Beautiful and Deceptively Complex
353918
Courtney Cole is a very gifted writer. While I enjoyed If You Stay, it feels like Courtney's writing has further matured between the first and second books of this series. I loved If You Leave. It is rare to find a book that is so well balanced.

If You Leave is witty with great sarcasm. There is wonderful tension between the characters and Courtney's writing is really hot without being gratuitous.

The book presents such dark issues in a way that did them such justice. I did not expect a romance novel to so eloquently capture war and the effects of PTSD, nor the complexities of family dynamics. It is an emotional read that manages to still be very entertaining. I'm so looking forward to her future work.
4302429
I was entertained by Galds spirited writing even as it became an increasingly ironic contrast to the deeper concerns of his novel. Before I was done with this almost slight-seeming story the writing had described the frivolous heights of romantic love, ambiguous sexual morality, self-deception, and the mutability of identity within grimly transformative forces of health and time. The story of Tristana, Heracio, and Don Lope is complex and ultimately provocative, remaining of its time, but insisting on its relevance in ours. In fact, this book is surprisingly almost modern in its sensibilities. The novel is not sardonic, however. Rather than mockery or judgement theres a gentle sympathy for these flawed characters, an understanding for them made nearly playful by the delight Galds has for the intricacies of the language he uses to bring them to life.
Im very glad to have read this remarkable and beautifully translated work.
685257
I'm still at a complete loss as to why I had never heard of this book before. The storyline is delightfully complex for as short as it is. The descriptions are lush and beautiful, but not so much as to bore. As a new English teacher, I plan on using this book for my classes during our study of fantasy-based romance. The characters are deep and very profound, and it would be an excellent read for people of all ages. Don't be deterred by how thin and short it seems, it's length doesn't make it any less powerful. I, myself, am extremely picky about what I ready and even more so when I'm reading anything with romance in it. I prefer a strong central female character, which Peri truly is, and of course a strong male central character who isn't questionable in his morals. This book checked all the blocks for my standards and I've put it promptly among my favorites.
2725419
Human history is made up of powerful ideas and beliefs, not of economy, industry and mere survival. This should be clear to anyone who takes the time to consider the enormous energy which was naturally put into the  building and ornamentation of temples and monuments of all ages and places,  an energy far beyond all purely practical purposes.
This atlas of holy  places and sacred sites gives us a much more qualitative picture of the  world than any purely geographical, statistical or political representation  ever will. However, readers without some foreknowledge in world traditions,  comparative religion, archaeo-astronomy and the like are unlikely to see  how each site fits into a more universal whole and so might feel a bit lost  in the myriad of places (and periods) the book visits. But then, of course,  one can hardly pretend to be a connoisseur in a more complex thing than the  history of civilization.
Also, readers will inevitably think that  something important was left out or that the author was either too cautious  or too daring in his interpretations of the origin and use of specific  sites, mainly the older ones. But, by taking on himself the impossible and  thankless task of pleasing every seeker and lover of our spiritual legacy,  Colin Wilson has produced a beautiful book (gorgeous pictures, layout and  binding) with a very helpful gazetteer (takes more time to make than one  thinks!) to which or from which each reader can add or subtract whatever he  feels is incumbent.
Yes, this book is "more than just another pretty  coffee-table book"; in fact, there is no reason why you should not  have this work of reference on your shelf - even the price is surprisingly  reasonable.
Jesper Sampaio.
1581827
A brilliantly complex book with descriptions so detailed I truly felt like I was 'there' -- seeing, hearing, tasting the scene.  I had to use sticky notes to keep track of the characters, but it was worth the effort.  It's a book about solving puzzles, and the book itself is a puzzle.  I'm reading it again, just for the joy of it.
2621641
Doesn't miss a beat. A beautiful book with complexity of character and plot, foreshadowing imagery that is at the same time familiar and yet surprisingly new. Highly recommend. One of the best books I've read in a very long time. By the title, and the time period we are living in now, it would seem to be a simple reflection of what may come to be, and it most certainly has that component, but it is so, so much more than that. We read it for my book club and I'm very much looking forward to discussing it.
4509722
I bought two copies of this book at a recent exhibition of the authors' puzzle collection. The photographs of the puzzles are beautiful, giving a nearly tactile sense of what it would be like to hold the puzzles. I love the descriptions, one of which motivated me to work long enough on the 9-rings puzzle to solve it: "once you learn it, you'll never forget it." The book's design is simple and elegant, making it a pleasure to page through either haphazardly or from cover to cover. I gave one copy to a friend who loves it very much; the other I'll keep forever.
3052898
intricate, delicate and distinctive.  enough said.
302587
Like many people (I assume), I had never heard of author Ted Chiang before seeing the remarkable film Arrival, based off of his story Story of Your Life. But given my deep love of that film  and the heady, complex concepts it covers  I was intrigued to see what kind of story could have inspired such a complex piece of work. That only deepened as I heard more about Chiang  his astonishing reputation, the comments that the film was much more like the story than you might expect, etc.

