You had me at Gilo,... but lost me at Yale
937646
****Spolier Alert****

My review will contain information that could ruin a positive reading experience (if one can be had) of this book.
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First, I would say, I enjoyed the first third of the book. Moehringer is a good word smith and the stories of his childhood were well done. I particularly liked the trips to Gilgo with Uncle Charley and the boys from the bar. In addition, i liked his portrayal (once in Arizona) of being educated by Bill and Bud in the bookstore.

But once Moehringer enters Yale, his life seems to be a string of him whining about his insecurities.  Most of the rest of the book is him worrying that he is not good enough for Yale, or Sidney, or the Times, or being incapable of providing for his mother or as good good an athlete as McGraw, or even as worthy of living as the other drunks in the bar.  When Smelly is literally choking the life out of him, he is completely submissive and actually says he is thankful for the male attention ("I...loved any man who paid attention to me, even when that attention took the form of murder"). He would have been mid-20's at this point. Baffling.

But that would be fine if somehow the bar or his life lead to some great epiphany. While the are hints of profundity regarding the lies we tell ourselves and then try to live up to, they are left unexplored.  In addition,  the bar seems to play no real positive role in his life.  For all of the poetic prose around the bar and it's patrons, it is only after he stops going that he moves on at all.

Ultimately, I'm left wondering why someone thought this was a life story worthy of 360+ pages. This would have made a far better short story.
2067993
I must say this was the greatest book I had ever read UNTIL I had sojourned to San Francisco to find none of the Cults or Occult societies still existing in the City.
I was perturbed, a bit let down finding the sites and people and shops, communities etc. were past long in the dust of time.
I must say that even though this happened; I still continued to love this book.
The way St. Clair announces the Aquarian Age and how it found its way settled in a (albeit, changeable)  culture and community such as that of California.
I was looking for the addressed stores, Covens, witches which this manuscript provided quite clearly... including even zip codes and districts where these could be found.
My San Francisco (and before that, Los Angeles) seeking dispensed not. And that was very disappointing.
I would give a million or so of my own means to have a copy of yet an updated version by St. Clair. I am unaware of his current standing. But if he still exists; I herein ask and crave such a reprint.
Anywhooo...
It is a worthy read.
It speaks kind of like the documentary 'the Occult Experience'.
I recommend it; but not as a relative digest of current goings-on; but rather as an informative digest of a 1960-70's consciousness that eventually swept the Earth.
4307434
I made the decision that I was an educated person. As such, in order to be well read, there were certain books I needed to read. One of them is "Ulysses". I struggled. It was almost beyond my ken. My feeling is it can be read and understood as part of a class, in which the reader takes notes and periodically discusses it with an expert. As far as "pleasure reading," I leave it to smarter people than me.
STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM
393633
The Call of the Mountain was a good, not great read. While the mechanics of the story were fine, I felt that the author missed a chance to enhance the feel of the area a bit more, go a bit deeper than some of the surface descriptions that those who have lived there will go, Yeah, thats right, but those who haven't probably won't get a true feel of the place. That doesnt mean there weren't some nice touches, the being out of breath, the increased appetite, and the ease with which lowlanders can get drunk at altitude. Ive lived in Boulder and been to the real places in the story. More would have made this book standout better. Julian was drawn a bit denser than I thought he should or could have been. He was slow on the uptake to what was going on which irked me a bit. But the Rambo cop at the end just didn't feel right. Nor did the add on chapters after the climax. If he felt he had to wrap things up a bit more, I feel there should have been a stronger lead into those issues and resolutions. It felt like a mild hint there might be a follow-up novel. While I can still give this book a middle-grade 4, Im not sure Id sit through another Julian adventure.
231840
It also demystified my vision of Eno as some androgynous, ascetic, wise monk, kind of like the Mr. Spock or Kwai Chang Caine of pop music. It also made me pull out my old Roxy Music and Brian Eno records, although I didn't really gain any additional appreciation of the music, except for the song "Bogus Man," which for some reason I'd never really noticed much before but now realize is one of Roxy's greatest songs. I also need to get those Fripp & Eno albums again. Unfortunately, I started losing interest in the book around the same point I started losing interest in Eno's career (video art, U2, Nerve Net, etc.), so I skimmed my way through the last part of the book.
3062605
My hopes were ridicuolusly high for the last installment of the Harry Potter series, but I am suitably impressed. Although many of my predicitons were accurate, I still felt a great sense of anxiety as I read through. My complaints are small  but I felt the pacing and build up was a little off on this novel--I could have used a little less aimless camping out and a little more insight into the wizarding conflicts. The wonder and awe I once felt was also seriously diminished but arguably that was a side effect of the seriousness of the story line. Also, I was left disappointed that Snape was sidelined for most of the novel and I felt a little cheated by the epilogue.

Despite these small complaints, I read this one in one long sitting, and many of my pages are warped and tearstained.  I guess the real question is whether I sobbed with grief over events in the book or I cried in mourning the end of the greatest story of our time.
2392824
I would have liked more of Julian of Norwich's actual words. What I needed was a more modern translation of her work. I have read other mystics like St. Teresa of Avila and usually they are pretty tough-going because of the archaic language.
3151930
If writing tripe like this is the only way Ruben can make a buck, I feel sorry for him. Graduate school for him was obviously a waste of time.

