2000-2009: My Favorite Books (and a few I disliked)

I didn’t title this *best of decade* simply because that sounds pretentious, like I have a final say on what’s good or bad.  *My favorites* is just that: what I loved, what I liked, my personal opinion and therefore I can say/pick whatever I want without being subjected to people yelling at me for pretending [...]

Quality Assessment: Dennis Lehane’s “Shutter Island”

I finished reading this a few days ago.  It only took me 5 days which is a new record.
I’m not a follower of Dennis Lehane.  This is actually my first book of his. Previously I’ve only known of his work through the movie adaptations of Mystic River (great drama, but how I hated the ending) and [...]

Quality Assessment: Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”

Oh Neil.
I was really looking forward to this one: lots of accolades+Neil Gaiman+the endless possibilities of the plot’s mythology=gold, right?  Not even close.  And that’s a shame really, because the reviews alone were really exciting, alas, I have to keep telling myself that not every book is for me (or everyone for that matter) to get or like [...]

The Classics: Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves”

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now and for some reason or another I kept forgetting about it so I’ll delay no more.  Curious thing though, even though I have this here blog and email and what-have you, I’m not really a big internet kinda guy.  If I was, I would have heard [...]

Quality Assessment: Steve Hall’s “The Raw Shark Texts”

Steve Hall’s The Raw Shark Texts is the geekiest book I’ve read. Now, that’s not an insult in any way, what I mean is that it uses so much inventive *pc lingo* that a times it feels like someone who’s obsess with computers and technology–aka a geek–will be in book heaven here.  There’s no question that Steve Hall [...]

Quality Assessment: Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s “The Angel’s Game”

If you have not read Mr. Zafon’s beloved worldwide Phenomenon “The Shadow of the Wind” you are missing one of the most amazingly-rich literature tales of the last few decades.  That book has it all: romance, mystery, horror, comedy, action, suspense, heartbreak, it even plays as a sort of thriller that may or may not [...]

Quality Assessment: Tom Rob Smith’s “Child 44″

Ever since it came out last year, I’ve been meaning to read Child 44 which is a sort of an odd thing in itself seeing as how I don’t usually read thrillers, specially the kind that involves a cop as the main character, which is the reason why I’ve skipped many a Dean Koontz book, [...]

Quality Assessment: Pedro Paramo

Fellow blogger pseudoswashbuckler over  thwok! recommended Pedro Paramo to me after I asked his expertise on what to read, and I’m really glad he did (giving recommendations is something he’s not fond of) though I must say, it’s been a week since I finish reading it and I still don’t know what to make of it.

 
Pedro Paramo is [...]

Quality Assessment: The Lovely Bones

Hearing that Peter Jackson had picked Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones as his follow up to King Kong, I decided to read the book beforehand to see what might have attracted him to the project.
SPOILER ALERT: It is crucial to talk about specific plot details and the ending in order to better explain my take on [...]