July 30, 2016

How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely - PPPPP

July 30, 2016/ John Box

The first line of this book scared the crap out of me.

In strewn banners that lay like streamers from a longago parade the sun’s fading seraphim rays gleamed onto the hood of the old Ford and ribboned the steel with the meek orange of a June tomato straining at the vine.

This continued for two full pages causing me to seriously consider jumping in front of a passing train.

September 11, 2015

Lamb; The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore - PPPP

September 11, 2015/ John Box

At the turn of the second millennium, Levi, who is called Biff, is summoned by the angel Raziel to compose his account of the life of Jesus Christ, Biff’s best friend from the age of six.

The narration then switches back and forth between the present time where Biff and Raziel are holed up in a hotel in St. Louis, Missouri and biblical times as we read Biff’s tale.

August 05, 2015

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - PPP

August 05, 2015/ John Box

A few words come to mind: Disappointing, Underwhelming, Overrated.

I’m not even sure what the consensus rating is, but I’m confident it’s too high. Especially since it was turned into a movie starring Martin Freeman.

The Martin Freeman. He’s this generation’s Mark Hamil for Christ’s sake!

Anyhoo, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, earthling Arthur Dent and his close

July 03, 2015

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole - PPPPP

July 03, 2015/ John Box

As one would expect from the title, the cast of this character-driven novel includes a plethora of imbeciles, crooks, and trainwrecks, but in the protagonist, Toole has created an iconic character who is one of the most outlandish, entertaining, and memorable ever.

Ignatius J. Reilly is lazy, incompetent, condescending, hypocritical, self-entitled, sensitive, dramatic, irascible, intelligent, delusional, self-righteous, judgmental, sadistic, pathetic, offensive, litigious, self-pitying, and sexually repressed. He’s a fat bastard – a

March 05, 2015

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - PPPP

March 05, 2015/ John Box

Catch-22, the renowned classic by Joseph Heller, tells the story of an outrageous Air Force squadron stationed on a Mediterranean island during World War II.

The story centers around Yossarian, possibly the only sane character in the book, and his struggle to not get killed. He is convinced that everyone is out to get him and given that he faces enemy fire on each bombing mission and that Colonel Cathcart continually raises the number of missions that must be flown in order to be discharged, he might be right.

January 25, 2015

Flashman (The Flashman Papers, Book 1) by George MacDonald Fraser - PPPPP

January 25, 2015/ John Box

The Flashman Papers, Book 1 is the first book in a series of twelve comprising the memoirs of a fictional Brit making his way through actual historical events beginning in the early-mid 19th century.

Harry Flashman is a coward and womanizing misogynist of epic proportion who also has outrageously good luck that not only saves his skin from numerous seemingly inescapable pinches, but also allows him to reap tidal waves of unwarranted praise and adoration.

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