The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (4 stars)

Swashbuckling! This book's characters serve as a definition for the word!

I enjoyed reading about the adventures of M. d'Artagnan and his three friends. At the start of the book d'Artagnan can barely travel down the road without engaging strangers in duels over some perceived slight, and indeed this is how he first meets the musketeers. Together they perform all sorts of ridiculous feats: foiling the cardinal's machinations, defeating large numbers of enemy soldiers while breakfasting at the siege of La Rochelle, and avoiding assassination attempts by the evil Lady de Winter.

Highly entertaining, although I did wonder what readers would have thought of it when it was published in 1844? Would it have been the equivalent of an modern action novel, something like a Tom Clancy book?

I was also incredibly confused by the currency in the book: pistoles, livres, crowns, francs etc. This is common enough that it deserves its own Wikipedia page :)

4 stars.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (1 star)

Gilead won the Pulitzer prize in 2005, and although it didn't sound particularly appealing I thought I'd give it a shot. I initially liked the measured, reflective narrative style, but it quickly sent me to sleep. I struggled to concentrate on the largely boring, rambling, grandpa-simpson "there's an interesting story behind this silver dollar" kind of prose that trundles in random directions without any cohesion. I'm giving up 90 pages in, sorry Ms. Robinson.

1 star

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (2 stars)

Twilight series book number two, another dud, and yet I feel compelled to keep reading. Unfortunately Bella continued to be one of the most annoying characters of all time, I skimmed a massive section of the book filled with boring, verbose, pining after Eddikins:

I wondered how long this could last. Maybe years from now - if the pain would just decrease to the point where I could bear it - I would be able to look back on those few short months that would always be the best of my life. And, if it were possible that the pain would ever soften enough to allow me to do that, I was sure that I would feel grateful for as much time as he'd given me.

In addition to being uncoordinated, and so emotionally disabled she can't function without constant contact with Edward or Jacob, Bella is also dense: she couldn't figure out Jacob was a werewolf even though he told her in the first book and she saw him:

...the deep eyes seeming too intelligent for a wild animal. As it stared at me, I suddenly thought of Jacob...

Meyer makes it very obvious she is re-creating Romeo and Juliet, with constant references to Romeo (Eddikins) and Paris (Jacob). I don't mind her ripping off Shakespeare, it's a long-standing tradition, but did she have to beat me over the head with it to make sure I couldn't possibly miss the plot cues?

I like the personalisation of the mythical characters, Meyer has developed a whole set of strengths and weaknesses, history, and family interactions for the vampire covens and werewolf pack. This is enough to keep me reading, and I'll keep skimming the shite....

2 stars

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (3.5 stars)

Another Pulitzer prize winner, but I was fairly underwhelmed by this one. It is beautifully written, the characters are interesting, and I don't remember ever being bored, but my desire to finish it outweighed my desire to explore the storyline.

At 636 pages it is much longer than it should be, and I think it is marred by some strange sub-plots. Joe's time in Antarctica is a complete break in the storyline, and everything after he returns to New York - the Empire State bungee jump and the awkward family reunion in suburbia - don't sit well with the rest of the story.

3.5 stars