manual-bookclub - Book Reviews

Tropic of Cancer

"Tropic of Cancer" ruined my whole week. Ever read "Catcher in the Rye" in high school? That's bitter lemonade. This is straight up battery acid. Raw, smart, bitter, and true.

3-stars

Against Nature

A book with no plot, just a deeply unsympathetic main character whose defining feature is his overwhelming malaise. In some ways it felt like an aristocratic, erudite precursor to "The Catcher in the Rye"

3-stars

The Doors of Perception

Best known for his "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley also made his stamp on the counter-culture with his notorious mescalin book, "The Doors of Perception". In it, he brings us along on one of his mescalin trips and takes frequent detours into the worlds of art,

3-stars

The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin

The New York Times' Moscow Bureau Chief gives us an interesting but incomplete look at Putin's acquisition and maintenance of power. In fairness, any biography of Putin is going to be far from complete - he lives an intensely stage-managed life and much of his life is shrouded in privacy

5-stars

The Confessions of Nat Turner

"The Confessions of Nat Turner" is a beautiful and ugly work of literature. In his fictionalized retelling of the 1831 Virginia slave rebellion, William Styron forces us to confront the the violent and paradoxical nature of American slavery and Christianity. Through the eyes of Nat Turner - leader

5-stars

How Asia Works

"How Asia Works" rejects the neoliberal Washington consensus on free trade and deregulated financial markets. This book got on my list because Bill Gates said it was one of his top 5 books of the year. Studwell looks at Asian countries that have done well over the last

fiction

American Psycho

"American Psycho" is easily the most disturbing book I've ever read. I'm conflicted about how to rate it - does it deserve 5 stars because of its power? I feel like I've been punched in the chest. Or should it get a single star because of its depravity?

fiction

The Picture of Dorian Gray

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" is much darker and significantly more homoerotic than I remembered this book being when I read it as a kid! The questions of morality, beauty, innocence, society, and intelligence all swirl around in this short but powerful book. It certainly starts off slow