 | Title: Dreamcatcher
Author: Stephen King
First publication: 2001
Comments: Well, I guess I should have guessed it was a bad book when I found it on the "extreme sales" section. One of the worst King's book ever. Beside the continuous profanities, beside the homophobic and intelligent design statements... the plot is weak and not that original. And all the psychological introspection King is famous for... it seems to be a faded memory.
Started: Dec 2005 Finished: February the 2nd, 2005 |
 | Title: The city of falling angels
Author: John Berendt
First publication: 2005
Comments: It's strange to follow the author while he guides you through familiar places of my youth, while he introduces you to people and events you are familiar with. All the pieces, all the events that were happening years ago while I was there now in a book. It is strange to re-discover them and to re-experience it under a new light. I really liked to immerge myself in this vivid and realistic portrait of what I used to call home.
Started: Jan 2006, Washington D.C. Finished: San Francisco, Feb the 20th 2006 |
 | Title: The doom brigade
Author: Margaret Weis, Don Perrin
First publication: 2003
Comments: I love to read fantasy books. They help me relax after a long work day. This one was very entertaining. It may be trash literature, still it fulfills my needs and... it is actually one of the best dragonlance novel I have read so far.
Started: Feb the 21st, 2006 Finished: Feb the 24th 2006, San Francisco |
 | Title: Mistress of dragons
Author: Margaret Weis
First publication: 1996
Comments: In a moment of stress like the one I was living, between deadlines and presentations to finish, it has been very helpful to have something easy and fun to read like this book. As for most of the Weis' book, it is hard to put down this book when you start reading it. This in particular evokes Mercedes Lackey's atmospheres. There are gay characters (atypical for Weis), and the topic is treated like I would like it to be treated: as if there is nothing odd about it. Unfortunately it is not the case in the real world and often in the literature.
Started: Feb the 25th 2006 Finished: March the 8th 2006 San Francisco |
 | Title: Walden
Author: Henry David Thoureau
First publication: 1854
Comments: When I finished this book I was so relieved. It is a hard book to read. Even if some of the concepts in the book are particularly interesting, the book is often repetitive or it wanders into strange and boring topics. I think this is one of the few books that would greatly benefit from abridging. It is amazing, as a final remark, how modern and how closely related to modern society this book is. The critique of man that works to cumulate treasures without having any time to live their life, the critique of travelers that want to explore farther and farther away without even starting to try to understand themselves... seems to be written by somebody living today and not 2 centuries ago.
Started: Feb the 25th 2006 Finished: March the 11th 2006 |
 | Title: The Hours
Author: Michael Cunningham
First publication: 1999
Comments: An extraordinary achievement. This is the story of three women, each of them living in a different place and time. Their stories are though intertwined and the choices of one impact the one of the others. It is a story of depression, suicide and every day miracles that helps people to hold on and go on. A tribute to Virginia Woolf, that manage even to surpass the original.
Started: March the 12th 2006 Finished: March the 25th 2006 |
 | Title: Draconian Measures
Author: Don Perrin, Margaret Weis
First publication: 2000
Comments: I really enjoyed this book. I hope the saga will continue with other volumes!
Started: March the 26th 2006 Finished: March the 29th 2006, San Francisco |
 | Title: Persuasion
Author: Jane Austen
First publication: 1818
Comments: This is the 100th not school related book I have read since I started to record my readings on this web-site. I decided to celebrate the occasion reading the only Austen's book I had not read yet. It was a bitter sweet pleasure to read it. Bitter because I ran out of book from one of my favorite authors. Sweet because I enjoyed it. Extremely interesting is to observe how the opinion of the time toward nobility and self-made men is changing. Something could be sensed in the dedication in Emma's, but in here the critique to the British nobility is one of the main themes.
Started: March 2006, San Francisco Finished: April 2006, San Francisco |
 | Title: The dragon's son
Author: Margaret Weis
First publication: 2004
Comments: I enjoyed the book but... what happened to the gay theme? There is almost no mention of the intense love of Bellona and Melisande, almost as if the author was afraid to have risked too much in the previous book. This is a little disappointing. Let's see what will happen in the next one.
Started: April 2006 Finished: April the 24th 2006 |
 | Title: The secret garden
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
First publication: 1888
Comments: Some books that are meant for children turn out to be some of the most powerful books ever written. This book, as well as The Little Prince, are good example of what I have just stated. Moving.
Started: April 25th 2006 Finished: April 28th 2006 |
 | Title: Hard Times
Author: Charles Dickens
First publication: 1854
Comments: A classic novel in its structure, extremely powerful and captivating. It was meant to lure readers to purchase Dickens's weekly magazine. It worked and even today it is hard to put down the book once started. It reminds me a little of Voltaire's Candid, a book meant to discredit a particular philosopher. Leibniz in the case of the French writer, Malthus and the materialists in this case. It is a very successful description of the Industrial English suburbs, of the horrors of the life of the "hands" and the hypocrisy of the new materialistic approach to life.
Started: April 2006 Finished: May the 19th 2006 |
 | Title: Sword and Sorceress III
Author: Various authors (edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley)
First publication: 1986
Comments: I was very interested to read more of feminist fantasy. I discovered the existence and the historical importance of this movement only recently, even if I grow up reading novels of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Jennifer Robertson. This anthology of short stories helped me better understand the movement. It is rather interesting that all the main authors belonging to this movement lived here in the Bay Area and I find rather intriguing to be living where my favorite childhood authors wrote the stories that kept me awake as a child. As a grown up I can now appreciate the courage of some of the plots, how the movement revolutionize a sexist and macho-oriented genre and helped bring forward the image of modern women, free to express themselves and pursue their dreams.
