Christopher's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 04:01:20 -0700 60 Christopher's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Dinosaurs 60165418 Dinosaurs is both sharp-edged and tender, an emotionally moving, intellectually resonant novel that asks, In the shadow of existential threat, where does hope live?]]> 230 Lydia Millet 1324021462 Christopher 0 3.85 2022 Dinosaurs
author: Lydia Millet
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: currently-reading, 21st-century, american, fiction
review:

]]> Lark Ascending 59892263 Ěý
With fires devastating much of America, Lark and his family first leave their home in Maryland for Maine. But as the country increasingly falls under the grip of religious nationalism, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe, not just from physical disasters but also persecution. The family secures a place on a crowded boat headed to Ireland, the last place on earth rumored to be accepting American refugees.
Ěý
Upon arrival, it turns out that the safe harbor of Ireland no longer exists either—and Lark, the sole survivor of the trans-Atlantic voyage, must disappear into the countryside. As he runs for his life, Lark finds two equally lost and desperate souls: one of the last remaining dogs, who becomes his closest companion, and a fierce, mysterious woman in search of her lost son. Together they form a makeshift family and attempt to reach Glendalough, a place they believe will offer protection. But can any community provide the safety that they seek?
Ěý
Lark Ascending is a moving and unforgettable story of friendship and bravery, and even more, a story of the ongoing fight to protect our per­sonal freedoms and find our shared humanity, from a writer at the peak of his powers.]]> 288 Silas House 164375159X Christopher 3
It's a nice book—easy to read despite all of the harrowing things that happen—but doesn't feel totally fleshed out. In a story like this, I think an author can take a couple of approaches: don't sweat the details, let the fog of war cloud everything, or dive into the details and show how and why everything happened. The narrator is 90 years old as he tells us this story, so we know he survives and should have gained a lot of perspective on the war he survived, yet he doesn't commit to either approach. He only glances upon the different factions involved and the world doesn't feel quite real. That, and the too-convenient and romanticized ending, leaves me feeling like this is a 3 star read.]]> 4.12 2022 Lark Ascending
author: Silas House
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, dystopia
review:
This isn't technically a story about an apocalypse, but it feels like it. It's a refugee story. North America has been overtaken by an army of fundamentalist and our narrator has fled with his family across the ocean to seek refuge in Ireland. Which, as it turns out, is just as war-torn.

It's a nice book—easy to read despite all of the harrowing things that happen—but doesn't feel totally fleshed out. In a story like this, I think an author can take a couple of approaches: don't sweat the details, let the fog of war cloud everything, or dive into the details and show how and why everything happened. The narrator is 90 years old as he tells us this story, so we know he survives and should have gained a lot of perspective on the war he survived, yet he doesn't commit to either approach. He only glances upon the different factions involved and the world doesn't feel quite real. That, and the too-convenient and romanticized ending, leaves me feeling like this is a 3 star read.
]]> The Mars Room 36373648 338 Rachel Kushner 1476756554 Christopher 4 3.41 2018 The Mars Room
author: Rachel Kushner
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction
review:
What I like about Rachel Kushner's writing is that it oozes coolness and style and it's chock full of little details that can only come from a writer burying themself in research. Being a story about the prison system, there's less of that coolness here, but it's still a very raw, real-feeling experience. It's an important story.
]]> Pew 51542370
As the town spends the week preparing for a mysterious Forgiveness Festival, Pew is shuttled from one household to the next. The earnest and seemingly well-meaning townspeople see conflicting identities in Pew, and many confess their fears and secrets to them in one-sided conversations. Pew listens and observes while experiencing brief flashes of past lives or clues about their origins. As days pass, the void around Pew’s presence begins to unnerve the community, whose generosity erodes into menace and suspicion. Yet by the time Pew’s story reaches a shattering and unsettling climax at the Forgiveness Festival, the secret of their true nature—as a devil or an angel or something else entirely—is dwarfed by even larger truths.

Pew, Catherine Lacey’s third novel, is a foreboding, provocative, and amorphous fable about the world today: its contradictions, its flimsy morality, and the limits of judging others based on their appearance. With precision and restraint, one of our most beloved and boundary-pushing writers holds up a mirror to her characters� true selves, revealing something about forgiveness, perception, and the faulty tools society uses to categorize human complexity.]]> 224 Catherine Lacey 0374230927 Christopher 4
It gets a bit strange and ambiguous, but it's a story that's filled with humanity—both the good and bad parts.]]> 3.71 2020 Pew
author: Catherine Lacey
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, nameless-characters
review:
A vague but moving story. On the surface, it's about a nameless, faceless, genderless, nearly featureless character who's thrown at the mercy of a small Southern town. Pew (as the narrator becomes known, because they are found sleeping on a church pew) isn't actually the star of the show. They are simply the vessel used for the townsfolk to let down their guard and expose their secrets; Pew, who speaks no more than twenty or thirty words in the whole novel, is a recording angel for a bunch of folk who think they've moved past the past but they haven't.

It gets a bit strange and ambiguous, but it's a story that's filled with humanity—both the good and bad parts.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership]]> 146203 146 Wendell Berry 0865472173 Christopher 5
But the more I get involved in the modern world (the more days I spend at a desk and the fewer days I spend out in the woods or playing in a stream or whatever), the more I wish to escape to Berry's Port William, where you know everyone's family history and where, sure, there are problems and conflicts, but they're all manageable, and for the most part the people are good people. Wouldn't it be nice to be a member of that membership?]]> 4.39 1986 The Wild Birds: Six Stories of the Port William Membership
author: Wendell Berry
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: 20th-century, american, fiction
review:
Wendell Berry's fiction offers up a different kind of escapism; there are no spaceships or lasers or wizards. These are stories that, if I were to describe them (an attorney trying to fulfill a will, an old man going for a walk in the woods and remembering things, children working in fields and messing around), would sound pretty mundane. And it probably seems odd to call something that's so entrenched in realism "escapism".

But the more I get involved in the modern world (the more days I spend at a desk and the fewer days I spend out in the woods or playing in a stream or whatever), the more I wish to escape to Berry's Port William, where you know everyone's family history and where, sure, there are problems and conflicts, but they're all manageable, and for the most part the people are good people. Wouldn't it be nice to be a member of that membership?
]]> Eat the Rich 59365775 When the rich and powerful are literal cannibals, how can regular people avoid being on the menu?

WELCOME TO CRESTFALL BLUFFS! With law school and her whole life ahead of her, Joey plans to spend the summer with her boyfriend Astor at his seemingly perfect family home. But beneath all the affluent perfection lies a dark, deadly rot� something all the locals live in quiet fear of. As summer lingers, Joey uncovers the macabre history of Crestfall Bluffs, and the ruthlessness and secrecy lying in wait behind the idyllic lives of the one percent. Who can Joey save? Who wants to be saved? And can she even survive to tell the tale? The bold, horrifying psychological thriller from Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey (The Echo Wife, Magic For Liars) and artist Pius Bak (Firefly, The Magicians) with colorist Roman Titov and letterer Cardinal Rae. Collects Eat the Rich #1-5.]]> 128 Sarah Gailey 168415832X Christopher 2 3.69 2021 Eat the Rich
author: Sarah Gailey
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: 21st-century, american, comics-graphic-novels, fiction, horror
review:
A half-baked rip-off of Get Out.
]]> Black Swan Green 14316
Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys� games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping� through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons.

Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s most subtlest and effective achievement to date.]]> 296 David Mitchell 0812974018 Christopher 5 3.97 2006 Black Swan Green
author: David Mitchell
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: 21st-century, bildungsroman, british, fiction
review:
A wonderful coming of age novel that belongs on a bookshelf alongside To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace, and Dandelion Wine.
]]> The Phantom Tollbooth 378 Librarian's Note: For an alternate cover edition of the same ISBN, click here.

This beloved story -first published more than fifty years ago- introduces readers to Milo and his adventures in the Lands Beyond.

For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams. . . .]]> 248 Norton Juster 0394820371 Christopher 5 4.19 1961 The Phantom Tollbooth
author: Norton Juster
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1961
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: 20th-century, american, children-s, fantasy, fiction, currently-reading, metafiction
review:

]]> The Invention of Hugo Cabret 9673436 534 Brian Selznick Christopher 5
5 stars!]]> 4.22 2007 The Invention of Hugo Cabret
author: Brian Selznick
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: american, children-s, future-classics, 21st-century, historical-fiction, fiction, bildungsroman
review:
Sometimes children's literature is the best literature. Somehow this is all at once a Dickensian tale of poverty, an education in early twentieth century arts and technology, a saga of generational trauma, and a quest to uncover one's identity. Plus, it's got some beautiful art, incorporated in a novel way.

5 stars!
]]> Ginseng Roots: A Memoir 216971212 From the celebrated author of Blankets and Habibi comes a new graphic memoir exploring the class divide, childhood labor, family, and our globalized world—all centered on Wisconsin's ginseng farming industry

When Blankets first published in 2003, Craig Thompson's seminal memoir about first love and faith lost in rural Wisconsin débuted to rapturous acclaim. The winner of two Eisner and three Harvey Awards, it is considered one of the all-time great works of graphic storytelling. Now, in Thompson's long-awaited return to the autobiographical form, comes the story that Blankets left out.

Ginseng Roots follows Thompson and his siblings, who spent the summers of their youth weeding and harvesting rows of coveted American ginseng on rural Wisconsin farms for one dollar an hour. In his trademark breathtaking pen-and-ink work, Thompson interweaves this lost youth with the 300-year-old history of the global ginseng trade and the many lives it has tied together—from ginseng hunters in ancient China to industrial farmers and migrant harvesters in the American Midwest to his own family still grappling with the aftershocks of the bitter past.

Stretching from Marathon, Wisconsin, to Northeast China, Ginseng Roots charts the rise of industrial agriculture, the decline of American labor, and the search for a sense of home in a rapidly changing world.]]> 448 Craig Thompson 0593700775 Christopher 0 to-read 4.25 Ginseng Roots: A Memoir
author: Craig Thompson
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cult X 36278938 Cult X is a story that dives into the psychology of fringe religion, obsession, and social disaffection.

When Toru Narazaki’s girlfriend, Ryoko, disappears, he tries to track her down, despite the warnings of a private detective he’s hired to find her. Ryoko’s past is shrouded in mystery, but the one concrete clue to her whereabouts is a previous address where she lived: in a compound in the heart of Tokyo, with a group that seems to be a cult led by a charismatic guru with a revisionist Buddhist scheme of life, death, and society. Narazaki plunges into the secretive world of the cult, ready to expose himself to any of the guru’s brainwashing tactics if it means he can learn the truth about Ryoko. But the cult isn’t what he expected, and he has no idea of the bubbling violence beneath its surface.