If you're looking for humor, I would suggest Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde or even Groucho Marx. If you're looking for advice about graduate school talk to physicists, mathematicians, medical researchers and the like, and ask them about their experiences in graduate school. I guarantee you their answers will be nothing like the nonsense in this book.

From my own experience I can tell you that going to graduate school (I have a Ph. D in mathematics from a top school) was the best intellectual decision of my life. It was also a most exhilarating experience (which took 5 years -- not the decade that Rubin posits). My fellow students and I lived mathematics day and night. We had intense discussions after classes, at tea time at 3:00 every afternoon, over dinner at cheap restaurants. We thought we were learning the secrets of the universe. We were on top of the world. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I would never trade for anything.

Although I no longer do research level mathematics, what I learned in graduate school set the intellectual course for my future life. It opened countless doors after leaving school. I learned how to think, how to solve problems, how to work independently, how to teach myself new subjects -- none of which would have been possible without the intellectual discipline acquired as a graduate student.

And by the way, none of my professors treated me (or any of my fellow students) in any kind of condescending or exploitative way. Some were friendly, some were a bit aloof, some were withdrawn, but none ever refused help when we when we asked for help or advice.

My bottom line: if you have the intelligence and the desire to learn, by all means go to graduate school. Don't listen to charlatans like Ruben.
460025
The text was delayed inspite of more than two weeks you sheduled it will get to me. It has drastically changed my study programe with my school. I regret the transaction unlike the other ones'. It was painful that you treated me like this.
2357831
I 100% agree with the Washington Post review of this book. I was a huge Wally Lamb fan, and this book really let me down, seriously. It started out perfectly... the adult male opens it up then we go back to his young boy past; very well written (and can be heard on NPR (NHPR) if you want to), then after cruising along a bit, got SERIOUSLY tedious... and stayed that way, for the most part. ONE reason for this, in my opinion, is there was NO GLUE between this couple that would lead me to understand why they stayed together thru her tragic endless NON-recovery period. When the ending came -- and I won't say more, but those of you who've read it will know what I'm referring to- I breathed a sigh of RELIEF! There, I said it. But the fundamentally more important reasons this book did not work was captured by the Washington Post, so I'll let it go at that. I feel the need to say that I'm sorry, Wally, I do not mean to be disrespectful of your endeavor, but YOU got lost in that Maze you wrote about, and had trouble getting yourself out.
2223306
I am of two-minds about this book. This is probably due to the fact that there are three stories going on at once--the main story, and two main flashback-stories. The flashbacks are wonderfully crafted, as the narrator reflects on past events with the occasional dialogue interruption from the two MCs in the present. Not only that, but those story-lines are gripping, and things HAPPEN. Unfortunately, the "present" time of the story involves only reminiscing for about 98% of the time, and feels like a gimmick to reveal the flashback stories. The final 5 pages feel rushed, as if the author realized that something needed finally to happen in the "present" and threw together a quick, unsurprising ending. I'm giving this 3 stars on Goodreads because of how much I did enjoy the flashbacks, but that's all.

Also, a note on translation. This book was originally written in Spanish, a language I can moderately read and understand. The translations feel like Spanish with English words, which simply make the English feel full of choppy or run-on sentences. I even noticed the occasional Spanish noun-adjective word order, which is only confusing when rendered in English. Finally, the translator changed all the swearing to some of the strongest of English, which I don't believe properly carry the meaning of the words in Spanish, and felt jarring in the prose. Don't get me wrong--I love a good swear word in my reading and my own writing, but only when it flows naturally from the characters or from the narrator. None of the swearing came across as natural, which I can only attribute to the lack of ability to really translate these words properly.

This book would have been my ideal if 1) There had been no "present" time, because I truly loved the historical time and the parallels the author drew between the relationships in the story and the struggles against the Argentinean dictatorship; and 2) I had read it in Spanish. Perhaps I'll try that in the future.
681408
Clever, funny book but ultimately I was a bit disappointed. I was hooked at the beginning, had a good few rocking laugh out louds along the way (e.g. describing W Bush as the first 'coon' president, after attributing the cheesy good-natured-dumb-ass-in-wonder look of Little Rascal's Buckwheat as the classic 'coon' look in early racist cinema). Beatty's sharp, creative use of language is the standout in The Sellout. But I got bored with the storyline. It sets up fantastically and then goes off track imho. In the end I was forcing myself to read, because I was dying to know how it to ended.