Started: May 2006 Finished: May the 28th 2006 |
 | Title: As meat loves salt
Author: Maria McCann
First publication: 2002
Comments: If you never felt in love, get scared of it, and lost the person you loved, do not read this book, it won't make sense to you. If you have been driven mad by the loss, and you have tried to not let it go using your fingernails, losing it because of it for good... if the searing pain is not abated yet, do not read this book, because the demon of loss and despair will tear your soul apart. It is rare to find a book able to shake you deep to your core. This is one.
This is the author first book. It is sometimes slow toward the middle, but the author is always adroit in communicating what is not said or admitted through the cunning use of powerful little gestures, word choices and signs. It is the final though that turn the book into a masterpiece and shows how such a talented writer Maria is. I am looking forward her next book.
Started: May 2006 Finished: July the 20th 2006 |
 | Title: Exit to eden
Author: Anne Rice
First publication: 1996
Comments: I was given this book as a present from J. I confess I was expecting something very different from the author of Interview with the Vampire. I was expecting the typical erotic tension of a gothic novel, but the book gives you a way more than that. I enjoyed it. It is the story of Lisa, a woman raised in a claustrophobic and moralist Catholic family that believes to have reached freedom escaping into a world of fetish. In reality the baggage of her childhood are still with her, as she soon realizes when she discovers herself unable to live feelings and love.
I think this is the tale of many people in this society, which even if on the surface may seem sexually liberated, even daring, they are still fighting their inner sense of guilt and inhibitions.
Started: July 2006 Finished: July the 28th 2006 |
 | Title: Great Expectations
Author: Charles Dickens
First publication: 1860
Comments: This is the most interesting Dicken's book I've read so far. It is more modern in style, the omniscient narrator being substituted by the main character himself, an anti-hero often victim of snobbism and pride. It is a pleasant book, engaging, often humorous. The plot is pretty sad in itself, very autobiographical. I found it interesting in the its portrait of society and of its dynamics. As in Persuasion by Austen the book witness the event of people able to raise themselves in society, being rich without being born rich.
Started: July 2006 Finished: Sep the 19th 2006 |
 | Title: A Series of Unfortunate Events: the bad beginning
Author: Lemony Snicket
First publication: 1999
Comments: I was just moved to my new place and I could not find the book I was reading. Hence I picket out this one from one of the boxes on the side of my bed. The book was a present from Jari and it was an interesting surprise. It is extremely cynical and it presents life as a series of unfortunate events. Anyway it was a fun book to read. I guess I'll end up reading all the series.
Started: Sep the 23rd, San Francisco, Noe Valley Finished: Sep the 24th 2006 |
 | Title: Vows and honor: the Oathbound
Author: Mercedes Lackey
First publication: 1988
Comments: I was stressing over the move to my new place and I needed some light reading to relax. The book is nothing special, but the plot is interesting, even if it feels like a collection of short stories featuring the same characters. Anyway I got what I was looking for: an easy and amusing reading.
Started: Sep the 19th, 2006, CoronaHeights Finished: Sep the 29th 2006, Noe Valley |
 | Title: Vows and honor: the Oathbreakers
Author: Mercedes Lackey
First publication: 1989
Comments: I was running out of books and this one was one of the few left. I have to say I really enjoyed it. The plot is not fragmented as in the previous volume and rather enjoyable.
Started: Sep the 29th 2006 Finished: Oct the 11th 2006 |
 | Title: The red badge of courage and other stories
Author: Stephen Crane
First publication: 1895
Comments: War stories are not my favorites, but I realize how interesting is to place a man in such a context. The demonic and godly nature of men fight within each soldier while the battle rage outside. Anyway what is quite remarkable of this tales is showing how real people feel and behave within such major historical events. They are not Greek heroes, they are human, full of fears, weaknesses and courage.
Started: Oct 2006 Finished: Nov the 29th 2006, on a BART trian in West Oakland |
 | Title: The Tao of Pooh
Author: Benjamin Hoff
First publication: 1982
Comments: Well, he said at last, it is a very nice house, and if your own house is blown down, you must go somewhere else, mustn't you, Piglet? What would you do, if your house was blown down?
Before Piglet could think, Pooh answered for him.
He'd come and live with me, said Pooh, wouldn't you Piglet?
Started: Nov the 19th 2006 Finished: Dec the 1st 2006 |
 | Title: The Story of the Night
Author: Colm Toibin
First publication: 1996
Comments: I enjoyed another Toibin's book a couple of years ago. He's a great storyteller, able to communicate in a very powerful way emotions and feelings. He's able to create extremely realistic and credible characters. I recommend it.
Started: Dec 2006, San Francisco Finished: Dec the 21st 2006, Venice |
 | Title: Il cammino di Santiago
Author: Paulo Coelho
First publication: 1987
Comments: Forse sara' per il fatto che io non sia spirituale, ma questo libro mi sembra una accozzaglia enorme di superstizioni e insensataggini prive di senso. L'unico tema interessante che spicca tra deliri mistici e' quello dell'incapacita' dell'uomo di affrontare una sfida per paura di perderla e ritrovandosi cosi' costretto a non progredire.
Started: Dicembre 2006, Venezia Finished: 29 Dicembre 2006, Venezia |
 | Title: Presagio Triste
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
First publication: 1988
Comments: Ho sempre amato Banana Yoshimoto per la sua capacita' di comunicare emezioni, stati d'animo e sentimenti con poche pennellate minimaliste.
Questa e' la storia di Yayoi e del suo viaggio alla ricerca della sua memoria e vita perduta, ben conscia che cio' che trovera' nell'altra sponda di Lete distruggera' la sua vita com'era, ma che e' ormai impossibile evitare tale passo.
Started: Dec the 29th 2006 Finished: Dec the 30th 2006, Venezia |