Chiang isn't exactly a prolific author; he mainly writes novellas and short stories, and its notable that this collection represents a large percentage of what hes written, period. And yet, almost every one of these stories was released to astonishing acclaim, awards, and praise; what Chiang may lack in quantity, he more than makes up for in quality, given than this collection features some of the most fascinating, astonishing, thoughtful pieces of science fiction writing I have ever read, period.

Much like you might expect from Arrival, Chiang takes on complex, heady ideas, and runs with them in imaginative ways that push them to their utmost. The opening story, Tower of Babylon, is essentially a retelling of the Tower of Babel storyat first. But in Chiangs rendition, the tower has reached Heaven. Entire communities exist at various points on the tower, adjusted to life at that point. Plants grow downward, in an effort to reach down to the sun, which the tower has surpassed. Stars crash into apartments. Bricks fall from the tower and are more heartbreaking to lose than people, simply because of the time to replace. And if all thats not enough, theres whats waiting for them at the top, which is both astonishing and inevitable, adding even more complexity to Chiangs rich world.

Or take Seventy-Two Words, in which Chiang imagines an alternate history in which the idea of the golem  an inanimate object brought to life by a sheet of paper with its name  becomes a field of study and a way of life. The nature of names becomes its own science, as automatons are shaped and reformed throughout generations. And whats more, by understanding how these automatons work, we come to understand how human beings work, on a biological and spiritual level, in ways that we never imagined. Perhaps you're more intrigued by Liking What You See: A Documentary, an oral history of a movement to shut off the parts of our brain that perceive physical beauty, and the social ramifications that follow. And if those aren't enough, theres the incredible Hell is the Absence of God, set in a world where divine appearances happen often, divine powers are applied inscrutably, and one man struggles with whether or not to believe in a God he perceives as cruel and heartless.

Chiang is a truly astonishing author, one whose ideas and worlds are so rich that they could sustain whole series of novels, not just short novellas. Even his shortest work, a faux scientific journal article thats only a couple of pages long, gives hints about an entire alternative history of the world that hes created in just a few pages. And yet, he never loses the chance to invest us in his characters and their worlds, filling his pages with moral questions, minor details, emotional beats, and more. That, of course, is much of what makes Story of Your Life so rich, as anyone whos seen Arrival knows; that story marries rich, complex, thought-provoking ideas with an emotionally resonant, devastating hook that makes the story all the more powerful.

Chiang is that rarest of things: an incredible author who, like George Saunders, seems happiest working in short bursts, and yet one who constantly leaves you wanting more. The stories in this collection are, no exaggeration, some of the finest, richest storytelling Ive read, leaving me thinking about their images, ideas, worlds, and characters long after I shut the book. It saddens me that theres not much else out there of his to discover, but Im excited to go see what I can find, and then join those who wait for his every new release.
4089537
From reading the readers' responses, I believe that this classic is still too subtle and complex to be appreciated by most.  I consider myself an expert on the subject, having read and reread literally everything Chopin wrote.  The most common misconception is that Chopin is holding up Edna as some kind of role model, when it's clear that, although she has many redeemable attributes, Edna is self-absorbed and blinded by her Romanticism.  As a sociable widow who by all accounts was a devoted wife and mother, Chopin is a woman who found happiness in her art and in her family--as do Mlle. Reisz and Mme. Ratingolle, respectively.

