Shambhavi Upadhyaya từ Surajgarh Rural, Rajasthan, India

ushambhavif010

05/02/2024

Dữ liệu người dùng, đánh giá và đề xuất cho sách

Shambhavi Upadhyaya Sách lại (10)

2018-10-15 12:30

Hỏa Ngục Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn

Sách được viết bởi Bởi: Dan Brown

Mostly reads like Chuck Palahniuk lite--I was reminded of Invisible Monsters more than once. The incessant parentheticals are a gimmick possibly well-suited to a short story, but in a 500 page novel they've already worn out their welcome within the first 1/5th of the running length. They add absolutely nothing to the story, and do very little to build Blue's character. And speaking of character building... where is it? The bluebloods are a collection of tics and halfhearted sketches (not unlike Blue's in art class), Blue is a blank and her father is a mouthpiece, and Pessl spends more time telling us about Hannah's mystery and beauty than showing us. None of the characters felt real at all to me (going back to Palahniuk). The first 400 pages or so dragged pretty heavily largely because of the stylistic tics. The story itself, though largely mundane, moves well enough when you can slalom through the excess verbiage. This is a 500pg novel that wants to be 300 pages. The final 100 pages are a significant change in tone and direction and a significant increase in quality. It's here that Pessl really nails something--namely, the bewilderment and emotional isolation that follow the inexplicable loss of those you consider close to you (and I'm speaking here of the bluebloods, not of Hannah). The mystery is interesting and enveloping, the plot twists are tricky enough to be fun, and the way everything dovetails is quite nice, so kudos to the planning that went into it. (The verbiage is still present, but the strength of the mystery makes it easier to ignore.) This feels like a dry run for a much better novel, and I'm hoping Pessl can nail it with the next one.

2018-10-15 16:30

1,047 Reasons to Smile: Little Things that Bring Joy, Happiness, and Excitement Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn

Sách được viết bởi Bởi: Elizabeth Dutton

This is the manyeth time time that I have read this book and (Cori Celesti strike me) I am reading it out of sequence; I just happened to find it lying around, picked it up and reminded myself how much I loved it. It loses nothing in the re-reading, in fact it gets better because you can focus on the niceties of Terry Pratchett's writing. He is a man with a greatly extended vocabulary and his words are all chosen with care, following the tradition bequeathed by Douglas Adams, inherited by Neil Gaiman and Joe Abercrombie. The main character, Polly, joins the all male army to find her brother. This is partly out of self-interest because, as a mere girl, she will not be able to inherit the family pub. She is enlisted by the doughty, invincible sergeant Jackrum who will take his "Little Lads" and turn them into fighting men. The platoon is a motley of the dregs of the young men that are left in the country after years and years of pointless warfare and are joined by a vampire, a troll and an Igor. They are led by an officer (a rupert) who is more versed in the art of filing than warfare. Being the last recruiting party of the nation, they are of interest of everybody and, thereby, newsworthy. At what point does hommage become pastiche? There are multiple references to previous works from Ancient China and Rome to the anti-war war-films of the nineteen seventies and part of the joy of this book is the recognition of them. Furthermore there is the element of satire in which the subjugation of women and joy or warfare for warfare's sake are mercilessly exposed. Religion takes a severe beating as does the culture clash between entrenched views and modernism. All in all this book is one of TP's masterpieces (in my opinion) and I am probably being stingey in only awarding it four stars.

Người đọc Shambhavi Upadhyaya từ Surajgarh Rural, Rajasthan, India

Người dùng coi những cuốn sách này là thú vị nhất trong năm 2017-2018, ban biên tập của cổng thông tin "Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn" khuyến cáo rằng tất cả các độc giả sẽ làm quen với văn học này.