first in a series, and I have two more (they came in a pack of three) which I will look forward to reading. I hope you enjoy them, they are not hard reads but they are lovely books thorugh I always end up feeling hungry whilst reading them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 I hope you enjoy them, they are not hard reads but they are lovely books thorugh I always end up feeling hungry whilst reading them I can absolutely see why, pickle, the food descriptions are sublime! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian Synopsis - from The Folio Society Aubrey, cast ashore and suffocated by a landlubber’s life, joins Maturin on a mission to take the French-occupied islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. Temporarily assuming a commander’s post, Aubrey must also face down two of his own captains – one a pleasure-seeking dilettante, the other a fierce disciplinarian liable to provoke mutiny. Set during the Indian Ocean campaign of 1810, The Mauritius Command presents a palpable image of shipboard life, here dominated by the roar of cannon fire, the panic of injured seamen and the sight of devastated ships sinking into blood-red seas. This is the fourth book I have read in this series, and the one I have enjoyed least so far. As always there was a good storyline and it was easy to read, but there was much less of the interplay between Captain Aubrey and Dr Maturin, and I missed that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ooshie Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 Solar by Ian McEwan Synopsis - from Waterstones Michael Beard is a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. A compulsive womaniser, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. But this time it is different: she is having the affair, and he is still in love with her. When Beard's professional and personal worlds collide in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and save the world from environmental disaster. Ranging from the Arctic Circle to the deserts of New Mexico, "Solar" is a serious and darkly satirical novel, showing human frailty struggling with the most pressing and complex problem of our time. A story of one man's greed and self-deception, it is a profound and stylish new work from one of the world's great writers. This was a good read (not as difficult as the synopsis makes it look), and really very, very funny in parts! I am keeping it, as I am sure I will want to read it again some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankie Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham I was looking forward to reading this for the Reading Circle, but I didn't enjoy it. The characters all seemed written in the same tone and I really just found it dull. I can't even think of anything to write about it! Aw shucks, too bad you didn't enjoy it Well we can't all have the same opinions about books, each to their own. I'm glad that you've had a couple of enjoyable reads after that, I'm relieved Cunningham didn't steal your mojo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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