For a while, it was the best sci-fi I’ve ever read. Gibson’s writing has an electric momentum to it and his existential expressions of cyberspace approach poetry. After the settings were thoroughly established, I lost a little interest in reading so many action/heist movie scenes back-to-back. Regardless, it’s fascinating how many terms, ideas, and visual worlds can be traced back to this book; a religious text for cyberpunk fans or anyone who has used a computer.

City of Glass by Paul Auster

Go to review page

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Go to review page

adventurous informative mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love the way Carver ends a story.

“Then he set to work — stitch after stitch — making believe he was waving like the man on the keel.”

“He started the car and put it into reverse. It was hard managing until he put the ashtray down.”

“I left soon after. But today I was thinking of that place, of Crescent City, and of how I was trying out a new life there with my wife, and how, in the barber's chair that morning, I had made up my mind to go. I was thinking today about the calm I felt when I closed my eyes and let the barber's fingers move through my hair, the sweetness of those fingers, the hair already starting to grow.”

“But he stays by the window, remembering. They had laughed. They had leaned on each other and leagued until the tears had come, while everything else — the cold and where he’d go in it — was outside, for a while anyway.”

“I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone’s heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.”

“He said, ‘I just want to say one more thing.’ But then he could not think what it could possibly be.”

The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow

Go to review page

Did not finish book. Stopped at 11%.

I'm glad I took a break and read some other stuff, because, despite how good the writing is, l'm working more than I am enjoying reading this book. I insisted I should read it because I remember my Uncle once calling it one of the Great American Novels, but this is not a book he gifted me or told me he thought I should read. Sometime, I'll read Seize the Day and then Herzog and maybe I'll come back to this.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Go to review page

challenging funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The world of this book is so absolute that its mysteries continue to abound after the last page. It’s not just their lack of gender that makes us wonder, it’s the lovely consequences of that: it’s their governments — worse and better than ours — it’s their peace with the unknown, and their all consuming code of honor that breathes the life into this new mythology and guidebook. It’s all shadow and light.

More...

sidneyterano's reviews 33 reviews

sidneyterano's reviews
33 reviews