Can't Read Too Many Books -- April

These are the books I read in April. For a link to the book on Amazon, click the cover.

This book caught my attention in my local library.  It was a great read.  Here's a description:

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

 Rating 1-5

 I really like Chris Matthews so my expectations were high for this one.  In the end I found it just average.  My opinion may be skewed by the fact that the person who had the book before me must have been doused in old lady cologne which permeated the entire book.

Rating 1-5

This was a promotional copy I've had on my shelve for years.  It appealed to my interest in philosophy and religion.  Pretty good.

"At the center of this philosophical tale by the acclaimed author of The Island at the Center of the World is a simple mystery: Where in the world is Descartes's skull, and how did it get separated from the rest of his remains? Following the journey of the great 17th-century French thinker's bones—over six countries, across three centuries, through three burials—after his death in Stockholm in 1650, Shorto also follows the philosophical journey into modernity launched by Descartes's articulation of the mind-body problem. Shorto relates the life of the self-centered, vainglorious, vindictive Descartes and the bizarre story of his remains with infectious relish and stylistic grace, and his exploration of philosophical issues is probing. But the bones are too slender to bear the metaphorical weight of modernity that he gives them. Their sporadic appearance in the tale also makes them a shaky narrative frame for the sprawling events Shorto presents as the result of Descartes's work: the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the 19th century's scientific explosion, 21st-century battles between faith and reason. Given Shorto's splendid storytelling gifts, this is a pleasure to read, but ultimately unsatisfying." --Publisher's Weekly

Rating 1-5 

After Tom Robbins, Christopher Moore is about my favorite novelist.  This was the sequel to "You Suck".  Like all of Moore's books, this was highly entertaining.

Rating 1-5

Can't Read Too Many Books March 2012

I read four books in March. If you're intrigued, clicking on the book cover takes you to its listing on Amazon.

I liked him as Hawkeye Pierce on "M*A*S*H" and even more so on PBS' "Scientific American Frontiers".  This is his second memoir.  I read his first  as well, "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed".  They're pleasant reads with some decent philosophy on life.  Kind of like having dinner with a charming uncle.

(Rating 1-5)

I found this on a table of books being sold at the library.  I've heard good things about Christopher Buckley and the book looked like something you'd hear on NPR.  It was only a quarter so what the heck.  The book is the true account of life aboard the tramp steamer, Columbiana, in the Merchant Marine during the 1970's.  It's always fun to take a peak into a very different kind of life than your own.  I guess you could compare it to some of the reality shows out now, like Deadliest Catch.  BTW, I brought it back to the library and put it back on the sale table.  Maybe someone else will buy it again.

(Rating 1-5)

I almost never have trouble finding a new book to read so I'm not big on re-reading.  I'm making an exception with my collection of Tom Robbin's books.  Sadly for his fans Tom's about as non-prolific as a successful writer can get with just ten books since 1971.  This was his fourth, from 1984.  Next up for me is Skinny Legs and All.

(Rating 1-5)

5 Tom Robbins's

This one is the tale of a private match in 1956 between four golfers at the tale end of the amateur era.  Interspersed are biographies of the participants.  Not as outstanding as Frost's The Greatest Game Ever Played but a good read.

(Rating 1-5)

4 Cypress Points

Can't Read Too Many Books February 2012

Here are the books I read this month.  Click on the book to see more at Amazon.com  If you have any recommendations please share them.  I'm not a big "genre" reader but as in my card collecting, I love variety in books.

Buzz Aldrin was the second human to step foot on the Moon.  This is his memoir of that time and his struggles through the aftermath up to today.  Not a bad read but nothing spectacular.

Rating 1-5

This is the best tennis book I've read since Rod Laver's "The Education of a Tennis Player".  It's also the best book I've read in a while, period.

Rating 1-5

I had high hopes about this one.  I vaguely remember when it came out but it came up again when I was reading about one of last month's books, Julian Barnes', "Sense of an Ending" which has some similarities to this one.  I found this story's meandering back and forth in time, via the main character's memory, a bit confusing.  Maybe it was the setting.  I don't know.  I just didn't love it.

Rating 1-5

It's hard to go wrong with anything by the two time Pulizer winning, David McCullough.  This is no exception.  I'll let him tell you about it:

 Rating 1-5