L. Mertz

Susan Bennett has a facility with voices that brings these wacky characters to life. New to Christopher Moore, but a long time fan of Hiaasen and Robbins, I started with Coyote Blue and loved it, went to A Dirty Job and loved that, so I went to Blood Sucking Fiends and directly to You Suck and had a simply marvelous time. Good writing, good reading, wildly eccentric characters and a lot of fun.

I loved The Alchemyst and liked The Magician but found The Sorceress rather weak, just battle after battle between not particularly imaginative creatures and the main characters, who seemed to be more carefully drawn in book 1. There are a couple of inconsistencies in the details signifying that perhaps the author wasn't totally paying attention. The narration is somewhat flat and not always true to the text. To write a series requires a commitment this author hasn't really made.

I found this novel confusing. There are a lot of characters and I couldn't identify them all. The narrator's reading seems flat to me and not really the best voice for the story. I was surprised, expected more skillful storytelling, but I could never quite decide if it was sort of feeble writing or dissonant reading. Sometimes there are wonderful sentences, but sometimes there's way too much detail and it's hard to care about the conditions and situations of the characters.

This is engaging writing. It's complex, full of amusing references all kinds of literary and pop culture allusions and clever metaphors. I didn't find the plot or the characters predictable. But, after feeling so involved in the story, I found the ending unsatisfying, like a helium balloon the day after.

Anyone who has read Jung at all will find Myss's simplistic rendering of archetypes rather tedious. She is often too cynical to understand the depth of the human condition. She's as popular as MacDonald's and just about as substantive.

Beautfiully written and delightfully told story of Victor Chan's 30-year relationship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Interesting to compare Heinrich Harrer's pre-invasion friendship with the young Dalai Lama in Seven Years in Tibet (the book, not the film) with this more contemporary meeting. Chan, a Chinese man, expected to meet an angry, wrathful Tibetan king after the genocidal Communist Chinese had forced him into exile. Instead, Chan found the easily amused, kind-hearted and loving "simple Buddhist monk." This well-read narration offers profound insights into this awesome spiritual leader.

Maureen Dowd's analysis of the current Bush administration draws on her experience as a journalist attached to Bush 41's administration, when she got a close-up view of the Bush family. Drawing on popular culture and her upfront and personal knowledge of global politics in the Bush context, Dowd views it all with a kaleidoscopic perspective and biting wit.