Inspired by the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, Cult X is an exploration of what draws individuals into extremism. This multi-faceted novel is nothing less than a tour de force, capturing the connections between astrophysics, neuroscience, and religion. It is an invective against predatory corporate consumerism and exploitative geopolitics, and it is a love story about compassion in the face of nihilism.]]> 508 Fuminori Nakamura 1616957867 Christopher 3 The Factory and The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada, Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, Nipponia Nippon by Kazushige Abe, 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore by Murakami, In the Miso Soup by the "other" Murakami, even The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe... these are all books about characters transgressing from normal society and finding a path that is better suited for themselves.

That's taken to an extreme with Cult X, which is actually about two cults: one with a good (or relatively harmless) leader, and one with the epitome of evil at its head. Naturally, it focuses a bit more on the evil cult, and things get very, very dark. Thematically, this book roams all over the place. Conformity is top of mind, but it also goes into conspiracy theories, Japanese political history, particle physics, metaphysics, mysticism, the existence of god, and sexuality.

Despite its rough subject matter, it's an entertaining read. The plot moves quickly and there are plenty of twists, especially in the endgame. Some of it feels a bit ham-handed; this book pulls a strange trick in that it provides almost no character building in the front half of the book. For some reason, it waits until near the end to give characters backstory and motivations, so for the first half you're kind of just going on faith that the author will tie everything together and make it all make sense. ]]> 2.82 2014 Cult X
author: Fuminori Nakamura
name: Christopher
average rating: 2.82
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: 21st-century, japanese, fiction
review:
I think that every Japanese book I've ever read has been about conformity or nonconformity. Is that because that's what the Japanese write about, or because that's what becomes popular and makes it to an English translation? The Factory and The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada, Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, Nipponia Nippon by Kazushige Abe, 1Q84 and Kafka on the Shore by Murakami, In the Miso Soup by the "other" Murakami, even The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe... these are all books about characters transgressing from normal society and finding a path that is better suited for themselves.

That's taken to an extreme with Cult X, which is actually about two cults: one with a good (or relatively harmless) leader, and one with the epitome of evil at its head. Naturally, it focuses a bit more on the evil cult, and things get very, very dark. Thematically, this book roams all over the place. Conformity is top of mind, but it also goes into conspiracy theories, Japanese political history, particle physics, metaphysics, mysticism, the existence of god, and sexuality.

Despite its rough subject matter, it's an entertaining read. The plot moves quickly and there are plenty of twists, especially in the endgame. Some of it feels a bit ham-handed; this book pulls a strange trick in that it provides almost no character building in the front half of the book. For some reason, it waits until near the end to give characters backstory and motivations, so for the first half you're kind of just going on faith that the author will tie everything together and make it all make sense.
]]> The Bone Clocks 20819685
For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics—and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly’s life, affecting all the people Holly loves—even the ones who are not yet born.

A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list—all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world. From the medieval Swiss Alps to the nineteenth-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder.]]> 624 David Mitchell 1400065674 Christopher 3
But then later it turns into a Doctor Strange-esque battle between good wizards and bad wizards. There's a lot of hokey fantasy jargon like one of the factions being named the "Anchorites of the Chapel of the Dusk of the Blind Cathar of the Thomasite Monastery of Sidelhorn Pass" who spend their time psychodecanting souls and psychoblasting enemies (I'm not joking.) Frankly, it gets corny and cheesy and cheapens the whole book. In my opinion.

5 stars for the good bits, 2 stars for the bad bits.]]> 3.82 2014 The Bone Clocks
author: David Mitchell
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: 500-pages-or-more, fiction, british, fantasy
review:
David Mitchell is great at setting up new plot threads and getting into the minds of new characters. That's what a lot of this book is: it's broken into six or seven parts, each of which has a different perspective character. And for the two thirds of the book, you're sort of glancing off the edges of a big world and story, but you're just getting glimpses. That's where the book is at it's best, when it's a series of loosely connected character studies.

But then later it turns into a Doctor Strange-esque battle between good wizards and bad wizards. There's a lot of hokey fantasy jargon like one of the factions being named the "Anchorites of the Chapel of the Dusk of the Blind Cathar of the Thomasite Monastery of Sidelhorn Pass" who spend their time psychodecanting souls and psychoblasting enemies (I'm not joking.) Frankly, it gets corny and cheesy and cheapens the whole book. In my opinion.

5 stars for the good bits, 2 stars for the bad bits.
]]> Audition 7280651 191 Ryū Murakami 039333841X Christopher 2
I'm unsure if I'll watch the movie now or not. I'm not a fan of torture porn and why, really, would I want to subject myself to something that would surely be more harrowing than this reading experience. And I really don't want to watch what happens to [spoilers removed]]]> 3.43 1997 Audition
author: Ryū Murakami
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 2017/05/05
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: 20th-century, fiction, horror, japanese
review:
I read this because the adaptation comes up on a lot of top ten lists of horror movies. It's short, so I figured why not? I hesitate to say it was written poorly, because with translated literature I never can tell if bad sentences are the fault of the author or the translator, but the writing is just bad. It is psychologically unincisive and simplistic. The foreshadowing is terribly obvious and uninspired. However, I enjoyed the pacing. It did not feel at all like a horror novel until everything just came crashing down in one big plop.

I'm unsure if I'll watch the movie now or not. I'm not a fan of torture porn and why, really, would I want to subject myself to something that would surely be more harrowing than this reading experience. And I really don't want to watch what happens to [spoilers removed]
]]> Baumgartner 134899244
Paul Auster’s brilliant eighteenth novel opens with a scorched pot of water, which Sy Baumgartner � phenomenologist, noted author, and soon-to-be retired philosophy professor � has just forgotten on the stove.

Baumgartner’s life had been defined by his deep, abiding love for his wife, Anna, who was killed in a swimming accident nine years earlier. Now 71, Baumgartner continues to struggle to live in her absence as the novel sinuously unfolds into spirals of memory and reminiscence, delineated in episodes spanning from 1968, when Sy and Anna meet as broke students working and writing in New York, through their passionate relationship over the next forty years, and back to Baumgartner’s youth in Newark and his Polish-born father’s life as a dress-shop owner and failed revolutionary.

Rich with compassion, wit, and Auster’s keen eye for beauty in the smallest, most transient moments of ordinary life, Baumgartner asks: Why do we remember certain moments, and forget others? In one of his most luminous works and his first novel since the Booker-shortlisted tour-de-force 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster captures several lifetimes.]]> 208 Paul Auster 0802161448 Christopher 4 The New York Trilogy was an awakening for me... like baby's first postmodern novel. 4�3�2� was a late career masterpiece, and Moon Palace was a Dickensian delight. On the other hand, Oracle Night felt as pretentious as Auster's haters say, and Mr. Vertigo was simply irritating.

This book, though, is an exquisitely and sensitively written novella about an old man reflecting on his life. There is very little plot; Baumgartner is an aged writer whose wife has died awhile back, and he lives a simple life, and memories pop up and occupy him for twenty or thirty pages at a time. It has one of the more real-feeling stream of consciousness styles; Baumgartner's brain works the way mine works.

There's also a lot of John Williams's Stoner in here. If you liked that, you're bound to like this one for sure.]]> 3.70 2023 Baumgartner
author: Paul Auster
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, metafiction, novellas, postmodern
review:
This is such a perfect final book for Paul Auster. He's an author who has been hit or miss for me. The New York Trilogy was an awakening for me... like baby's first postmodern novel. 4�3�2� was a late career masterpiece, and Moon Palace was a Dickensian delight. On the other hand, Oracle Night felt as pretentious as Auster's haters say, and Mr. Vertigo was simply irritating.

This book, though, is an exquisitely and sensitively written novella about an old man reflecting on his life. There is very little plot; Baumgartner is an aged writer whose wife has died awhile back, and he lives a simple life, and memories pop up and occupy him for twenty or thirty pages at a time. It has one of the more real-feeling stream of consciousness styles; Baumgartner's brain works the way mine works.

There's also a lot of John Williams's Stoner in here. If you liked that, you're bound to like this one for sure.
]]> That's Not Right 220360924
The first secret she reveals is Jack’s. He doesn’t believe any of this crap. To him, the show is just a cushy job that allows him to support himself and his wife without having to try very hard. He doesn’t want to leave his house, go anywhere near the things he’s reported on or the people who come on his show, who he thinks, or at least hopes, are liars.

But go near them, he will! And so will you! Join Jack and Amber as they

Monstrous Creatures
Scientific Anomalies
Shadowy Conspiracies
Secretive agencies
Medical Abnormalities
Ancient curses
Life After Death and/or the Key to Immortality (Yes! Both of those things!)
All that, and some really creepy kids!

Read this book, and you’ll agree, “That’s Not Right.”]]> 297 Scott Meyer 1950056104 Christopher 3 4.15 That's Not Right
author: Scott Meyer
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: 21st-century, american, audiobooks, fiction, science-fiction
review:
A fun, silly take on X-Files with a great audiobook narration. This reminds me of the books I would read in late elementary school: Aliens for Breakfast or the Tim War Trio or something like that.
]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Christopher 4
I didn’t connect with this book on the same level as I did The Secret History, though. I was compelled by The Secret History, and still think about it regularly. By contrast, The Goldfinch felt a bit uneven, too long in some parts and not long enough in others. ]]> 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: 21st-century, 500-pages-or-more, american, fiction
review:
All those reviewers weren’t kidding when they called this book Dickensian. It’s certainly a nice, updated take on Dickens, with beautiful writing and a protagonist who feels very true. It’s got wonderful commentary on art and art history.

I didn’t connect with this book on the same level as I did The Secret History, though. I was compelled by The Secret History, and still think about it regularly. By contrast, The Goldfinch felt a bit uneven, too long in some parts and not long enough in others.
]]> Crenshaw 23310699
Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There's no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan. Again.

Crenshaw is a cat. He's large, he's outspoken, and he's imaginary. He has come back into Jackson's life to help him. But is an imaginary friend enough to save this family from losing everything?

Beloved author Katherine Applegate proves in unexpected ways that friends matter, whether real or imaginary.]]> 256 Katherine Applegate 1250043239 Christopher 4 3.96 2015 Crenshaw
author: Katherine Applegate
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves: 21st-century, american, children-s, fiction
review:
My son read this in his fourth grade class, so I figured I'd join in. Children's literature has gotten subtle and sophisticated! I thought this was some kind of fantasy adventure, but it's a touching story about a kid whose family is going through a rough patch, is on the verge of homelessness, and how he deals with that trauma. I like it!
]]> The Bee Sting 62039166 From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil―can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written―is there still time to find a happy ending?]]> 645 Paul Murray 0374600309 Christopher 5
I have some mixed thoughts about the ending: [spoilers removed]]]> 3.92 2023 The Bee Sting
author: Paul Murray
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: 21st-century, 500-pages-or-more, british, fiction
review:
An incredible, gripping, emotional experience. I really think Paul Murray could be the next Tolstoy, because in his hands, the family drama becomes a psychological epic. Each four members of the Barnes family is so impeccably detailed; they all feel like someone I could meet any day of my life. I'm convinced they're real people, and when one of them was in trouble, my palms were sweaty and my heart raced. Pretty sure that as the book built to its climax, I felt the stakes just as much or more than each of the characters. I can't remember the last time I was so invested in a fictional family.

