| Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, 851 pages Steve Gadd 06 March 1999 If you're one of the few people for whom the ending hasn't been spoiled, read it soon. | Underworld by Don DeLillo, 827 pages Erik Bauer 13 November 1999 An epoch story intertwining american culture and the affects of the cold war and modernity, mixing fictional story with a factual background, an incredible book. |
A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution by Orlando Figes, 862 pages James Donahue 02 November 2002 |
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 862 pages Julie Gephart 02 November 2002 I've always avoided this movie because it looked like a swoony romance, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. I was hoping for a bit more growth from Scarlett by the end, but hey, who am I to argue with a classic? |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling, 870 pages Julie Gephart 29 June 2003 I knew I would read it eventually, so I figured I might as well dive in before the spoilers caught up to me. I think what Harry really needed in this book was for Tim McGraw to follow along crooning to him, “I don’t know why you’ve got to be angry all the time.” |
Beach House by Pat Conroy, 800 pages Mike Gadd 31 October 2003 It hasn't taken me this long to read a book in years. Not at all disappointing though. Incredible depth and feeling, even harrowing at times. A story about a man who flees from South Carolina to Rome with his young daughter after his wife commits suicide. He's running from his past and everything his family represents. He eventually comes full circle to the point where he realizes he needs his family and friends to find out who he is. |
Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel, 883 pages Julie Gephart 09 November 2003 Somewhere during this series, Jean Auel must have taken the Anne Rice route of deciding that she was too popular to allow an editor to touch her books. That’s the only explanation for this bloated edition that could easily have been 400 pages instead of 900, full of useless repetition. Not only does she repeat plot points like we’re morons with an attention span of 5 pages, but she also repeats entire, detailed scenes over and over again. By now I could write the two-page scene where our hero meets a new group of people and introduces them to the wonders of starting a fire with flint and striker – I could write it because I’m sure I’ve read exactly the same scene 50 TIMES NOW. And unfortunately that’s only one of the discoveries we are compelled to relive time and time again. Curses upon you, Jean Auel, for still writing bits that are interesting enough to make me slog through all this mess to find them! |
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, 876 pages Julie Gephart 14 March 2004 Fantasy meets religious philosophy, and fantasy loses. |
Cambridge History of Japan: Nineteenth-Century by ed. Marius Jansen, 841 pages James Donahue 12 April 2004 Boning up for comps |
Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy, 897 pages Jonathan Misirian 13 May 2005 You read Clancy for the same reason you catch an Adam Sandler movie: to temporarily put your mind on hold. |
Beach Music by Pat Conroy, 816 pages Micaela Larkin 01 January 2006 Forgotten gem! Conroy manages to construct an intriguing story that connects Rome, the Holocaust, the South, and Vietnam in a bittersweet emotionally wrought tale of a man coming to grips with the past. |
Lloyd George (1975) by Peter Rowland, 804 pages James Donahue 16 October 2006 L-G brought Conservatives and Liberals together in Britain to win the first World War. Then he permanently scuttled the party by abandoning all the distinctiveness of Liberalism while waging war on 'unpatriotic' Liberals after the war. Lessons from history: Never elect a rabblerouser or a Welshman. |
Faust's Metropolis: A History of Berlin (1998) by Alexandra Richie, 891 pages James Donahue 03 February 2007 Background trip for a trip to one of my least favorite cities next week. This book is riveting, despite its length. Richie is a great storyteller. The book focuses on Berlin's many manifestations (medieval stomping ground for invaders, enlightened showpiece of Frederick the Great, Hohzenzollern training ground, centerpiece of Imperial pomposity before its utter collapse in 1918, capital of beleagured Weimar and early center of cabaret and film, bureaucratic hub of the Holocaust, site of Hiter's last stand, ground zero of the Cold War, and, finally, uncertain capital of united Germany. A zigzag path, to say the least, with more than its share of devastations. What other city can claim Hitler, Marlene Dietrich, Isherwood, Bismarck, and U2 among its brief citizens? Achtung Baby! |
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1933) by Franz Werfel, 817 pages James Donahue 06 July 2007 In 1915 seven towns of Armenians took to the mountain of Musa Dagh to resist the Ottoman genocide. They were rescued by a French cruiser after months of resistance. This books novelizes their experience while encrusting it in Biblical allusions: Musa Dagh is akin Ararat, Armenians to Israel, the holdout lasts forty days, etc. It is an original take on genocide, devoid of the by-now-cliche liberal musings on the Holocaust that populate bookshelves. Because the author is a conservative Catholic Austrian from before the age of Hitler. Thus, he musings on how genocide makes one feel one's blood, one roots; his refreshing postshots at the modernizing Arab leadership, and his theological/literary convictions on what it means to serves the "God of the nationS." Highly recommended. |
TR: The Last Romantic (1997) by H. W. Brands, 817 pages James Donahue 19 July 2007 Brands sees TR as a romantic figure living in an imaginary world, out of touch with reality, constantly pushing (and, even more tragically) those around him to live the 'streneous life.' All well and good for an academic who pushed the book out in a few years, has never hunted, and has safely modern political views? But, if TR was so caught up in unreality, then why did he resonate with so many people? I suppose I am over-tough here. The book is thoroughly enjoyable - but I suspect this is more because of its enjoyable protagonist, and not its (pseudo)smug author. |
Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts by Clive James, 876 pages Tony Pisarenkov 05 September 2007 Required reading for anyone who even remotely cares about the predicament that our society has got itself into over the course of the last hundred or so years, and how those of us with a gift of one kind or another have confronted it. |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) by J. K. Rowling, 870 pages Jennifer Dear 20 September 2007 My least favorite so far. |
Programming Microsoft ADO.NET 2.0 by David Sceppa, 835 pages Steven Krise 10 November 2007 Get a practical introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 libraries (ADO.NET 2.0) that communicate, access, sort, and interact with data from .NET-connected applications. Includes coverage of XML data and Microsoft SQL Server 2005. |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) by J. K. Rowling, 870 pages James Donahue 15 December 2007 It is wonderful to be able to read interesting, well-written books that Duncan likes too. A foreshadow of being able to talk about deep things and quality books with all of my sons! |