author: James Frey

name: Steev

average rating: 3.80

book published: 2008

rating: 5

read at: 2013/12/04

date added: 2013/12/05

shelves: novels, fun, own-it

review:
This book proves that Frey was not a flash-in-the-pan with "A Million Little Pieces." Here he takes the same intense and emotional style turned to focus on the city of Los Angeles and a variety of fictional but very realistic inhabitants. I kept wanting the various little story threads to somehow intersect, which is one thing that drives the book forward. The structure is a neverending alternation between various historical and statistical factoids about the city and various characters, mostly newly arriving in the city and trying to set up a life for themselves. Some of the characters Frey keeps coming back to and building a plot, others you only see once and then never again. It's a bit dizzying and sometimes frustrating but ultimately forms an experience that is gripping and wise. It makes me glad I moved away from L.A. as soon as I did, although the book also makes me kind of want to move there.

author: James Frey

name: Steev

average rating: 3.74

book published: 1970

rating: 5

read at: 2013/12/04

date added: 2013/12/05

shelves: novels, fun, own-it

review:
This book proves that Frey was not a flash-in-the-pan with "A Million Little Pieces." Here he takes the same intense and emotional style turned to focus on the city of Los Angeles and a variety of fictional but very realistic inhabitants. I kept wanting the various little story threads to somehow intersect, which is one thing that drives the book forward. The structure is a neverending alternation between various historical and statistical factoids about the city and various characters, mostly newly arriving in the city and trying to set up a life for themselves. Some of the characters Frey keeps coming back to and building a plot, others you only see once and then never again. It's a bit dizzying and sometimes frustrating but ultimately forms an experience that is gripping and wise. It makes me glad I moved away from L.A. as soon as I did, although the book also makes me kind of want to move there.

author: Haruki Murakami

name: Steev

average rating: 4.06

book published: 2002

rating: 4

read at: 2009/11/16

date added: 2009/11/17

shelves: novels, fun, own-it

author: Robert Olen Butler

name: Steev

average rating: 3.35

book published: 2009

rating: 5

read at: 2011/05/03

date added: 2011/05/03

shelves: novels, fun, own-it

review:
Super entertaining but also full of interesting ideas about human-ness, and life, afterlife, suffering, love, free will, and other lofty things. A wise book disguised as goofball comedy.

author: Paul Neilan

name: Steev

average rating: 3.81

book published: 2006

rating: 5

read at: 2011/06/23

date added: 2011/06/23

shelves: novels, fun, own-it