Sunday, July 31, 2011

July in Review

In July, I managed to complete 11 books. I've already posted about a few of them, and I've got a couple more full length posts coming up. So now, taking the lead from Eva over at A Striped Armchair, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of the rest of them:

Read Under the Banner of Heaven, by John Krakaur, if you're interested in a not-very flattering portrait of the birth of an American religion. Rated***

Read Rebel, by Bediako Asare, if you are interested in mid century writing from Africa and aren't put off by graphic descriptions of violence, and subjugation of women.**

Read The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, if you'd like a sneak peek into the GOP's playbook, or are a fan of The Borgias.***

Read Hotel du Lac, by Anita Brookner, if like you'd like to to cooped up in a dreary, deserted European hotel, making up stories about the few guests who share your plight.**

Read The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet, if you like thriller-turned-"literature" writers who spend nearly 1000 pages on a topic, with no character development and lots of rape & misogyny.*

Huh. After typing that out, I realized I read some quite crappy books this month. Let's hope August is a bit better! I've already started a couple that seem to be promising. I'll keep you updated!
Oh, and my rating system is posted here.

2 comments:

Frances said...

Crappy. Giggle. But you said it all so nicely. And I hate Pillars of the Earth. Hate. Except for the architectural descriptions. What am I missing that everyone else so loves? And can I add constant repetition to your list of not-so-right things about it? :)

MJ said...

Frances: I have NO IDEA what you're missing. I do not know why people rave about this book. I've been hearing good things forever, and then my librarian suggested it, so I thought I'd give it a go. Like you said, a complete waste except for the architectural details.