Chopin is not a moralistic writer; thus, her great novel defies easy categorization. It is a mistake to read the novel as a feminist manifesto. It's an exquisite local color tale that tackles the big questions, without ever being preachy.
1673676
This elegantly written and psychologically profound book is both a compelling mystery and a sensitive exploration of human nature, all set in a vividly, authentically rendered historical background.  Charlotte and Daniel are an appealing pair who are sure to win readers' hearts while they struggle to investigate a baffling murder and slowly find themselves more and more drawn to each other.  This in itself would make the book worth reading.  But I found an added richness in the author's re-creation of Brook Farm, one of America's most fascinating, most high-minded, and most impractical experiments in idealistic living.  At this time, when there is renewed attention to the environment, to women's rights, to racial equality, and even to animal welfare, it is good to be reminded that  we are far from the first generation to struggle to find peaceful, egalitarian ways to live.  Fasick beautifully reveals both the idealism that inspired Brook Farm and the very human frailties that led to its collapse.  Some important but nowadays little-known historical figures play key roles in the plot and they are depicted with both a novelist's sparkle and an historian's scrupulous regard for truth.  It always drives me crazy when writers try to appeal to today's readers by putting gross anachronisms in supposedly historical situations.  Fasick shows her respect for her readers by refusing to go along with that trend, and it makes her novel all the more fascinating.  I won't give away the "solution" to the mystery but I will say that the final chapters are piercing in their intensity.  Tears streamed down my face as I read.
I'm glad to see that this book is listed as "Volume 1" in a series.  I can hardly wait for the next one!
1821872
This book is so rich and so complicated- without being confusing- that the reader becomes completely immersed in the lives of the fascinating, flawed characters. The plot unfolds, twists, and changes. I don't want to say too much- there's little to say without giving some gem away. Suffice it to say that,despite the pile of "in waiting" books, I will go back to page one and start again, and feel I have a few late nights ahead of me as I savor, again, the delights of this book. Good stuff!
3935244
The book is beautiful. It's hard to surprise a viewer with photos of Central Park, since it's such a done deal over the decades. But the photos do have that "wow" factor and often startle. I would imagine that only a fellow photographer could appreciate the amount of work, the expertise, the careful thought that went into these photographs. And a delightful bonus is the number of sly interior views of the apartments and the sculptures gracing them--a hint of those ambiguous Matisse paintings of interiors with window views of echoing exteriors.
2874196
I happened upon this album sort of by accident...I heard an interview with Anna Clyne on NPR and loved what I heard, so came to Amazon to do a search...and discovered this gem. Each song tells a story, with the strings sounding like they're breathing. The compositions are intricate and complex in an incredibly beautiful way. There is a sense of melancholy that is very engaging. I look forward to more of her work.
4833546
I've heard that PD James is a master writer of mysteries. I agree because her sentences are intricately complex, yet vividly understandable.
In the first pages of this novel, PD James cleverly describes her characters... in a way that we're able to picture their present position in life as well as their motivation for being on the island... the fascinating scene staged for the murder. We wonder if she isn't also establishing the list of suspects... it's all so intriguing.
In the midst of these personal character depictions, all of which are relevant and enticing, there are expertly placed gems- short sentences which are said so simply, but which state absolute truths, i.e. "Like all beauty, it both solaced and disturbed. It held an extraordinary power to compel introspection, not all of it gloomy, but most of it searching enough to induce discomfort." I also really liked this little gem: "Little frightened her except irrationality."
1938457
(4.5 stars) Although he has often dealt with the themes of identity, reality, and what it means to be human, Australian author Peter Carey creates a new approach to these ideas in this complex and sometimes strange novel with two overlapping narratives set one hundred fifty years apart.  Catherine Gehrig, a Curator of Horology (clockwork) at the Swinburne Museum in London, has led a secret life for thirteen years, enjoying an affair with Matthew Tindall, the married Head Curator of Metals.  On April 21, 2010, she arrives at work to discover that Matthew is dead, and that she is apparently the last to know.  Frantic with grief, she cannot even imagine how to go on with her life without Matthew.

