Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005, Jonathan Safran Foer)

So I read this book a couple weeks ago and I'm still thinking about it. This is the second novel by the gifted writer Jonathan Safran Foer. His first book, Everything is Illuminated was all right. I myself enjoyed the movie better than the book which is for the most part rarely the case,mostly because they left out the long, boring and tedious passages of the book. In this new novel, it seems he just got everything right. Set against the back drop of NYC a year after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. In the book, you will find the main character and narrator, a naive and much too smart for his own good 9 year old boy named Oskar traveling around the city. Oskar's father died in the collapse of the World Trade Center and now he is on a mission to find out the mystery of a key he found hidden away in his fathers cloth's closet. The key was in an envelop with the name Black scrawled on it. So Oskar than decides to meet every person in the 5 boroughs with the last name Black to see if they know anything about this key and their possible connection with his dead father.

One might think, and rightfully so that a book about a 9 year old boy who lost his father in the 9/11 attacks would be a horribly sad and depressing read. Though at times it is, since really there is no way of escaping that fact. Mr. Foer balances that out with some extremely funny situations peppered throughout the book that will leave you laughing out loud.

If your looking for a good read, I highly recommend Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
If you liked it digg it and stumbleupon it!

Glasshouse(Charles Stross)

Here's my first book review, well actually it's not a complete review since I didn't finish the book. Ok I know I had mentioned in my previous blog, well actually here's the exact thing I said:

"I'm one of those people that will sit thru an entire move or read a book once I start it, even if I don't like it."

Well I lied, that isn't always true. I started a book a few days ago and read about 30 pages of it. I had to stop. I just couldn't read any more of it. It was just horribly bad. I had read reviews of it and it said it was a great read, a must read in fact. I think those reviewers were either smoking crack or wanted to date the author. Now I don't want to say much else about the book or give it too much "air" time. I will give you this, the name of the book is Glasshouse by Charles Stross. It's a Sci-Fi book. Mr. Stross is trying to follow in the footsteps of WIlliam Gibson(who I really like), except that he has failed miserable. He filled his book with too much Sci-Fi mumbo jumbo and not enough story. Maybe if I stuck with the book, I would of ended up liking it, but if you can't capture your audience in your first paragraph than you've failed.
If you liked it digg it