It is REALLY cold out there!

Robert Goolrick

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

     This was an unusual story that takes the reader on a tense, lustful journey to a desolate small town in 1907 Truit, Wisconsin. The harsh, cold winter, which lasts almost as long as the novel, is an oppressive force on all the characters. The book begins as wealthy Ralph Truit, waits at the railroad station for Catherine Land to arrive. She has answered Truit’s personal ad which stated "Country businessman seeks reliable wife. Compelled by practical not romantic reasons.” Ralph, Catherine and others in the book are not as they first appear. They are all scheming, violent, vengeful and surprisingly generous. The story takes several unexpected twists and turns against a backdrop of frozen landscape. It is an entertaining book for readers who enjoy reading about extraordinary behavior in ordinary, mundane settings. Alfred Hitchcock could have made a great movie from this book. This is Robert Goolrick's first novel.

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy OR why you're not cool enough to cauterize your bulletholes with the red-hot tip of a revolver.

The picture is going to be bigger than my review. All I can say is that this is an amazing western. I had never really read a western before and don't even like horses and I thought it was incredible. PLUS it's part of a trilogy and I'm really excited for the next two! Well done, Cormac. 9.5/10

WAY MORE confessions of a Shopaholic

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore

So you know all those novels that are so popular nowadays? The ones that focus around the life of a single young socialite who has no job and no money but still manages to spend that non-existent money on clothes and drinks and clothes and plane tickets to exotic locales all while looking for Mr. Right but not ignoring the opportunity to spice things up with Mr. Right-Now?

I like to think of this book as the chance to check in on that same socialite in her late forties. She's still single, she still has no job and no money, but all those cosmopolitans and white-wine spritzers have taken their toll and, in all honesty, have become more of a trusted companion rather than something to toss back at the Palms. On top of all that, her looks have taken a serious turn and she's developed a deep-seeded love of the Christian God. The antics we so loved in Shopaholic et. al now seem desperate and, frankly, downright sad and Mr. Right has transformed from the tall, handsome man, clad in his Italian suit and matching sportscar to a middle-aged rapist with a penchant for the young....

All in all, this is actually a pretty fantastic book. It's an interesting look into the life of a middle-aged woman who is universally plain. Really beautifully written and, at times, truly heartbreaking. Don't let the dime-store title fool you, give it a read. 7/10

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

I chose to read "Shalimar the Clown" for two reasons:
1. I have never read ANYTHING by Salman Rushdie and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
2. My roommate, Kevin Reich said it was his favorite book of all time and I wanted to get a little more insight into exactly what makes Kevin tick.

In brief, Shalimar the Clown is the story of the title character, his wife, her lover, and their daughter. It takes place is the 60s and follows the characters all the way up until the mid nineties. We learn at the very beginning of the book that Shalimar has murdered a famous ambassador and the rest of the book is the explanation of why and how. The book is divided into several sections (not really chapters...) that focus specifically on one of the main characters and their particular story. The action of the story takes us all the way from the holocaust to the India/Pakistan conflict to the Rodney King race riots in Los Angeles and is really pretty damn brilliant.

HOWEVER

The book does not get off to a very strong start in my opinion. Because the story deals so much with the conflict between the Indian army and the Pak-supported insurgents and also takes place almost entirely in the Kashmir region of India, Rushdie includes a LOT of exposition in the opening chapters, exposition which I ended up feeling was a little unnecessary to the story, including about 15 pages about "The Feast of 30 Courses Minimum" and another five about "The Feast of 60 Courses Maximum." Perhaps interesting to somebody, but not to me...

Unnecessary exposition aside, this is an amazing book. Rushdie is a brilliant writer and every sentence is a gem. This book took me a long time to read, but I believe that's the way this book should be read. The story (love, betrayal, war, overeating, tight-rope walking etc.) is an old one but Rushdie tells it in a way that makes me feel like I'm reading it for the first time.

The other great thing about this book is that it really has a little of everything: history, murder, mystery, action, love, magical realism, folk tales, EVERYTHING! I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a little ahead in the book count and wants to take some time to stp and smell the terrorism.

Overall 9 out of 10, get through those first 75 pages and you shall be richly rewarded.

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

Or "This Is My First Book Post And I'm A Little Nervous About It"


Einstein’s Dreams is, in a word, lovely. It’s fluffy without being unsubstantial, and thought-provoking without being overly heady. It’s sort of physics meets fiction meets poetry meets philosophy, neatly packaged into a prologue, epilogue, thirty vignettes and three interludes.

There is no plot and practically no characters. Einstein, though featured as a character, only appears here and there. The book begins with a young Einstein at his desk in a patent office, toying with his theory of relativity. What follows are thirty two- to three-page anecdotes, each a different musing about time: a world where time flows like a river, a world where time is only the present, a world in which cause and effect are unrelated.

As literature, these little vignettes are just delightful. Each is a quirky little examination of human nature, betraying little truths about the ways in which we interact with the world and time. As for the science of it, Dad, you’ll have to read this one and point out all the parallels and references to actual science. I was only able to identify a few moments of science-turned-anecdote -- enough to recognize that there are lots more flying under my radar, what with my über-limited understanding of these theories left over from my high school physics class and all. Lightman is a physicist and professor at MIT, so yeah. He’s a pretty smart dude.

The one drawback to Einstein’s Dreams is that it gets a little repetitive. The quirkiness of the different worlds starts to feel familiar, and towards the end I found myself counting to see how many vignettes I had left. But even with that complaint, I would definitely recommend this one. It’s easy enough that you can breeze through it in an afternoon, but it gives you quite a bit more to hold on to than your typical breeze-through-it-in-an-afternoon type book. Basically, it’s the world’s classiest beach read.

Final Vote:
7.5/10