Makes me want to re-read Catch 22. I loved Catch 22 when I was 15. Would I now? I can see Beatty is influenced by Heller: maybe it's me who has soured in my middle age.
2496263
I'm a big fan of Joyce Carol Oates but this book left
me feeling like something was missing.  Although
I really enjoy your descriptive writing, this was
almost too much.
3296733
Zane Grey's "George Washington, Frontiersman" was, sadly, a large disappointment for me. As a avid reader of all things to do with the French and Indian War and the Eastern Frontier, I was excited to come across this "lost" Grey novel about George Washington's early years as a surveyor and later a soldier with the Virginia Militia fighting against the French and Indians in the Ohio Country.
The book tells the story of a young Washington and his early life as a surveyor on the western Virginia frontier and his relationships with his neighbors the Fairfaxes and his love affair with Sally Carey, later the wife of his friend George Fairfax. In 1753 Washington is called upon by the Crown to take a message to the French forces moving into the Ohio lands demanding their immediate evacuation from the King's lands. Following the failure of this mission, Washington is sent as the leader of an expedition to force the French from the Ohio Country, leading to the disasterous debacle of Fort Necessity and, later as aide de camp to General Braddock, to the horrible and bloody defeat of that campaign at Fort Dusquene. The history here alone is more than adequate for a exciting and engaging tale.
Unfortunately, Grey, who has written some great material, fails here to convey any sense of interest or excitement. It was a struggle just to get through the first few chapters. Historical accuracy has been sacrificed for melodrama and poor dialogue. Washington comes across as a brave and hardy frontiersman, able to fight Indians, track game, and carve civilization from the wilderness almost single-handedly. Nothing could be further from the truth. Washington, while possessing many admirable traits, not the least of which was his leadership qualities, was really just an ambitious syncophant, eager for a commission as a royal officer and really nothing more than an untried greenhorn in the ways of the woods as can be seen by his horrible failure at Green Meadows and in his dealings with the Indians.
Ultimately, this book failed to live up to many of its expectations, and that was a great disappointment. I would greatly recommend Allan Eckerts "Wilderness Empire" for a far more enjoyable telling of the same events.
1692811
I was so excited to get this book and dive right in.  It was fun to watch Goldie on another adventure and I the involvement of the "Family" of characters.  After my third Goldy book I realized I had to suspend an attitude of disbelief. Obviously, no one "lay" person is going to be involved in this many murder mysteries.  All the murders would logically be hurting Goldie's reputation as a caterer.
But what threw me was the epilogue.  I wandered if Davidson is drawing the series to a close now.  The epilogue felt rushed, too much information crammed into it and I had the sad feeling that I won't be reading more of Goldy's escapades. I hope I am wrong.
I have a hard time not rushing to the back of the book to look for a recipe when it is mentioned, but this time I didn't and I was disappointed.  As another reviewer mentioned, Julian's Chile Relleno Torta wasn't even included yet it was the one I was most anxious to read as it was mentioned several times in the book.

I hadn't noticed until another reviewer pointed it out, Davidson is always abusing her character. Goldy always gets attacked by someone, has accidents, and is physically hurt (often has to change her catering clothes because of some mishap) but it never deters her from sticking to her catering schedule. Whenever the menus have to be revised at the last minute Goldy always has plenty of something on hand.  I am amazed at all the fresh vegetables that are always on hand in great quantities, whether she had planned to use them for the dishes or not.  I guess I can handle some of those moments of suspending my disbelief though. It's fiction...It's Goldy.  But the epilogue threw me a curve.
I just can't see any more catering and crime solving in Goldie's future.
1832188
The historical details and descriptions were wonderful and I got a real sense of what it must have been like living in Pompeii.  Although the book was well-written, I found myself growing more concerned with when the volcano was going to explode than what was going on with Ariella.

At the beginning of the book I liked Ariella and rooted for her during her gladiator training and subsequent fights, but her transformation at the end of the book felt rushed. For me, at least, she went from "I hate God" as she walked up the street and then she turned a corner and was like "I surrender to God." Maybe it happens that way, but it seemed odd to me. As the story continues she became less interesting to me.

On the other hand, Cato (the other protagonist) was much easier for me to form a connection. His progression and personal growth happened at a believable pace. Perhaps it was because he had a searcher's heart that I liked him so much. He had a need to understand the world around him and try to make a difference for the better which made his conversion more realistic for me. He was open to a change, while Ariella was protecting her heart against everything because of all of the horrible things that happened in her life. I wish the softening of her heart could have been expressed in some way, maybe that would have helped.

All in all, Tracy Higley's stories are ultimately enjoyable, but this book is not my favorite. Would I recommend it to others? Yes, but not with the enthusiasm I had for&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/So-Shines-the-Night/dp/1401686826/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">So Shines the Night</a>.
1541236
I had high aspirations for this first novel by Caldwell and Thomason and they did not completely let me down.  The plot was well written and I felt the characters were well developed to a point, but the jumps between Paul's and Tom's background and the storyline was confusing. I understand that the authors wanted to fill us in on historical information related to the storyline, like the history of the Princeton clubs, or how Tom and Katie met, but the transitions between the past and present were choppy. At one point, I lost the book's timeline after Tom and Paul's search in Stein's office. Next thing I knew, the story jumps back to the Tom and Katie romance then several months ahead to explain Tom's contribution to Paul's thesis and why it nearly ruined his relationship with everyone around him. Maybe I'm just used to reading novels with smoother transitions between past and present but the jumps in this novel became increasingly annoying.