Tagged: book review

Macbeth

Macbeth by William Shakespeare, 5/5

This is much less substantial than Hamlet and the characters are less complex, but it is still enjoyable, with many memorable passages.  I was surprised to learn that Shakespeare didn’t invent the story, but adapted it from Holinshed’s The Chronicles of Scotland.  I appreciated that this edition (Oxford University Press) included the source version of the story at the end.

Reel Justice

Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies by Paul Bergman and Michael Asimow, 3/5

The authors spend more time recapping movies, making lame puns and giving spoilers than actually analyzing the legal aspects of the films.

Hamlet

Hamlet by William Shakespeare, 5/5

In the past, I had viewed Shakespeare’s works with disinterest, bordering on distaste.  Then, I Stumbled upon (literally – using the StumbleUpon toolbar) the Royal Shakespeare Company’s performance of Hamlet, starring David Tennant and Patrick Stewart.  Since I adore Tennant as Doctor Who and recognized Stewart from Star Trek, I decided to give the film a try.  The following three hours were pure transport; I fell in love.  The depth of emotion portrayed and the connection I felt with the characters was completely unexpected.  There are not many works of literature that I approach from the movie end, but in some cases, an affective film portrayal is the perfect inspiration to dive into gnarly or otherwise off-putting writings.  After watching the film version twice, I was more than ready to read the work for myself.  I very much enjoyed it, however I spent a lot of time reading the margin notes in order to understand the difficult vocabulary.  A second time, I will read less technically and focus more on the poetry, wit and wordplay, which are everywhere evident.

Thirty Phone Booths to Boston

Thirty Phone Booths to Boston: Tales of a Wayward Runner by Don Kardong, 2/5

A book of mildly entertaining running anecdotes.

On the Pleasure of Hating

On the Pleasure of Hating by William Hazlitt, 1/5

I started this book by accident, somehow confusing the author with the more frequently-quoted Walter Pater.  Of the six essays it contains, the last (for which the collection is named) seemed to me most interesting and unique.  It comments on the perceived propensity of humankind towards evil and the negative, but I was most interested by its cynical description of friendship.  The rest of the essays come across as editorials written by a well-read man of medium intellect, something that would appear in magazines of the day (1820s), but has little lasting value to offer.  Perhaps this explains the comment on Wikipedia that “his [Hazlitt’s] work is little read and mostly out of print,” somewhat at odds with the previous assertion that Hazlitt is “now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language.”

Now I Walk on Death Row

Now I Walk on Death Row by Dale S. Recinella, 3/5

This is the slightly depressing true story of a top-class Wall Street finance lawyer who gives up his career in order to minister to prisoners on death row.  What I found sad about the book was how guilty he felt about being rich (I don’t understand that, maybe it’s a rich person thing) and how his Catholic church seemed to challenge a vibrant relationship with God by its strict religious hierarchy and position between God and man.  The whole affair seemed more motivated by guilt, fear and shame than by peace, thankfulness and love for God.  That said, Recinella is a good storyteller and I devoured the book in one evening.

Stonehenge Decoded

Stonehenge Decoded by Gerald S. Hawkins, 2/5

I give this only 2/5 because it takes Hawkins well over half the book to finally introduce his point – that Stonehenge aligns with many important positions of the sun and moon and can predict eclipses.  This is the oldest example of a good magazine article making a bad book that I have come across.  However, Hawkins does provide a nice technical description of Stonehenge and his astronomical findings are impressive, though difficult to understand.

You Could Look it Up

You Could Look it Up by William Safire, 3/5

A fun collection of articles/reader responses to stimulate the inner, nitpicking grammar nazi.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, 4/5

This is a proper Victorian romance, full of melodrama, moralizing and mores (made to be broken by spunky heroines).  It reads a bit like the diary of a teenager whose sole literary diet consists of  Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. The conversations are a little too elaborate, the characters a little too saintly (or otherwise, devilish) and the ending a little too tidy.  These qualities lend it a kind of charm, which along with flashes of surprising wit, make this a hard book to put down

Surprised by Joy

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C.S. Lewis, 5/5

Finding out that a couple fellow altos in choir are atheists made me want to rerereread Lewis’ compelling description of his philosophical journey from childhood, through atheism to Christianity.  So much of what he says resonates with me and I always find it incredibly encouraging that such an intellectually uncompromising, well-read person would eventually find all signs pointing to God.  I don’t love the book just because it supports my own religious convictions, though; I admire Lewis’ frank, disarming writing style and analytical approach to life.