I have some mixed thoughts about the ending: [spoilers removed]
]]> Head On (Lock In, #2) 35018901 Head On, the standalone follow-up to the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Lock In. Chilling near-future SF with the thrills of a gritty cop procedural, Head On brings Scalzi's trademark snappy dialogue and technological speculation to the future world of sports.

Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,� robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.

Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.

Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth―and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.]]> 335 John Scalzi 076538891X Christopher 3 3.97 2018 Head On (Lock In, #2)
author: John Scalzi
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: 21st-century, american, audiobooks, fiction, science-fiction
review:
One of Scalzi's meatier books, it's a high concept sci-fi detective story about an FBI agent investigating a couple of murders surrounding a sport that's played by people who are paralyzed in their own bodies, but control humanoid robots. Like most detective stories, I've already forgotten all of the twists and turns and if I pick up the next book in the series, I'll most likely be lost as to the particulars.
]]> <![CDATA[The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation]]> 207003520 160 Manu Larcenet 1419776770 Christopher 3
The art in this book is really terrific. It's just that it lost the heart of the novel and all of the nuance without the prose. In this form, it became a fairly typical post-apocalypse story.]]> 4.33 2024 The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
author: Manu Larcenet
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves: 21st-century, american, apocalypse, comics-graphic-novels, fiction
review:
Two things are true about this book. One: there's no way I wasn't going to buy it the second I heard of its existence. And two: there's no way I'd come away from it thinking it did the source material justice. The thing about The Road is that it's the words that make it special. Most of it is plain jane "the man did this", "the man did that", but when McCarthy decides to write a special passage, man is it special.

The art in this book is really terrific. It's just that it lost the heart of the novel and all of the nuance without the prose. In this form, it became a fairly typical post-apocalypse story.
]]> The Broom of the System 8714063 The Broom of the System stunned critics and marked the emergence of an extraordinary new talent. At the center of this outlandishly funny, fiercely intelligent novel is the bewitching heroine, Lenore Stonecipher Beadsman. The year is 1990 and the place is a slightly altered Cleveland, Ohio. Lenore’s great-grandmother has disappeared with twenty-five other inmates of the Shaker Heights Nursing Home. Her beau, and boss, Rick Vigorous, is insanely jealous, and her cockatiel, Vlad the Impaler, has suddenly started spouting a mixture of psycho-babble, Auden, and the King James Bible. Ingenious and entertaining, this debut from one of the most innovative writers of his generation brilliantly explores the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.]]> 481 David Foster Wallace 1101153539 Christopher 4 3.71 1987 The Broom of the System
author: David Foster Wallace
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: fiction, american, 21st-century, postmodern
review:

]]> The Blue Book of Nebo 56824553
Despite their close understanding, the relationship between mother and son changes subtly as Dylan must take on adult responsibilities. And they each have their own secrets, which emerge as, in turn, they jot down their thoughts and memories win a found notebook � the Blue Book of Nebo.]]> 120 Manon Steffan Ros 1646051017 Christopher 5
Merged review:

The idea of the apocalypse doesn’t usually inspire such tender stories, but this is one is the best post-apocalypse novels I’ve read. It’s sort of an anti-The Road, a story of a mother and son in Wales after the big bomb drops, growing vegetables and existing simply and alone. I absolutely love The Road, but I love this, too.]]> 4.15 2018 The Blue Book of Nebo
author: Manon Steffan Ros
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/21
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 21st-century, apocalypse, british, fiction, novellas
review:
The idea of the apocalypse doesn’t usually inspire such tender stories, but this is one is the best post-apocalypse novels I’ve read. It’s sort of an anti-The Road, a story of a mother and son in Wales after the big bomb drops, growing vegetables and existing simply and alone. I absolutely love The Road, but I love this, too.

Merged review:

The idea of the apocalypse doesn’t usually inspire such tender stories, but this is one is the best post-apocalypse novels I’ve read. It’s sort of an anti-The Road, a story of a mother and son in Wales after the big bomb drops, growing vegetables and existing simply and alone. I absolutely love The Road, but I love this, too.
]]> A Door Behind A Door 55890910 A Door Behind A Door, we meet Olga, who immigrates as part of the Soviet diaspora of �91 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There she grows up and meets a girl and falls in love, beginning to believe that she can settle down. But a phone call from a bad man from her past brings to life a haunted childhood in an apartment building in the Soviet Union: an unexplained murder in her block, a supernatural stray dog, and the mystery of her beloved brother Moshe, who lost an eye and later vanished. We get pulled into Olga’s past as she puzzles her way through an underground Midwestern Russian mafia, in pursuit of a string of mathematical stabbings.]]> 188 Yelena Moskovich 1953387020 Christopher 4
It’s a fever dream of a book, written by and featuring an immigrant to America from the Soviet Union. It’s one of those books where you’re not really sure what’s going on half the time but it’s enthralling nonetheless. It’s visceral and violent, brimming with lust and desperation. I’ve never read anything quite like it� maybe the closest thing is Ana Kavan’s Ice. Which I didn’t like very much, but I do like this. I like this very much. ]]> 3.72 2021 A Door Behind A Door
author: Yelena Moskovich
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, postmodern, russian
review:
My favorite thing is stumbling across a book with an interesting cover in the library and taking a wild chance on it. In my experience, it often turns out great! I had never heard of this author or the publisher before.

It’s a fever dream of a book, written by and featuring an immigrant to America from the Soviet Union. It’s one of those books where you’re not really sure what’s going on half the time but it’s enthralling nonetheless. It’s visceral and violent, brimming with lust and desperation. I’ve never read anything quite like it� maybe the closest thing is Ana Kavan’s Ice. Which I didn’t like very much, but I do like this. I like this very much.
]]> The Survivors 56292990 In the vein of The Dinner and Atonement, an instant international sensation sold in over 30 countries, in which three brothers confront the shattering childhood event that changed the course of their lives.

In the wake their mother's death, three estranged brothers return to the lakeside cottage where, over two decades before, an unspeakable accident forever altered their family. There is Nils, the oldest, who couldn't escape his suffocating home soon enough, and Pierre, the youngest, easily bullied and quick to lash out. And then there is Benjamin, always the family's nerve center, perpetually on the look-out for triggers and trap doors in a volatile home where the children were left to fend for themselves, competing for their father's favor and their mother's elusive love.

But as the years have unfolded, Benjamin has grown increasingly untethered from reality, frozen in place while life carries on around him. And between the brothers a dangerous current now vibrates. What really happened that summer day when everything was blown to pieces?

In a thrillingly fast-paced narrative, The Survivors mixes the emotional acuity of Edward St Aubyn, the literary verve of Ian McEwan, and the heart of Shuggie Bain. By brilliantly dissecting a mind unravelling in the wake of tragedy, Alex Schulman reveals the ways in which our deepest loyalties leave us open to the greatest betrayals.]]> 240 Alex Schulman 0385547560 Christopher 4
I liked it, but then the end came with one of the biggest emotional wallops I’ve read in quite some time, and then I loved it. ]]> 3.42 2020 The Survivors
author: Alex Schulman
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: fiction, swedish, vergangenheitsbewaltigung
review:
A Swedish novel about childhood trauma and how it crops back up during adulthood. (Is this a particularly Nordic theme? See Per Petterson, Fredrick Backman.) There’s also an interesting structure, wherein alternating chapters explore two timelines: the first, vignettes from childhood and the second, a single day that unfolds in reverse chronology.

I liked it, but then the end came with one of the biggest emotional wallops I’ve read in quite some time, and then I loved it.
]]> In the Miso Soup 818118 180 Ryū Murakami Christopher 4
Ryu Murakami is the other Murakami, most famous for Audition, which is an easy going read punctuated by one scene of extreme horror. In that way, In the Miso Soup is very similar. It's the story of a young Japanese man who's guiding an American through the Japanese nightlife districts. The American turns out to be a weird, dangerous fellow.

Halfway through the book, I was ready to give it a single star and rant about it the way I like to rant about Bret Easton Ellis novels. It seemed shallow and juvenile. Yet somehow, Murakami turned it around in the last third of the novel. Unlike Audition, Miso Soup's singular disgusting scene happens at the midway point, and the rest of it is falling action, but that was where the magic happened. ]]> 3.55 1997 In the Miso Soup
author: Ryū Murakami
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves: 20th-century, fiction, japanese
review:
I've found that I appreciate Japanese writers for their simple, easy prose. I don't know if it's the translation or if it's inherent in the language or if it's just a popular style there, but I like turning to Japan for a quick read. Not to mention they get into some weird stuff.

Ryu Murakami is the other Murakami, most famous for Audition, which is an easy going read punctuated by one scene of extreme horror. In that way, In the Miso Soup is very similar. It's the story of a young Japanese man who's guiding an American through the Japanese nightlife districts. The American turns out to be a weird, dangerous fellow.

Halfway through the book, I was ready to give it a single star and rant about it the way I like to rant about Bret Easton Ellis novels. It seemed shallow and juvenile. Yet somehow, Murakami turned it around in the last third of the novel. Unlike Audition, Miso Soup's singular disgusting scene happens at the midway point, and the rest of it is falling action, but that was where the magic happened.
]]> Our Wives Under the Sea 58659343
Moving through something that only resembles normal life, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had before might be gone. Though Leah is still there, Miri can feel the woman she loves slipping from her grasp.

Our Wives Under The Sea is the debut novel from Julia Armfield, the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep deep sea.]]> 240 Julia Armfield 152901722X Christopher 4
This is described by many as a horror novel, but if you go into it with the usual horror expectations, you'll be disappointed. It's a fable, or maybe a fairy tale, or a nightmarish dream interspersed with touching memories. It's not exactly pageturning when it comes to plot, but it's beautifully written and complexly structured.

It's real nice. ]]> 3.75 2022 Our Wives Under the Sea
author: Julia Armfield
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: 21st-century, british, fiction
review:
A wonderful, original novel about a woman who's just reunited with her wife after she went missing on a submarine research mission to the bottom of the ocean. Things get... weird.

This is described by many as a horror novel, but if you go into it with the usual horror expectations, you'll be disappointed. It's a fable, or maybe a fairy tale, or a nightmarish dream interspersed with touching memories. It's not exactly pageturning when it comes to plot, but it's beautifully written and complexly structured.

