Like to read? Book review thread!

[mediocrates]

Animal Farm is short enough to burn through pretty fast.  I could see it as annoying if it was much longer.

[Alex K]

The songs of Letuvanian handmaidens
Carl F. Fisher, Random House

If 18th century culture appears alien to us, then the 18th century culture of the remote duchy of Letuvania, hidden away in the Carpathian mountains where it was shielded from the political and cultural influence of Russian and Hungarian potentates for centuries, must be doubly so, and even more so the culture of the Letuvanian handmaiden with its own language and customs which, until the second half of the 20th century, had been all but completely unknown to western scholars. The most striking insights into this world of profound, almost fanatic religiosity, servitude and attention to detail can be found in the rich musical tradition of the "lyvczseak skrygyll", the characteristic song of the Letuvanian handmaiden - high-pitched exclamations which are sparsely accompanied by the grygyll shelyctyan, the Letuvanian harp. The author manages to skillfully draw the reader into this arcane world of natural mysticism and duty from page one, and leaves us with deep insights into what it means to be a Letuvanian handmaiden - and ultimately - what it means to be human.

[Shell B]

It was that the allegory was so obvious, and the use of animals to make the point so useless. As a literary exercise, it was cool. The idea was solid, he's obviously a tremendous writer and I'm sure it took more than a little thought. I just didn't enjoy it. To be fair, I haven't tried again in a very, very long time, so who knows?

As for 1984, it's one of the most memorable novels of my childhood.

[mlmooney89]

I can go on a rant about The Inheritance Cycle, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games if ya want... or gush about the Temeraire Series...

The Hunger Games trilogy is on my list... 

Along similar lines, I've read the Divergent trilogy and a few other shorts that came out related to it.  I can say that, as the story progresses, the movies become more and more divergent from the books...

I liked the Inheritance, Potter, and Hunger Games as a series but all the endings were bullshit and ruined them in one chapter.