May 20 2008
No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (8/10)
Engrossing, well-written novel about a sheriff tracking down a killer who’s after someone that stumbled on some drug money in the middle of a desert. I wouldn’t want to see the well-reviewed movie if it portrays the violence in the book.
Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (7/10)
A [...]
Mar 02 2008
Next by Michael Crichton (3/10)
Too many characters with too little detail. Crichton seems to be getting worse, writing about topics that are interesting but a story with no substance. He creates short, interesting scenarios and dilemmas to raise issues related to the topic of his book (genetics in this case), but the story [...]
Jun 12 2007
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (9/10)
Yes, this is an Oprah pick, but I read that it had a science-fiction element to it, and it was cheap (at Costco). It’s a depressing novel about a father and son wandering America after civilization has been destroyed. It’s violent, touching, and memorable. The author doesn’t [...]
May 03 2007
William Wharton is the author of Birdy, Dad, A Midnight Clear, and many other excellent books. He has written non-fiction, too, including Ever After: A Father’s True Story, a heart-wrenching account of how his daughter’s family got killed in a car crash caused by smoke from nearby fires in Oregon.
I was introduced to William [...]
Apr 07 2006
Sam Harris writes about the danger of religion in The End Of Faith. From Books In Canada:
Given the danger that religious faith poses to all of us in this era of suitcase nukes and FedExed contagions, Harris demands to know why it’s so often given a free pass in our discourse. Why is “criticizing [...]
Feb 08 2006
Cold Dark Matter by Alex Brett
Rating: (4/10)
This novel was a disappointment; it received rave reviews from The Global And Mail and mystery-related publications, so I had high hopes, and with its science theme (astronomy) I had to give it a try. It’s about the mystery behind the death of a Canadian astronomer in [...]
Jan 09 2006
End Of An Era by Robert J. Sawyer
Rating: (8/10)
Dinosaurs are fantastical creatures that once existed. How cool is that?! Stories about dinosaurs are cool too, if told well. End Of An Era is a fun, quick read about scientists travelling to the Mesozoic, hoping to figure out why dinosaurs became extinct, when they [...]
Jan 04 2006
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Rating: (8/10)
This is Fforde’s (yeah, two “F”s) first published novel and the first one I’ve read of his, and I think I’m hooked. It’s a novel that has characters named Thursday Next and Jack Schitt; where fictional characters become real and the real can step into fictional stories; [...]
Dec 17 2005
The Code Book: the Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh.
Rating: (8/10)
I tried reading this book five years ago when I bought it, giving up within the first 50 pages where the author started explaining how to decrypt a ciphertext. It bored me then. I’m glad I stuck [...]
Apr 16 2005
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore is a witty, thought-provoking, irreverent, hilarious novel about Biff, the fella the Bible forgot to include. He writes about adventures he and his best buddy (who happens to be THE Jesus) had: learning the teachings of Lao Tzu while living in caves; [...]
Apr 02 2005
Fade by Robert Cormier is a novel I’ve read more than once. Harlan Ellison summarizes it as:
Thirteen-year-old Paul Moreaux is intrigued by the enigma contained in an old photograph of his family. “The mystery? In the space that was supposed to have been occupied by my Uncle Adelard, at the end of the top [...]
Sep 28 2004
Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer
Rating: (8/10)
This is a science-fiction novel about aliens trying “to discover why God has behaved as he has and to determine his methods”. Due to cataclysmic events occurring simultaneously on different planets and the fact that life exists, the aliens think the universe was designed. When they [...]
Jun 29 2004
Based on J-Walk’s recommendation, I read The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger recently. A summary of its plot:
Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with “Chrono Displacement” disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in [...]