Head Curator of Horology, Eric Croft, arranges for her to take sick leave and then to move to the privacy of the museum's Annexe in Olympia, where she will have a special job - to go through eight boxes filled with assorted gears, screws, and machine parts, along with assorted papers associated with an automaton of a duck from the mid-1850s, then restore it.  When Catherine discovers notebooks in the boxes, she introduces the second narrative, a detailed diary which opens in June, 1854, and features a style of writing compatible with the period.  Henry Brandling, a wealthy Englishman with an invalid son believes that if he can find someone to make an amusing duck automaton based on the real plans for "Vaucanson's duck," made in the eighteenth century, that Percy will be filled with "magnetic agitation," which will help him conquer his disease.  Brandling travels to Germany to Schwarzwald to find a clockmaker who will make the automaton.

Within this unique and fascinating framework, Carey explores many different aspects of reality and what makes humans unique.  Automatons seem real, and the more complex the machinery is, the more "real" they seem, ironically.  Henry Brandling does not know if the people he has hired are being honest with him and whether he will ever actually see the toy he has already paid for.  Sumper, the man who is ultimately in charge of the task, meets Brandling at the inn the night he arrives, but he already knows who he is and why Brandling is there, adding an element of mystery and otherworldliness to what has seemed so far a fairly straightforward tale.  Monsieur Arnaud, who works with Sumper, collects fairy tales.  Catherine's view of her own reality also changes as the restoration work continues.

While all this is going on, other motifs arise and continue, and these are sometimes mystifying since they do not feel completely integrated with the narrative: a playing card showing the "deep order" of the city of Karlsruhe, a sketch of the city arranged as a perfect circle;  stories about Sir Albert Cruickshank, a mathematician who developed an early adding machine and a primitive computer;  Samper's creation of a satiric automaton of Jesus Christ for Cruickshank;  and eventually, the BP gulf oil spill, which began the day that Matthew died, leading to the question of "Who made the machine that kills the ocean?"  Fewer of these motifs would have strengthened the narrative and the themes, for this reader at least.

The great dialogue, unusual subject matter, important themes treated in unique ways, and characters who engage our interest make this a story to celebrate, but the narrative, though wildly creative, is weakened when all these competing elements and motifs are introduced as parallels and overlapping images.  There is much to ponder here. Perhaps a bit too much.  Mary Whipple
15009
As a young avid reader who can admit to sometimes judging a book by its cover, I came across Dunant's The Birth of Venus and found the cover really pretty - so I read it. This was one of the books from which I recieved so much pleasure in reading.

In this novel, Dunant almost paints the story into the reader's mind, engraving our imaginations with colorful and intricate details  with such emotion and conviction that I couldn't help being drawn into the life of Alessandra Cecci, the charmingly precocious herione of this story.

It is set in the Renaissance with fourteen year old Alessandra who cannot seem to belong in her own family. She starts off with her innocence and unbounding curioisty for her city, Florence, wishing to one day explore the beauty of her homeland. Unwillingly, she is thrown into a series of obstacles that she must face alone; only with the occasional help of her profoundly loyal black servant, Erila. First, she must deal with family problems, having always been overshadowed by her older siblings and at last wanting some glimpse of glory of which to make her family proud. Then she is forced into a marriage with a much older yet charming man but which ends up being a plotted attempt to hinder a forbidden secret that could ultimately cost her husband's life. Within the marriage, she struggles with herself as she soon discovers the intimate pleasures of her blooming body, all the while trying to suppress her growing desire for the strange yet captivating young painter whom her father had brought with him from the North.

And as if this was not enough for a young girl of seventeen, Alessandra has to deal with the violence and corruption that is steadily taking over her beloved city. Savonarola, a fundamentalist monk, is preaching to the people of Florence and polluting their minds with words of falsity and vulgarity. Soon, dead bodies are being found and the life Alessandra has been so accustomed to all her years is suddenly falling apart.

The story goes on and into so much more than I could ever try to describe in this review and of course, I also do not want to spoil anything for those whose minds I might have managed to convince of the beauty of this remarkable novel.

As for Alessandra herself, it is difficult not to read her life and not feel something for her. Personally, I found her journey to be short yet great with more love, death and resurrection than I could ever imagine for myself.