Gone With The Wind is one of the often referred to “great American novels” and I’d never read it. I found it at the local library book sale and as of tonight I can now say…
Would I recommend it? … Dude – it’s a great American novel, you gotta read it!
Start with Outlander and then keep going.
I’ve been re-reading them in between other books since Jane has been born and I’m on my 6th book of hers in a month.
I haven’t yet had the words “dinna fash” or “you’ll ken” come out of my mouth yet but it’s a good thing I’ve only got one book left or I’d be yelling “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” next time I burn dinner.
Would I recommend them? Having just stared blankly at the computer screen for a many minitues I have no tidy way to sum up the books nor why exactly I’d recommend them.
I think I’m in a Jamie and Claire induced stuper… and now I have to go read what happens next – even though I’ve read this one twice before.
As I’ve said before I hate reading the back of the book, it always tells too much of what happens. Instead I like to read the first page. Standing in the library the first sentence in this book caught my attention, here it is for your enjoyment:
“Because this is ultimately a fairy tale, and because it is sacrilege not to begin all fairy tales with four simple words, and because I can think of no better words than these four to start off this particular fairy tale, because of all this we begin Once Upon a Time.”
Probably Jeremy had all his papers marked with big red R.O.’s in school too.
When the book took short funny and completly random tangents to explain things that didn’t need explaing I was hooked. Unfortunatly it got a bit long, while it made me laugh out loud at times it’s not something I can broadly recommend.
Unless you think things like this are funny:
“The Cabbie went red. He looks constipated, Sophie though. She was right, the Cabbie was constipated, he hadn’t had a constitutional in just under a week and though usually a pleasant man, one could understand why any mishap could cause him great rage.”
Then maybe you should try it.
Please excuse Piper, she was cuter than the book cover.
Would I recommend it? No
My copy of this book is a discard from our library and it confuses me because on the spine there is a little sticker that says “Mystery” complete with ghost and candle.
Is it because mystery and history rhyme and they mixed up the stickers?
Or if I was still a young adult and hadn’t read this book a pile of times would there be a mystery to solve?
I can’t figure it out, but if I ignore the sticker I like the rest of the book mystery or not. I think I read this first as a Battle of the Books book and it’s somehow found it’s way onto my book shelf.
Would I recommend it? Yes, while I enjoy it now I loved it when I was younger.
Brooks has also written Year of Wonders, which is a fabulous book about the bubonic plague.
If you can write a fabulous book about the plague, writing about Mr. March from Little Women is no trouble at all.
Would I recommend it? Yes, I didn’t love Mr. March, but it didn’t matter.
Now I must go, I have to re-read Little Women.
The cover of the book says “One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World.”
Good thing too, it was the grumpiness that made the book. This grumpy author travels to ten countries and shares what he learns in chapters with titles like:
“Switzerland – Happiness Is Boredom”
“Iceland – Happiness Is Failure”
and
“Moldova – Happiness Is Somewhere Else”
Had this book been written by some positive thinking, sickly sweet personality, the world is a wonderful place and I’m a wonderful person, ( yes Eat, Pray Love, I’m thinking of you) it would have been a total failure. Fortunately Eric Weiner is an unhappy grump, (his words not mine) and so what could have been a nauseating topic turns out to be amusing and informative.
Would I recommend it? Yes. It’s also full of interesting facts. Did you know the smiley face was invented in 1963 to cheer up workers at an insurance company? 
I think my biggest surprise picking up this book was when I checked out the back dust flap, it turns out that Mark Steyn is not an old English man with thin gray hair, big ears and wearing a cardigan, as I had pictured him. Instead he is one of those tater tot head guys, who knew?
If you have heard Mark Steyn on the radio like I have, (hence my completely wrong mental image of him) you’ll know what I mean when I say he writes like he talks. He sort of reminds me of a funny, intellectual, auctioneer…that’s either the best analogy ever or really awful, someone else who knows him is going to have to help me out.
In a nut shell the book covers current events (2006) focusing on Islamic terrorism and how it is affected by demographics. It also delves into world history as it relates to demographics. For instance, the reason the English were able to run around the world creating their empire? Demographics, they were the first to conquer infant mortality so they had a surplus of young flag waving men ready to ship out.
Would I recommend it? Yes. Unless you have a problem calling an Islamic terrorist an Islamic terrorist, then you will be irritated by the book, end up throwing it across the room and come yell at me for ever recommending it. Though before the book hits the wall I’d be willing to bet it gets at least one begrudging snort of laughter out of you!
*Despite what I’ve said this book isn’t all giggles, Steyn paints a fairly grim picture of the future, especially for some countries, like Russia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany…
** Does combining Eddie Izzard and Mark Steyn threaten the stability of this blog post? Will my whole site implode from the incongruity of it all?