It's real nice.
]]> The Arrest 51179946 From the award-winning author of The Feral DetectiveĚýand Motherless Brooklyn comes an utterly original post-apocalyptic yarn about two siblings, the man that came between them, and a nuclear-powered super car.

The Arrest isn't post-apocalypse. It isn't a dystopia. It isn't a utopia. It's just what happens when much of what we take for granted—cars, guns, computers, and airplanes, for starters—quits working. . . .Ěý

Before the Arrest, Sandy Duplessis had a reasonably good life as a screenwriter in L.A.ĚýAn old college friend and writing partner, the charismatic and malicious Peter Todbaum, had become one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. That didn't hurt.Ěý

Now, post-Arrest, nothing is what it was.ĚýSandy, who calls himself Journeyman, has landed in rural Maine. There he assists the butcher and delivers the food grown by his sister, Maddy, at her organic farm. But then Todbaum shows up in an extraordinary vehicle: a retrofitted tunnel-digger powered by a nuclear reactor. Todbaum has spent the Arrest smashing his way across a fragmented and phantasmagorical United States, trailing enmities all the way.ĚýPlopping back into the siblings' life with his usual odious panache, his motives are entirely unclear. Can it be that Todbaum wants to produce one more extravaganza?ĚýWhatever he's up to, it may fall to Journeyman to stop him.Ěý

Written with unrepentant joy and shot through with just the right amount of contemporary dread,ĚýThe ArrestĚýis speculative fiction at its absolute finest.]]> 307 Jonathan Lethem 0062938789 Christopher 3
A quick, mostly enjoyable read, but I'll be forgetting this one real soon.]]> 3.07 2020 The Arrest
author: Jonathan Lethem
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/19
date added: 2024/08/19
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, metafiction, science-fiction
review:
The Arrest was when everything powered by electricity, internal combustion, and gunpowder all stopped working. This is not a book about how or why that happened. It's a book about books, as many of Jonathan Lethem's are. And I love metafiction, but as a sideshow from the main novel. The characters and plot felt too thin to support the games Lethem wanted to play.

A quick, mostly enjoyable read, but I'll be forgetting this one real soon.
]]> <![CDATA[A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2)]]> 40864030
They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts, and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe.

Becky Chambers's new series continues to ask: in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter?

They're going to need to ask it a lot.]]> 152 Becky Chambers Christopher 4
Not sure there was much of a reason to divide Monk & Robot into two books, though, other than marketing. ]]> 4.40 2022 A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot, #2)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/09
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, novellas, science-fiction
review:
A perfect continuation of the previous book... just two friends on a road trip together.

Not sure there was much of a reason to divide Monk & Robot into two books, though, other than marketing.
]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Christopher 3
My dumb self didn't even realize this was a podcast before it was a book. What was the point of listening to this audiobook when I could've listened to the podcast, huh? I've watched some of John Green's and his brothers' YouTube videos and they're generally educational and entertaining, though they sometimes get a little too close to imitating the guy at a party who thinks he's awesomely clever because he knows the board game Monopoly started as an anti-capitalist rhetorical tool. This book is pretty much the same.]]> 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/10/20
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: 21st-century, american, audiobooks, non-fiction
review:
This is a batch of essays structured like a sequence of reviews of random stuff. Diet Dr. Pepper gets 4.5 stars, which is more than hot dog eating contests (3 stars) or the Hall of Presidents (3 stars), but less than Halley's Comet (one of the only to get a perfect 5 star rating.) Staph infections get 1.5 stars.

My dumb self didn't even realize this was a podcast before it was a book. What was the point of listening to this audiobook when I could've listened to the podcast, huh? I've watched some of John Green's and his brothers' YouTube videos and they're generally educational and entertaining, though they sometimes get a little too close to imitating the guy at a party who thinks he's awesomely clever because he knows the board game Monopoly started as an anti-capitalist rhetorical tool. This book is pretty much the same.
]]> <![CDATA[A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)]]> 40864002 ASIN B08H831J18 moved to the more recent edition

Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.

Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers' series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?]]> 151 Becky Chambers Christopher 4 The Little Prince and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it's essentially about two characters on a walk in the woods together, getting to know each other and—in a very natural way—tackling some deep-seated philosophical issues.

"It doesn't bother you?" Dex said. "The thought that your life might mean nothing in the end?"

"That's true for all life I've observed. Why would it bother me?" Mosscap's eyes glowed brightly. "Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing? Here we are, in this incomprehensibly large universe, on this one tiny moon around this one incidental planet, and in all the time this entire scenario has existed, every component has been recycled over and over and over again into infinitely incredible configurations, and sometimes, those configurations are special enough to be able to see the world around them. You and I—we're just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?"]]> 4.25 2021 A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/17
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves: american, fiction, novellas, science-fiction, 21st-century
review:
A beautiful book that belongs on a shelf with The Little Prince and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it's essentially about two characters on a walk in the woods together, getting to know each other and—in a very natural way—tackling some deep-seated philosophical issues.

"It doesn't bother you?" Dex said. "The thought that your life might mean nothing in the end?"

"That's true for all life I've observed. Why would it bother me?" Mosscap's eyes glowed brightly. "Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing? Here we are, in this incomprehensibly large universe, on this one tiny moon around this one incidental planet, and in all the time this entire scenario has existed, every component has been recycled over and over and over again into infinitely incredible configurations, and sometimes, those configurations are special enough to be able to see the world around them. You and I—we're just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?"
]]> The Resting Place 57693360 A spine-chilling, propulsive psychological suspense from international sensation Camilla Sten.

The medical term is prosopagnosia. The average person calls it face blindness—the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face, even the faces of those closest to you.

When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to face with the killer—a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, her anxiety mounts. The dark feelings of having brushed by a killer, yet not know who could do this—or if they’d be back—overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality.

Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house—a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died, suddenly. A place that has housed a dark past for over fifty years.

Eleanor. Her steadfast boyfriend, Sebastian. Her reckless aunt, Veronika. The lawyer. All will go to this house of secrets, looking for answers. But as they get closer to bringing the truth to light, they’ll wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.

A heart-thumping, relentless thriller that will shake you to your core, The Resting Place is an unforgettable novel of horror and suspense.]]> 336 Camilla Sten 1250249279 Christopher 3
This is a total popcorn book, and for that I loved it. I read it in two days and could barely put it down, even though I was pretty sure I figured out the mysteries within the first hundred pages (I nearly did) and even though this book has a marked resemblance to Camilla Sten's first book, The Lost Village. Sten obviously realized she created something that worked with her first book, because The Resting Place feels like a remix: different characters, different setting, but the way mysteries are unveiled, how the action unfolds, the way twists are telegraphed and information is hidden from the reader... Sten found a formula and stuck with it. The real test will be to see if she can do anything different and new with her next book.]]> 3.57 2020 The Resting Place
author: Camilla Sten
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves: 21st-century, fiction, horror, swedish
review:
The hook here is that young Eleanor stumbles upon the freshly murdered corpse of her grandmother, even comes face to face with the killer—but she has prosopagnosia, a cognitive disorder also known as face blindness. So despite literally opening a door on the murderer, she has no idea who the murderer is. Shortly thereafter, she is tasked with visiting her grandmother's old country mansion to begin sorting out the estate. Mysteries and suspense ensue.

This is a total popcorn book, and for that I loved it. I read it in two days and could barely put it down, even though I was pretty sure I figured out the mysteries within the first hundred pages (I nearly did) and even though this book has a marked resemblance to Camilla Sten's first book, The Lost Village. Sten obviously realized she created something that worked with her first book, because The Resting Place feels like a remix: different characters, different setting, but the way mysteries are unveiled, how the action unfolds, the way twists are telegraphed and information is hidden from the reader... Sten found a formula and stuck with it. The real test will be to see if she can do anything different and new with her next book.
]]> The Line That Held Us 36343490 From critically acclaimed author David Joy comes a remarkable novel about the cover-up of an accidental death, and the dark consequences that reverberate through the lives of four people who will never be the same again.

When Darl Moody went hunting after a monster buck he’s chased for years, he never expected he’d accidentally shoot a man digging ginseng. Worse yet, he’s killed a Brewer, a family notorious for vengeance and violence. With nowhere to turn, Darl calls on the help of the only man he knows will answer, his best friend, Calvin Hooper. But when Dwayne Brewer comes looking for his missing brother and stumbles onto a blood trail leading straight back to Darl and Calvin, a nightmare of revenge rips apart their world. The Line That Held Us is a story of friendship and family, a tale balanced between destruction and redemption where the only hope is to hold on tight, clenching to those you love. What will you do for the people who mean the most, and what will you grasp to when all that you have is gone? The only certainty in a place so shredded is that no one will get away unscathed.]]> 256 David Joy 0399574220 Christopher 4
Suttree: "Somewhere in the gray wood by the river is the huntsman and in the brooming corn and in the castellated press of cities. His work lies all wheres and his hounds tire not. I have seen them in a dream, slaverous and wild and their eyes crazed with ravening for souls in this world. Fly them."

The Line That Held Us: "Passing Harold's Grocery headed into Dillsboro, he saw hundreds of birds filling the sky, a cloud of buzzards shifting on thermals, their wings tilting back and forth to steady their wide-set whirling. He leaned low against the steering wheel to watch them as he crossed the bridge over Scotts Creek. He wondered if they would follow him, if they would always follow, and his heart knew the answer, that their work lies all where and their wings tire not."

It's thematically appropriate, too. Both of these passages are about a character just emerging from an existential and psychological crisis, having chosen to live despite their bleak view of the world and of life itself. The hounds, the buzzards... they're tools of death and you can sense them stalking you all the time, but hey... that's life.

The Line That Held Us is a straightforward thriller. A man is on a neighbor's land illegally, hunting out of season, and he shoots and kills a man he mistook for a boar. This, as you might imagine, unleashes a harrowing set of tribulations.

This all happens in the mountains of North Carolina, where I've spent some time, and it feels authentic. However, I wonder how much someone unfamiliar with the landscape would feel a sense of place in this book. Compared to authors I've read who write similar fiction (McCarthy, Peter Heller, James A. McLaughlin), there's very little sightseeing or description of the natural world surrounding the characters. This keeps the pages turning, but makes the experience feel a little shallower.

Overall, a thrilling, quick read. It would make a great indie thriller that I'd watch late at night after everyone else fell asleep. I plan to pick up Where All Light Tends to Go next.]]> 3.73 2018 The Line That Held Us
author: David Joy
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/05
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, vergangenheitsbewaltigung
review:
This book strengthens my suspicion that every Southern author wants to be Cormac McCarthy. For the most part, the prose in this book is plain, not overly polished, and just does its job of telling the story, but you can tell when Joy tries to make a prosaic splash. For example, the last chapter of The Line That Held Us contains what can only be a tribute to the last chapter of McCarthy's Suttree.

