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Mar. 22nd, 2010 10:06 amHappy Birthday to the lovely ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tammihayne!
2010 Books:
9. Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne
Another in the stack of books Mom lent me. She didn't like it and didn't finish it. I finished it but it was annoying me a lot by the time i did. I rarely will not finish a book but sometimes it's a struggle. This book is similar to an older one he wrote about the upper monied class of society based out of NYC. This is more of the same. Gossipy, not really much of a plot, and very, very repetitive. It's mainly about a writer, based on Dunne himself, a man called Gus Bailey who is the observer of the society into which he's managed to insinuate himself. He and everyone else gossips about everyone they know and if one person has an idea or an opinion on a particular person or event, they all seem to have the same thought/opinion and Dunne repeats it almost verbatim every time a different character thinks about it or talks about it to another character. Or he'll describe someone and describe their connections to someone else or their history. 4 or 5 of the times that character is brought into a scene. It's just tedious after awhile.
10. New York by Edward Rutherfurd
I've read most of Rutherfurd's long books that brush over the history of an area back to the times when it was populated by hunter/gatherers. He brings the reader up through the history and events of an area by describing how things touch various families and their descendants. You can usually see the thread of the 3 or 4 lines of the families throughout the history. I particularly liked Sarum and London both. The one he did on Ireland was good but was split into two books so it was even longer. The thing i don't like about his books is by the time he hits the most recent century, he's speeding up and just barely touching on things and it's not nearly as interesting and detailed as the stories he tells earlier in the book. The characters are far less developed and therefore, less interesting.
Having said that, most of the book is really good. This one on NYC doesn't go back as far as most of his others. It starts after the colony was founded by the Dutch, in the mid 1600s and on through the British takeover. It follows characters, mainly the Van Dykes at the start, and then the British Masters family through most of the book through the Revolution, Civil War, corruption, building of the Empire State building. The last major event was, of course, Sept. 11 2001 though it lingers a bit through to 2009. He brings in a few other families that start off interesting but are then left aside with very little mention after their main story is told. That's something else he's done differently than he has done in the past. Usually there are still traces of the main families but most of the focus here is on the Masters. I think i need to go back and reread Sarum and London again. I think i enjoyed them the most.
tammihayne!2010 Books:
9. Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne
Another in the stack of books Mom lent me. She didn't like it and didn't finish it. I finished it but it was annoying me a lot by the time i did. I rarely will not finish a book but sometimes it's a struggle. This book is similar to an older one he wrote about the upper monied class of society based out of NYC. This is more of the same. Gossipy, not really much of a plot, and very, very repetitive. It's mainly about a writer, based on Dunne himself, a man called Gus Bailey who is the observer of the society into which he's managed to insinuate himself. He and everyone else gossips about everyone they know and if one person has an idea or an opinion on a particular person or event, they all seem to have the same thought/opinion and Dunne repeats it almost verbatim every time a different character thinks about it or talks about it to another character. Or he'll describe someone and describe their connections to someone else or their history. 4 or 5 of the times that character is brought into a scene. It's just tedious after awhile.
10. New York by Edward Rutherfurd
I've read most of Rutherfurd's long books that brush over the history of an area back to the times when it was populated by hunter/gatherers. He brings the reader up through the history and events of an area by describing how things touch various families and their descendants. You can usually see the thread of the 3 or 4 lines of the families throughout the history. I particularly liked Sarum and London both. The one he did on Ireland was good but was split into two books so it was even longer. The thing i don't like about his books is by the time he hits the most recent century, he's speeding up and just barely touching on things and it's not nearly as interesting and detailed as the stories he tells earlier in the book. The characters are far less developed and therefore, less interesting.
Having said that, most of the book is really good. This one on NYC doesn't go back as far as most of his others. It starts after the colony was founded by the Dutch, in the mid 1600s and on through the British takeover. It follows characters, mainly the Van Dykes at the start, and then the British Masters family through most of the book through the Revolution, Civil War, corruption, building of the Empire State building. The last major event was, of course, Sept. 11 2001 though it lingers a bit through to 2009. He brings in a few other families that start off interesting but are then left aside with very little mention after their main story is told. That's something else he's done differently than he has done in the past. Usually there are still traces of the main families but most of the focus here is on the Masters. I think i need to go back and reread Sarum and London again. I think i enjoyed them the most.
