Entertaining.

Parts of this were absolutely lovely, but I'm sure I won't remember hardly any of this in a couple of months. She's drunk with poetry but lacking in substance.

This was strangely hard to get through for me, and I admit that I grew impatient with it. This seems like something that should be consumed and digested very, very slowly. There are some really lovely lines. "Platero, if some day I throw myself into the well, it will not be for death's sake, believe me, but only the more quickly to attain the stars."

Reread.

I ended up really enjoying this novel, though the transition between part I and part II is clumsy. "On Zakynthos sometimes the silence shimmers with the overtones of bees."

It was interesting to read this so soon after I'd read Fugitive Pieces, another novel about a boy orphaned by the Holocaust. This novel is less dense with allusion than, say, The Rings of Saturn, but it has a similarly intoxicating effect on me. Reading Sebald makes me more interested in the world and in history; his networks of meaning give me a feeling of charged weightlessness.

A fascinating read, full of humor, affection, and intriguing glimpses of life in (relatively) modern Africa. Especially memorable are his baboons, the Dian Fossey story, and his descriptions of the Masai. "And if you think that the distance Christ had to come to take the likeness of Man is not so great as that from man to gorilla, then you don't know men. Or gorillas. Or God."

How much smoldering eyes, stubbornly set jaws, marble skin, and racing heartbeats can you take? “He raised his hand, hesitant, conflict raging in his eyes, and then swiftly brushed the length of my cheekbone with his fingertips. His skin was as icy as ever, but the trail his fingers left on my skin was alarmingly warm--like I'd been burned, but didn't feel the pain of it yet.” Vamps+teens=angst.

Hysterical, quirky, original, and informative--highly recommended. "Theo is single. I ask him whether studying to be a mortician has been having a deleterious effect on his love life. He straightens up and looks at me. 'I'm short, I'm thin, I'm not rich. I would say my career choice is in fourth place in limiting my effectiveness as a single adult.'"

Powerful read; like all of Morrison's books that I've read, the prose whispers and roars and sings. "To be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing."

The author's writing reminds me of Stephen King's: the prose is nothing to linger over, and the suspense drives the book. Parts between Oskar and Eli are strange and sweet but too few and far between. The illustration of Stockholm's suburbs is atmospheric. Late in the book, a small part is written from Eli's perspective out of necessity—unconvincing and a mistake. Worth the read, though.

Another YA vampire novel. Surprising that this book got such good reviews and is being re-released. Klause's clunky writing makes Stephenie Meyer look like Shakespeare.

An astonishing novel, emotionally nuanced and complex. "The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive."

A fun, indulgent read for a hungover Sunday. The writing is fine, but there is nothing deep or emotionally intricate here. "And I knew that now, while I lay here awake...that the creature I loved was lying somewhere in a hole underground, to all intents and purposes dead until dark."

Unexpected and riveting. "All my life I had not chosen, had not decided. Now I am making a decision. I choose life. I shall live because there are a few people I want to stay with for the longest possible time and because I have duties to discharge. It is not my concern whether or not life has meaning."

Interesting story, powerful. "There is a limit, surely, to what one can demand of one's adolescent self. And to go on feeling guilty about something that happened so long ago is hardly reasonable. I do feel guilty, even so."

Fun read, along the lines of Jane Austen. "He was, in fact, precisely the sort of ramshackle person to whom no lady of birth, breeding, and propriety would extend the smallest encouragement."

Wow. Don't read past page 100 if you intend on getting any sleep that night. The ending fizzles somewhat, but up until the last 100 pages or so, it's relentless. The protagonists' character development is wonderfully nuanced, though the villains are over-the-top.

A lovely little book that touches on some of my favorite topics: memory, mathematics, and baseball. "The mathematical order is beautiful precisely because it has no effect on the real world."