Suttree: "Somewhere in the gray wood by the river is the huntsman and in the brooming corn and in the castellated press of cities. His work lies all wheres and his hounds tire not. I have seen them in a dream, slaverous and wild and their eyes crazed with ravening for souls in this world. Fly them."

The Line That Held Us: "Passing Harold's Grocery headed into Dillsboro, he saw hundreds of birds filling the sky, a cloud of buzzards shifting on thermals, their wings tilting back and forth to steady their wide-set whirling. He leaned low against the steering wheel to watch them as he crossed the bridge over Scotts Creek. He wondered if they would follow him, if they would always follow, and his heart knew the answer, that their work lies all where and their wings tire not."

It's thematically appropriate, too. Both of these passages are about a character just emerging from an existential and psychological crisis, having chosen to live despite their bleak view of the world and of life itself. The hounds, the buzzards... they're tools of death and you can sense them stalking you all the time, but hey... that's life.

The Line That Held Us is a straightforward thriller. A man is on a neighbor's land illegally, hunting out of season, and he shoots and kills a man he mistook for a boar. This, as you might imagine, unleashes a harrowing set of tribulations.

This all happens in the mountains of North Carolina, where I've spent some time, and it feels authentic. However, I wonder how much someone unfamiliar with the landscape would feel a sense of place in this book. Compared to authors I've read who write similar fiction (McCarthy, Peter Heller, James A. McLaughlin), there's very little sightseeing or description of the natural world surrounding the characters. This keeps the pages turning, but makes the experience feel a little shallower.

Overall, a thrilling, quick read. It would make a great indie thriller that I'd watch late at night after everyone else fell asleep. I plan to pick up Where All Light Tends to Go next.
]]> <![CDATA[Nemesis Games (The Expanse, #5)]]> 22886612
A thousand worlds have opened, and the greatest land rush in human history has begun. As wave after wave of colonists leave, the power structures of the old solar system begin to buckle.

Ships are disappearing without a trace. Private armies are being secretly formed. The sole remaining protomolecule sample is stolen. Terrorist attacks previously considered impossible bring the inner planets to their knees. The sins of the past are returning to exact a terrible price.

And as a new human order is struggling to be born in blood and fire, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante must struggle to survive and get back to the only home they have left.]]> 536 James S.A. Corey 031621759X Christopher 4 4.44 2015 Nemesis Games (The Expanse, #5)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: 21st-century, 500-pages-or-more, american, fiction, science-fiction
review:
Possibly the best entry so far, this one focuses on the main characters of the Rocinante, and we get to see the story from all their perspectives, not just Holden's. This book is the Storm of Swords of this series—while everything before it was good, this is when the series gets nuts; old rules are broken and the new rules are, thus far, unclear.
]]> Black Paradox 60433186 "I SAW IT. A DAZZLING WORLD ...YES, ANOTHER WORLD."

"I'M SURE I SAW A WORLD THAT WAS NOT THIS ONE."

Four people intent on killing themselves meet through the suicide website Black Paradox: Maruso, a nurse who despairs about the future; Taburo, a man who is tortured by his doppelganger; Pii-tan, an engineer with his own robot clone; and Baracchi, a girl who agonizes about the birthmark on her face.

They wander together in search of the perfect death, fatefully opening a door thatĚýleads them to aĚýrather bizarre destiny...]]> 208 Junji Ito 1974728633 Christopher 3 3.91 2009 Black Paradox
author: Junji Ito
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: comics-graphic-novels, fiction, horror, japanese
review:
Four suicide-curious meet up to kill themselves together, but things get weird and creepy.
]]> And Then There Were None 181133 317 page edition

First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion:

"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 250 Agatha Christie Christopher 3
That sounds like criticism, but it's the way things should be. Why do people read Agatha Christie or watch Monk? It's not to have their minds blown. These innocent, playful murders are comforting. They're cuddle-up-on-the-couch-with-a-puppy-and-hot-chocolate culture. Sometimes they're cuddle-up-in-bed-alone-and-forget-about-real-life-problems escapism.

That's exactly what this book is. And I enjoyed it.

So there are ten people on an island, all guilty of an unpunished crime. Then there were nine. Then there were eight. You get the picture. It's a fun setup, it's a fun ride, and after 300 pages of certainty that I knew exactly what was going to happen, it even managed to surprise me with its ending.

P.S. I have to remark upon the original title: Ten Little Niggers, which is suitably racist for a 1939 novel. Then it was changed to Ten Little Indians (with all textual "niggers" changed to "Indians", which is less racist, but still racist. My Kindle edition is entitled And Then There Were None and all racial references transmogrified to "soldier". I can't tell how I feel about this. On the one hand, I dislike any terms that hurt other people's feelings and I think the fewer, the better. But I also dislike censorship and I'm all for preserving the original state of things. For example, I'm dead against someone publishing a "nigger"less Huckleberry Finn. But in this instance it probably makes no difference. When I tell people about it, I will say "Soldier Island" this and "ten little soldiers" that.]]> 4.30 1939 And Then There Were None
author: Agatha Christie
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at: 2013/07/25
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: 20th-century, british, fiction
review:
Welcome to the bland world of USA Network murder mysteries. Where bullet holes in a victim's head leak a single drop of blood. Where everything is predictably unpredictable and the self-evident reliably proves itself otherwise.

That sounds like criticism, but it's the way things should be. Why do people read Agatha Christie or watch Monk? It's not to have their minds blown. These innocent, playful murders are comforting. They're cuddle-up-on-the-couch-with-a-puppy-and-hot-chocolate culture. Sometimes they're cuddle-up-in-bed-alone-and-forget-about-real-life-problems escapism.

That's exactly what this book is. And I enjoyed it.

So there are ten people on an island, all guilty of an unpunished crime. Then there were nine. Then there were eight. You get the picture. It's a fun setup, it's a fun ride, and after 300 pages of certainty that I knew exactly what was going to happen, it even managed to surprise me with its ending.

P.S. I have to remark upon the original title: Ten Little Niggers, which is suitably racist for a 1939 novel. Then it was changed to Ten Little Indians (with all textual "niggers" changed to "Indians", which is less racist, but still racist. My Kindle edition is entitled And Then There Were None and all racial references transmogrified to "soldier". I can't tell how I feel about this. On the one hand, I dislike any terms that hurt other people's feelings and I think the fewer, the better. But I also dislike censorship and I'm all for preserving the original state of things. For example, I'm dead against someone publishing a "nigger"less Huckleberry Finn. But in this instance it probably makes no difference. When I tell people about it, I will say "Soldier Island" this and "ten little soldiers" that.
]]> Homer Price 766917 The comic genius of Robert McCloskey and his wry look at small-town America has kept readers in stitches for generations!

]]> 149 Robert McCloskey 0140309276 Christopher 4 4.09 1943 Homer Price
author: Robert McCloskey
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1943
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: 20th-century, american, children-s, fiction
review:

]]> The Last Ranger 63249808 🎧9 hours

The best-selling author of The River returns with a lush and vivid mystery set in Yellowstone National Park where a skirmish between a local hunter and a wolf biologist turns violent, and a park ranger, facing his own personal demons, sets out to determine what really happened.


Ren is a park ranger, tasked with duties both mundane and thrilling: breaking up fights at campgrounds, saving tourists from moose attacks, and attempting to broker an uneasy peace between the wealthy vacationers who tromp around with cameras and the locals who want to carve out a meaningful living amid this western landscape.

When Ren discovers his friend Hilly, a biologist and wolf expert, nearly dead in the steel jaws of a wolf trap, he hopes it’s just an accident, but the small red ribbon tied to the stake makes him fairly certain that it wasn’t. What begins as an inquiry into a known poacher soon opens into the discovery of a local group of ranchers who have formed an alliance at odds with both the park and with Ren’s responsibility to protect it.

Rife with surprising humor, populated by a cast of extraordinary characters, each drawn to Yellowstone for their own reasons, Peter Heller once again mines the rich vein where our very human impulses play out against the stunning beauty of the natural world.]]> 287 Peter Heller 0593535111 Christopher 4 Ranger Confidential, I feel like I have. The bears, the wolves, the cliffs and the trout-laden streams, the soaring vistas and the snot-faced tourists. This one’s about a Park Ranger investigating a rash of poachings, and it gets complicated. This is a more complex work than the previous Peter Heller books I’ve read (The River and The Guide, which were pure thrillers.) The Last Ranger really has very little action in the main plot line of the story. There are many flashbacks and there’s a surprising amount of development and concern for the “bad guys�. As always, it’s very readable and there are some beautiful passages describing the natural beauty of Yellowstone. ]]> 3.70 2023 The Last Ranger
author: Peter Heller
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/14
date added: 2024/06/14
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction
review:
I’ve never been to Yellowstone, but between this book and Ranger Confidential, I feel like I have. The bears, the wolves, the cliffs and the trout-laden streams, the soaring vistas and the snot-faced tourists. This one’s about a Park Ranger investigating a rash of poachings, and it gets complicated. This is a more complex work than the previous Peter Heller books I’ve read (The River and The Guide, which were pure thrillers.) The Last Ranger really has very little action in the main plot line of the story. There are many flashbacks and there’s a surprising amount of development and concern for the “bad guys�. As always, it’s very readable and there are some beautiful passages describing the natural beauty of Yellowstone.
]]> Locke & Key 26225895
Based on the best-selling, award-winning graphic novel series Locke & Key - written by acclaimed suspense novelist Joe Hill (NOS4A2, Horns) and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez - this multicast, fully dramatized audio production brings the images and words to life.

A brutal and tragic event drives the Locke family from their home in California to the relative safety of their ancestral estate in Lovecraft, Massachusetts, an old house with powerful keys and fantastic doors that transform all who dare to walk through them. As siblings Tyler, Kinsey, and Bode Locke discover the secrets of the old house, they also find that it's home to a hate-filled and relentless creature that will not rest until it forces open the most terrible door of them all....

Featuring performances by Haley Joel Osment (Entourage, The Sixth Sense), Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Kate Mulgrew (Orange Is the New Black, Star Voyager), Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez, and Stephen King (The Stand, 11-22-63), as well as a cast of more than 50 voice actors, this audio production preserves the heart-stopping impact of the graphic novel's astounding artwork through the use of richly imagined sound design and a powerful original score.

*Locke & Key contains explicit language and adult situations.]]> 14 Joe Hill Christopher 5 loved the entire run of the comics, and this was a perfect alternative take on the story.

The reason you can take a strictly visual medium and turn it into a strictly aural medium comes down to the production value. This has great voice actors, great sound effects, and great mood music. It's never unclear what's going on, who's talking.

