Rated The Age of Innocence 10/10
<div>Edith Wharton is one of the best to ever do it.</div>
book
Rated Doctor Who: Colditz 8/10
I haven't listened to too many Seventh Doctor audio adventures, but I liked this one. Ace is always good, and it was interesting to hear David Tennant as the baddie, since this was made before the show came back. Decent story, side good characters.
Rated Love and Other Consolation Prizes 8/10
His best one yet.
Rated Birnam Wood 9/10
<div>In some ways, this book is the spiritual successor to Catton's previous novel, The Luminaries — nefarious businessmen, money to be made off elements in the ground, and the consequences of entangling yourself with the sort of person who sees you as a means to an end. However, Birnam Wood is definitely not the same book, moving us to the modern day fictional area of Thorndike, New Zealand. There are young idealists, gardeners who just want to save the world a little a time, and the willful ignorance of the always upwardly-grasping rich (and the ultra-rich taking advantage of them all). Everyone is compromised in their own way, despite their posturing and efforts to appear otherwise. You definitely won't like everyone here, but that's not the point.<br><br>If I had any complaints, the semi-abrupt ending left me with a few questions, but I also see what Catton was doing with it. When pressed against the wall, when you only have what is in front of you to work with, all your speeches and myth-making no longer matter. With the time remaining, what are you able to DO?<br><br></div>
Rated Beautiful Ruins 10/10
Let's get one thing out of the way up front: <i>Beautiful Ruins</i> is an absolutely perfect book, and if you read any review that claims otherwise, then that reviewer is trying too hard to be a smug killjoy and they should not be trusted. You should perhaps ask them if they also enjoy popping children's balloons and talking on their phone during movies because only a jerk would hate on this book.<br><br>In Sara-parlance: <i>I wanted to hug this book's face off.</i><br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/07/beautiful-ruins-by-jess-walter.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Northanger Abbey 6/10
<div>For a sense of completion, I carried on with the audio version of this book that's part of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55873397.The_Jane_Austen_Collection_An_Audible_Original_Drama">The Jane Austen Collection: An Audible Original Drama</a>, which is full cast and narrated by Emma Thompson. I liked this fine, but it might be my least favorite of the Austen books. The sendup of gothic romance bits were amusing, and there are the usual excellent Austen-style cutting remarks, but otherwise, Catherine is more or less at the whims of others.</div>
Wants to read Lady Stuff: Secrets to Being a Woman
Rated The Rise 6/10
<div>There are way too many characters stuffed into this 85 page story, and not enough dialogue tags, but after recently reading some heavier fare, a simply murder mystery procedural was still an enjoyable balm —though that does sound funny to say, considering the subject matter.</div>
Wants to read Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl
Rated The Last Repatriate 8/10
I told myself, “Just because this is a short novella does not mean you are going to stay up late and read the whole thing at once.”<br><br>… And then I read the entire book at once.<br><br>(My full review can be found at <a href="http://www.wordriot.org/archives/4480">Word Riot</a>.)
Rated Doctor Who: The Man Who Wasn't There 8/10
Rated Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below 6/10
<div>Candice Vadala/Candida Royalle definitely has an interesting story, but I don't quite agree with all the cultural analysis offered by Kamensky. For one thing, the book is a little too fond of Andrea Dworkin quotes. Though this <em>is</em> a look at several key moments in the "sexual revolution" and secondwave feminism, it is definitely with a heterosexual lens. And while one can't include everything and still have it also be a biography of one woman who lived through it, the book keeps a bit of distance from any queerness in Candice's life. Still, it was interesting enough to keep reading, even if the book was a bit overlong.</div>
Rated My Year Abroad 8/10
it was a little long and detailed, but never boring
Rated One Day 10/10
One Day is an excellent book — one filled with as many funny moments as there are heart-crushing. One of the best books I've read all year.<br><br>(Full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/08/one-day-by-david-nicholls.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>)