The thing is, though... I don't see how this will ever be a viable medium. Audiobooks are a big business now, but there is so much more involved in the production of something like this. Instead of one narrator standing in front of a microphone for a few days to record a novel, you've got 30-something actors doing different parts and a hell of a lot of editing and producing to do. It's more like recording a music album than an audiobook.

But Audible is giving this out for free at the moment, I suppose to gauge the amount of interest in this new medium. If people get excited about this like I am, I'm all for further productions like this. Bring on the audio comics!

Merged review:

So, an audio adaptation of a comic series. Doesn't seem like it should work, does it? But it does, and really, really well. I loved the entire run of the comics, and this was a perfect alternative take on the story.

The reason you can take a strictly visual medium and turn it into a strictly aural medium comes down to the production value. This has great voice actors, great sound effects, and great mood music. It's never unclear what's going on, who's talking.

The thing is, though... I don't see how this will ever be a viable medium. Audiobooks are a big business now, but there is so much more involved in the production of something like this. Instead of one narrator standing in front of a microphone for a few days to record a novel, you've got 30-something actors doing different parts and a hell of a lot of editing and producing to do. It's more like recording a music album than an audiobook.

But Audible is giving this out for free at the moment, I suppose to gauge the amount of interest in this new medium. If people get excited about this like I am, I'm all for further productions like this. Bring on the audio comics!]]> 3.91 2015 Locke & Key
author: Joe Hill
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2015/10/21
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: 21st-century, american, audiobooks, comics-graphic-novels, fiction, horror, fantasy
review:
So, an audio adaptation of a comic series. Doesn't seem like it should work, does it? But it does, and really, really well. I loved the entire run of the comics, and this was a perfect alternative take on the story.

The reason you can take a strictly visual medium and turn it into a strictly aural medium comes down to the production value. This has great voice actors, great sound effects, and great mood music. It's never unclear what's going on, who's talking.

The thing is, though... I don't see how this will ever be a viable medium. Audiobooks are a big business now, but there is so much more involved in the production of something like this. Instead of one narrator standing in front of a microphone for a few days to record a novel, you've got 30-something actors doing different parts and a hell of a lot of editing and producing to do. It's more like recording a music album than an audiobook.

But Audible is giving this out for free at the moment, I suppose to gauge the amount of interest in this new medium. If people get excited about this like I am, I'm all for further productions like this. Bring on the audio comics!

Merged review:

So, an audio adaptation of a comic series. Doesn't seem like it should work, does it? But it does, and really, really well. I loved the entire run of the comics, and this was a perfect alternative take on the story.

The reason you can take a strictly visual medium and turn it into a strictly aural medium comes down to the production value. This has great voice actors, great sound effects, and great mood music. It's never unclear what's going on, who's talking.

The thing is, though... I don't see how this will ever be a viable medium. Audiobooks are a big business now, but there is so much more involved in the production of something like this. Instead of one narrator standing in front of a microphone for a few days to record a novel, you've got 30-something actors doing different parts and a hell of a lot of editing and producing to do. It's more like recording a music album than an audiobook.

But Audible is giving this out for free at the moment, I suppose to gauge the amount of interest in this new medium. If people get excited about this like I am, I'm all for further productions like this. Bring on the audio comics!
]]> Touched 137123578 Intergalactic visions, deadly threats, and explosive standoffs between mostly good and nearly completely evil converge in an alternative fiction novel that could only be conceived by the inimitable Walter Mosley, one of the country’s most beloved and acclaimed writers

Martin Just wakes up one morning after what feels like, and might actually be, a centuries-long sleep with two new innate pieces of knowledge: Humanity is a virus destined to destroy all existence. And that he is the Cure.

Martin, his wife, and his two children are the only Black family on their neighborhood block in the Hollywood hills of Los Angeles. Suddenly, Martin is both father and Antibody, husband and Cure, occasionally slipping into an alternate consciousness � equipped with unprecedented physical strength � to violently defend them.

The family is stalked by Tor Waxman � the pale, white-haired embodiment of death who wears a dapper suit, carries a cane, and seeks to destroy all life with his fatal touch. Martin must convince his family of the danger and get them to engage with him in a battle beyond all imagining. Mosley effortlessly marries the sublime and the pedestrian: from monumental battles with truly universal stakes to the banality of standoffs with neighborhood police patrols, and the quotidian yet joyfully intimate conversations the family shares at home while gathered for dinner.

With his boundless talent and skilled range, Walter Mosley brings an ethereal, incisive look at a primal struggle driven by the spirit of the universe, in the vein of masters Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and Jeff VanderMeer. Expansive and innovative, sexy and satirical, Touched brilliantly imagines the ways in which human life and technological innovation threaten existence itself.]]> 176 Walter Mosley 0802161847 Christopher 3 3.34 2023 Touched
author: Walter Mosley
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2024/06/02
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, novellas, science-fiction
review:
A strange one. At first I thought it was Kafka; it turned out to be Twilight Zone. But I liked it better when I thought it was Kafka.
]]> Hawk Mountain 58999179
Single father Todd is relaxing at the beach with his son, Anthony, when he catches sight of a man approaching from the water’s edge. As the man draws closer, Todd recognizes him as Jack, who bullied Todd relentlessly in their teenage years, but now seems overjoyed to have “run into� his old friend. Jack suggests a meal to catch up. And can he spend the night?

What follows is a fast-paced story of obsession and cunning. As Jack invades Todd’s life, pain and intimidation from the past unearth knife-edge suspense in the present. Set in a small town on the New England coast, Conner Habib’s debut introduces characters trapped in isolation by the expansive woods and the encroaching ocean, their violence an expression of repressed desire and the damage it can inflict. Both gruesome and tender, Hawk Mountain offers a compelling look at how love and hate are indissoluble, intertwined until the last breath.]]> 307 Conner Habib 0393542173 Christopher 3
I don’t like the way the child was written, though. There’s a six year old kid who’s central to the story and it feels like the author hasn’t actually spent much time with children.]]> 3.75 2022 Hawk Mountain
author: Conner Habib
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/06/01
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction
review:
A good book that I would never recommend to anyone. It’s super dark, and not in a fun way. I read some reviews that called this a horror or suspense novel, and that implies some kind of fun or excitement, but this is a very distressing book about trauma and the way it gets passed from person to person.

I don’t like the way the child was written, though. There’s a six year old kid who’s central to the story and it feels like the author hasn’t actually spent much time with children.
]]> Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4) 18656030 The fourth novel in James S.A. Corey’s New York Times bestselling Expanse series

The gates have opened the way to thousands of habitable planets, and the land rush has begun. Settlers stream out from humanity's home planets in a vast, poorly controlled flood, landing on a new world. Among them, the Rocinante, haunted by the vast, posthuman network of the protomolecule as they investigate what destroyed the great intergalactic society that built the gates and the protomolecule.

But Holden and his crew must also contend with the growing tensions between the settlers and the company which owns the official claim to the planet. Both sides will stop at nothing to defend what's theirs, but soon a terrible disease strikes and only Holden - with help from the ghostly Detective Miller - can find the cure.]]> 581 James S.A. Corey Christopher 4 4.18 2014 Cibola Burn (The Expanse, #4)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/29
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves: 21st-century, american, 500-pages-or-more, fiction, science-fiction
review:
It still gets four stars because it’s a fun, engaging read, but I see plenty of flaws here. I’m starting to see a pattern in this series. Book 1: escape from a location where a biohazard is taking over. Book 2: escape from a location where another, scarier biohazard is taking over. Book 3: explore a new, unknown location, have to figure out a puzzle that immobilizes and endangers the characters. Book 4: explore a newer, more unknown location, have to figure out a trickier puzzle that immobilizes and endangers the characters. It’s repetitive, so they better keep this fun to keep me engaged. Also, tons of typos all over the place. Errors don’t usually bug me, but this smells of a rushed process to meet deadlines.
]]> Journey into the Past 7938057 Journey into the Past, published here for the first time in America, is a novella that was found among Zweig’s papers after his death. Investigating the strange ways in which love, in spite of everything - time, war, betrayal - can last, Zweig tells the story of Ludwig, an ambitious young man from a modest background who falls in love with the wife of his rich employer. His love is returned, and the couple vow to live together, but then Ludwig is dispatched on business to Mexico, and while he is there the First World War breaks out. With travel and even communication across the Atlantic now shut down, Ludwig makes a new life in the New World. Years later, however, he returns to Germany to find his beloved a widow and their mutual attraction as strong as ever. But is it possible for love to survive precisely as the impossible?]]> 136 Stefan Zweig 1590173678 Christopher 4 In the old park, in ice and snow caught fast
Two specters walk, still searching for the past.

Somewhere between a short story and a novella, this little book focuses intensely on the interior life of one guy who’s in love with an older woman. After being separated for years, is that love still genuine? Can you even love someone you’ve not seen for a decade? Or are you in love with someone who no longer exists?]]> 3.92 1976 Journey into the Past
author: Stefan Zweig
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/21
date added: 2024/05/21
shelves: 20th-century, eastern-european, fiction, novellas
review:
In the old park, in ice and snow caught fast
Two specters walk, still searching for the past.

Somewhere between a short story and a novella, this little book focuses intensely on the interior life of one guy who’s in love with an older woman. After being separated for years, is that love still genuine? Can you even love someone you’ve not seen for a decade? Or are you in love with someone who no longer exists?
]]> The Strange Library 23128304
The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written. Designed by Chip Kidd and fully illustrated in full color throughout, this small format, 96-page volume is a treat for book lovers of all ages.]]> 96 Haruki Murakami 0385354304 Christopher 4 3.58 2005 The Strange Library
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/18
date added: 2024/05/18
shelves: 21st-century, curio, fiction, japanese
review:
If you’ve heard about Murakami but are unsure if you’d like his work, try this out. It’s classic Murakami in a cool little art-filled package.
]]> <![CDATA[Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse, #3)]]> 16131032
For generations, the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt - was humanity's great frontier. Until now. The alien artefact working through its program under the clouds of Venus has emerged to build a massive structure outside the orbit of Uranus: a gate that leads into a starless dark.

Jim Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are part of a vast flotilla of scientific and military ships going out to examine the artefact. But behind the scenes, a complex plot is unfolding, with the destruction of Holden at its core. As the emissaries of the human race try to find whether the gate is an opportunity or a threat, the greatest danger is the one they brought with them.]]> 539 James S.A. Corey Christopher 4 The best of the series yet! 4.26 2013 Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse, #3)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/04/30
shelves: 21st-century, 500-pages-or-more, american, fiction, science-fiction
review:
The best of the series yet!
]]> Origin (Robert Langdon, #5) 32307358 This an alternate cover for B01LY7FD0D

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement--the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever." The evening's host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon's first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough . . . one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence.

As the event begins, Langdon and several hundred guests find themselves captivated by an utterly original presentation, which Langdon realizes will be far more controversial than he ever imagined. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch's precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever. Reeling and facing an imminent threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao. With him is Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director who worked with Kirsch to stage the provocative event. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch's secret.

Navigating the dark corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade a tormented enemy whose all-knowing power seems to emanate from Spain's Royal Palace itself . . . and who will stop at nothing to silence Edmond Kirsch. On a trail marked by modern art and enigmatic symbols, Langdon and Vidal uncover clues that ultimately bring them face-to-face with Kirsch's shocking discovery . . . and the breathtaking truth that has long eluded us. Origin is stunningly inventive--Dan Brown's most brilliant and entertaining novel to date]]> 482 Dan Brown Christopher 3 The Da Vinci Code a long time ago, and I think I read one or two others in this series. They obviously didn't make much of an impression on me. But this one, it's about some of my favorite things: modern and postmodern art and the high art world, the big questions of where did we come from and where are we going?, the imminent impact of artificial life on our world, esoteric religious cults.

I think Dan Brown gets a little bit of a bad rap. This book feels a lot like Michael Crichton, and nobody makes fun of you for reading one of his books. They're not great; they're not winning any Pulitzers, but they deal with really interesting ideas. This book got me watching some really interesting videos about artificial intelligence and I've been checking out Gaudi's otherworldly architecture. It made me aware of the Palmarian Catholic Church, a strange offshoot from the Roman Catholic Church that canonized Christopher Columbus and Francisco Franco as saints. If literature's job is to get the reader thinking about big ideas, Dan Brown is doing a much better job than a lot of authors out there.]]> 3.87 Origin (Robert Langdon, #5)
author: Dan Brown
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/04/24
shelves:
review:
You know you've entered a fast food phase of your reading life when you put down your po-mo fiction and pick up Dan Brown, but man do I enjoy a good lowbrow thriller every now and then. I definitely read The Da Vinci Code a long time ago, and I think I read one or two others in this series. They obviously didn't make much of an impression on me. But this one, it's about some of my favorite things: modern and postmodern art and the high art world, the big questions of where did we come from and where are we going?, the imminent impact of artificial life on our world, esoteric religious cults.

I think Dan Brown gets a little bit of a bad rap. This book feels a lot like Michael Crichton, and nobody makes fun of you for reading one of his books. They're not great; they're not winning any Pulitzers, but they deal with really interesting ideas. This book got me watching some really interesting videos about artificial intelligence and I've been checking out Gaudi's otherworldly architecture. It made me aware of the Palmarian Catholic Church, a strange offshoot from the Roman Catholic Church that canonized Christopher Columbus and Francisco Franco as saints. If literature's job is to get the reader thinking about big ideas, Dan Brown is doing a much better job than a lot of authors out there.
]]> <![CDATA[So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood]]> 24452592 A haunting novel of suspense from the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature

In the stillness of his Parisian apartment, Jean Daragane has built a life of total solitude. Then a surprising phone call shatters the silence of an unusually hot September, and the threatening voice on the other end of the line leaves Daragane wary but irresistibly curious. Almost at once, he finds himself entangled with a shady gambler and a beautiful, fragile young woman, who draw Daragane into the mystery of a decades-old murder. The investigation will force him to confront the memory of a trauma he had all but buried.ĚýĚýWith So You Don’t Get Lost in the Neighborhood Patrick Modiano adds a new chapter to a body of work whose supreme psychological insight and subtle, atmospheric writing have earned him worldwide renown â€� including the Nobel Prize in Literature. This masterly novel, now translated into twenty languages, penetrates the deepest enigmas of identity and compels us to ask whether we ever know who we truly are.]]> 160 Patrick Modiano 054463506X Christopher 2 one other book by this Nobel Prize laureate and liked it much more than this one. I love books that demand a lot of the reader, but reward accordingly. This book seemed at first like an easy, breezy read, but quickly became tedious.

It's about an aging man trying to recover memories from his childhood. The protagonist is really the only significant character in the book; there are encounters with others, but they are fleeting and possibly not even real. There's a dreamlike quality to this novel. The narration flows through three different time periods in the protagonist's life and it's not always immediately apparent when or where you are.

In the end, there aren't any firm answers given, there are just hints. Perhaps if you read very carefully, you might be able to divine exactly what happened, but at the end of the book I felt like I didn't read much of anything at all; a lot of words, but not a lot of meaning or impact.]]> 3.23 2014 So You Don't Get Lost in the Neighborhood
author: Patrick Modiano
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/02
date added: 2024/04/02
shelves: 21st-century, fiction, french, novellas
review:
I've read one other book by this Nobel Prize laureate and liked it much more than this one. I love books that demand a lot of the reader, but reward accordingly. This book seemed at first like an easy, breezy read, but quickly became tedious.

It's about an aging man trying to recover memories from his childhood. The protagonist is really the only significant character in the book; there are encounters with others, but they are fleeting and possibly not even real. There's a dreamlike quality to this novel. The narration flows through three different time periods in the protagonist's life and it's not always immediately apparent when or where you are.

In the end, there aren't any firm answers given, there are just hints. Perhaps if you read very carefully, you might be able to divine exactly what happened, but at the end of the book I felt like I didn't read much of anything at all; a lot of words, but not a lot of meaning or impact.
]]> The Risen 28217819 New York Times bestselling author Ron Rash demonstrates his superb narrative skills in this suspenseful and evocative tale of two brothers whose lives are altered irrevocably by the events of one long-ago summer � and one bewitching young woman—and the secrets that could destroy their lives.

While swimming in a secluded creek on a hot Sunday in 1969, sixteen-year-old Eugene and his older brother, Bill, meet the entrancing Ligeia. A sexy, free-spirited redhead from Daytona Beach banished to their small North Carolina town until the fall, Ligeia will not only bewitch the two brothers, but lure them into a struggle that reveals the hidden differences in their natures.

Drawn in by her raw sensuality and rebellious attitude, Eugene falls deeper under her spell. Ligeia introduces him to the thrills and pleasures of the counterculture movement, then in its headiest moment. But just as the movement’s youthful optimism turns dark elsewhere in the country that summer, so does Eugene and Ligeia’s brief romance. Eugene moves farther and farther away from his brother, the cautious and dutiful Bill, and when Ligeia vanishes as suddenly as she appeared, the growing rift between the two brothers becomes immutable.

Decades later, their relationship is still turbulent, and the once close brothers now lead completely different lives. Bill is a gifted and successful surgeon, a paragon of the community, while Eugene, the town reprobate, is a failed writer and determined alcoholic.

When a shocking reminder of the past unexpectedly surfaces, Eugene is plunged back into that fateful summer, and the girl he cannot forget. The deeper he delves into his memories, the closer he comes to finding the truth. But can Eugene’s recollections be trusted? And will the truth set him free and offer salvation . . . or destroy his damaged life and everyone he loves?]]> 272 Ron Rash 0062436333 Christopher 5 3.70 2016 The Risen
author: Ron Rash
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/28
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction
review:
Great story that has a mystery but is not a mystery. Beautifully told, maybe a little bleak, easy to read but not a shallow read. I need more fiction like this in my life.
]]> <![CDATA[The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend]]> 13543168
The names of Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, Galahad, the sword of Excalibur, and the court of Camelot are as recognizable as any from the world of myth. Although many versions exist of the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, 'Le Morte d'Arthur' by Sir Thomas Malory endures as the most moving and richly inventive.

In this abridged retelling the inimitable Peter Ackroyd transforms Malory's fifteenth-century work into a dramatic modern story, vividly bringing to life a world of courage and chivalry, magic, and majesty. The golden age of Camelot, the perilous search for the Holy Grail, the love of Guinevere and Lancelot, and the treachery of Arthur's son Mordred are all rendered into contemporary prose with Ackroyd's characteristic charm and panache. Just as he did with his fresh new version of Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales', Ackroyd now brings one of the cornerstones of English literature to a whole new audience.]]> 336 Peter Ackroyd 0143106953 Christopher 5
It's a fount of delightfully messed up characters. There's the aforementioned Arthur, the star although he is in the background of most of the book, playing second fiddle to some of the more active noble knights. His most beloved knight Lancelot, who (in a very unchivalric manner) spends years cuckolding the king. Arthur's sister, the powerful sorceress Morgan le Fay, who serves as this universe's mischievous Loki. She buried Merlin alive with spells; as far as I can tell, he's still somewhere in the belly of the earth, subsisting on earthworms. Sir Brewnour, a colorful antagonist who established teh custom of dueling to the death every man who visits his castle and killing every woman who is less beautiful than his own wife.

Of course, it all ends tragically and nearly every character meets an unhappy end. And that's all just part of the fun. I can't wait to delve deeper into the Arthurian world.

A note on this edition: This is a "retelling" of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table by Peter Ackroyd and by the look of the other reviews of this book, it's not even a great one. The naysayers posit that Ackroyd made the legend seem bland. I found it anything but bland. If I were to do it over again, I'd probably start with a different book, probably Malory or White'sThe Once and Future King or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. But as it is, I am very pleased with this book.]]> 3.33 The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend
author: Peter Ackroyd
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2014/07/30
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves: british, classics, fantasy, fiction
review:
This was my first sally forth into the Arthurian legend and it was absorbing, surprising, and absolutely lovable. This is a very different picture of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table than I got from Disney's The Sword and the Stone. For one thing, it is much, much darker. Arthur is a very Oedipal character, going to extreme lengths (e.g. drowning a shipful of infants) to avoid Merlin's prophecy that he would be murdered. Fun fact: did you know that Excalibur was not the sword that Arthur pulled from the stone? Nope, the sword from the stone broke after a bit and he just threw it away. Excalibur was a sword that was offered up to him from an arm that came out of a mysterious lake.

It's a fount of delightfully messed up characters. There's the aforementioned Arthur, the star although he is in the background of most of the book, playing second fiddle to some of the more active noble knights. His most beloved knight Lancelot, who (in a very unchivalric manner) spends years cuckolding the king. Arthur's sister, the powerful sorceress Morgan le Fay, who serves as this universe's mischievous Loki. She buried Merlin alive with spells; as far as I can tell, he's still somewhere in the belly of the earth, subsisting on earthworms. Sir Brewnour, a colorful antagonist who established teh custom of dueling to the death every man who visits his castle and killing every woman who is less beautiful than his own wife.

Of course, it all ends tragically and nearly every character meets an unhappy end. And that's all just part of the fun. I can't wait to delve deeper into the Arthurian world.

A note on this edition: This is a "retelling" of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table by Peter Ackroyd and by the look of the other reviews of this book, it's not even a great one. The naysayers posit that Ackroyd made the legend seem bland. I found it anything but bland. If I were to do it over again, I'd probably start with a different book, probably Malory or White'sThe Once and Future King or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. But as it is, I am very pleased with this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Caliban’s War (The Expanse, #2)]]> 12591698
In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .]]> 624 James S.A. Corey 1841499900 Christopher 4 4.36 2012 Caliban’s War (The Expanse, #2)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/24
date added: 2024/03/24
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, science-fiction
review:
A rollicking good time, and one of the only things that can hold my attention these days. It’s about as close to watching a tv show as you can get when reading a book. Despite feeling like it treads a lot of the same ground as the first book, this had me riveted most of the time and the ending especially made me excited for the next in the series.
]]> <![CDATA[Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, And Dying In The National Parks]]> 7872176
Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.

In this graphic and yet surprisingly funny account of her and others� extraordinary careers, Lankford unveils a world in which park rangers struggle to maintain their idealism in the face of death, disillusionment, and the loss of a comrade killed while holding that thin green line between protecting the park from the people, the people from the park, and the people from each other. Ranger Confidential is the story behind the scenery of the nation’s crown jewels—Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smokies, Denali. In these iconic landscapes, where nature and humanity constantly collide, scenery can be as cruel as it is redemptive.]]> 246 Andrea Lankford 0762752637 Christopher 3 3.98 2010 Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, And Dying In The National Parks
author: Andrea Lankford
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/24
date added: 2024/03/24
shelves: 21st-century, american, audiobooks, memoir, non-fiction
review:
A blend of memoir and nonfiction exploration of the National Park Ranger career. Did you know that Park Rangers are the most likely law enforcement officers to be assaulted? More than border patrol, more than FBI agents, more than beat cops. I’ve imagined a simple, peaceful life of a park ranger for myself a time or two; the point of this book is to disabuse you of the notion that being one is anything but simple or peaceful.
]]> <![CDATA[Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman]]> 2936415 The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man’s haunting journey.

Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan.

Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman’s own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman’s wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman’s name to promote his administration’s foreign policy. Long after Tillman’s nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had “probably� been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible.

In Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research on the ground in Afghanistan to render an intricate mosaic of this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death. Before he enlisted in the army, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. With his shoulder-length hair, outspoken views, and boundless intellectual curiosity, Tillman was considered a maverick. America was fascinated when he traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a buzz cut. Sent first to Iraq—a war he would openly declare was “illegal as hell”—and eventually to Afghanistan, Tillman was driven by complicated, emotionally charged, sometimes contradictory notions of duty, honor, justice, patriotism, and masculine pride, and he was determined to serve his entire three-year commitment. But on April 22, 2004, his life would end in a barrage of bullets fired by his fellow soldiers.

Krakauer chronicles Tillman’s riveting, tragic odyssey in engrossing detail highlighting his remarkable character and personality while closely examining the murky, heartbreaking circumstances of his death. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer’s storytelling, Where Men Win Glory exposes shattering truths about men and war.
From the inside cover of ISBN 0385522266 / 9780385522267]]> 383 Jon Krakauer 0385522266 Christopher 0 to-read 4.07 2009 Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Starter Villain 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389223 Christopher 2 4.09 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves: american, 21st-century, audiobooks, fiction, science-fiction
review:
I've been hot or cold on John Scalzi in the past. Sometimes he gets a bit juvenile, but usually he's fun. I found this book inconsequential and unexciting, though.
]]> The House on Mango Street 139253 The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero.

Told in a series of vignettes � sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.]]> 110 Sandra Cisneros 0679734775 Christopher 4 3.69 1984 The House on Mango Street
author: Sandra Cisneros
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: 20th-century, american, latin-american, fiction, modern-classics, novellas, bildungsroman
review:
I love when an author or artist or musician can carefully walk a line between beauty and sadness and wonder. Mount Eerie does it in nearly every song, as does Andrew Wyeth in his paintings. And that's exactly what this book does: it's beautiful, it's sad, but it's quite wondrous.
]]> <![CDATA[The Passenger (The Passenger #1)]]> 60581087
Traversing the American South, from the garrulous barrooms of New Orleans to an abandoned oil rig off the Florida coast, The Passenger is a breathtaking novel of morality and science, the legacy of sin, and the madness that is human consciousness.]]> 385 Cormac McCarthy 0593535227 Christopher 5
His career started out as a Faulknerian emulation, chronicling hillbilly tragedies and grotesqueries in The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark and Child of God. Slight stylistic and thematic twist to Suttree's existential ramblings (more Shakespeare than Faulkner), then a swift righthand turn to philosophical Westerns with Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy. Then pulp fiction in No Country for Old Men, and finally what for a long time seemed like it would be the last thing we'd get from McCarthy: the postapocalyptic father-son tale of The Road, which somehow is simultaneously the bleakest and the most hopeful book he ever wrote. This is not to mention his plays and screenplays and the short stories that are hard to get hold of.

What's great about The Passenger is that it feels like a walking tour through his whole career. Stylistically, this feels most similar to Suttree, with long digressions, a mostly silent protagonist, and a meandering plot, but it also has scenes of carefully described action a la No Country for Old Men or The Road. It's got the philosophically bloviant minor characters of The Border Trilogy. It's set in the same South of his first three books. Heck, it's got straight-up references to Blood Meridian.

But it treads a lot of new ground as well. This may be the biggest leap McCarthy has ever taken, bigger than switching from Southern dreadfuls to Western dreadfuls or apocalypses. I never would have expected McCarthy to write a transgender character in a way that wouldn't embarrass either of us, with grace. I didn't think I'd see characters travel around not only America but also Europe. While I knew McCarthy was interested in mathematics and physics, it was hard for me to imagine how he would fit them into one of his stories; he's always so concerned with life or death circumstances, with the corporeal. But in this book, the science fits with his themes perfectly.

For me, McCarthy has always stood alone. I don't like to imagine him in the modern world, talking to other people. I imagine him cloistered in a monk's cell, lined with bookshelves of Shakespeare and Milton and Melville and whatever other arcane books, spinning out his yarns. But The Passenger had me making a lot of unexpected connections. The structure and paranoia of Pynchon. The dialogue of David Foster Wallace. The family dynamics of Salinger's Glass family, even. I didn't know I wanted McCarthy to be brought down to earth, to be able to be compared with other authors I love. But it works.

This book is definitely not for everyone. It's not going to satisfy you if you're looking for the gripping, pulpy plot of No Country For Old Men, even though it's being advertised similarly. There is the seed of a pulp fiction here, where protagonist Bobby Western, a salvage diver, discovers a sunken airplane that's just covered with mysterious circumstances, but this is no reason to read the book. It's got other things on its mind. The Passenger is basically plotless, but that doesn't mean it's storyless. There's story dripping off the pages; history and tangents and dreams are abundant here. But most of all, there's character.

I have an affinity for shaggy, overgrown and serpentine novels. When it comes to Pynchon, I prefer V. over The Crying of Lot 49. I love the sprawl of Delillo's Underworld to the focused precision of White Noise. Give me the bloated mess of Les Miserables over Dickens's tightly plotted novels any day. And while I love McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Suttree is more suited to my tastes.

So this is the perfect book for me. It feels like a gift McCarthy gave me personally, not to be overly sentimental about it. He could have left me with The Road and I would have been perfectly happy with that, but now he's given me this: a strange, difficult, bloated, wonderful novel. It's perfect for me. (And there's another one coming! December can't come soon enough.)

Merged review:

"Varied" isn't typically the first word used to describe Cormac McCarthy's oeuvre. After all, I think you could pick any random sentence in the world and I could tell you if McCarthy wrote it or not, and not just because of the lack of punctuation. His writer's DNA is just that potent. But looking back on all of his published work, there's a heckuva lot of variety there.

His career started out as a Faulknerian emulation, chronicling hillbilly tragedies and grotesqueries in The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark and Child of God. Slight stylistic and thematic twist to Suttree's existential ramblings (more Shakespeare than Faulkner), then a swift righthand turn to philosophical Westerns with Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy. Then pulp fiction in No Country for Old Men, and finally what for a long time seemed like it would be the last thing we'd get from McCarthy: the postapocalyptic father-son tale of The Road, which somehow is simultaneously the bleakest and the most hopeful book he ever wrote. This is not to mention his plays and screenplays and the short stories that are hard to get hold of.

What's great about The Passenger is that it feels like a walking tour through his whole career. Stylistically, this feels most similar to Suttree, with long digressions, a mostly silent protagonist, and a meandering plot, but it also has scenes of carefully described action a la No Country for Old Men or The Road. It's got the philosophically bloviant minor characters of The Border Trilogy. It's set in the same South of his first three books. Heck, it's got straight-up references to Blood Meridian.

But it treads a lot of new ground as well. This may be the biggest leap McCarthy has ever taken, bigger than switching from Southern dreadfuls to Western dreadfuls or apocalypses. I never would have expected McCarthy to write a transgender character in a way that wouldn't embarrass either of us, with grace. I didn't think I'd see characters travel around not only America but also Europe. While I knew McCarthy was interested in mathematics and physics, it was hard for me to imagine how he would fit them into one of his stories; he's always so concerned with life or death circumstances, with the corporeal. But in this book, the science fits with his themes perfectly.

For me, McCarthy has always stood alone. I don't like to imagine him in the modern world, talking to other people. I imagine him cloistered in a monk's cell, lined with bookshelves of Shakespeare and Milton and Melville and whatever other arcane books, spinning out his yarns. But The Passenger had me making a lot of unexpected connections. The structure and paranoia of Pynchon. The dialogue of David Foster Wallace. The family dynamics of Salinger's Glass family, even. I didn't know I wanted McCarthy to be brought down to earth, to be able to be compared with other authors I love. But it works.

This book is definitely not for everyone. It's not going to satisfy you if you're looking for the gripping, pulpy plot of No Country For Old Men, even though it's being advertised similarly. There is the seed of a pulp fiction here, where protagonist Bobby Western, a salvage diver, discovers a sunken airplane that's just covered with mysterious circumstances, but this is no reason to read the book. It's got other things on its mind. The Passenger is basically plotless, but that doesn't mean it's storyless. There's story dripping off the pages; history and tangents and dreams are abundant here. But most of all, there's character.

I have an affinity for shaggy, overgrown and serpentine novels. When it comes to Pynchon, I prefer V. over The Crying of Lot 49. I love the sprawl of Delillo's Underworld to the focused precision of White Noise. Give me the bloated mess of Les Miserables over Dickens's tightly plotted novels any day. And while I love McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Suttree is more suited to my tastes.

So this is the perfect book for me. It feels like a gift McCarthy gave me personally, not to be overly sentimental about it. He could have left me with The Road and I would have been perfectly happy with that, but now he's given me this: a strange, difficult, bloated, wonderful novel. It's perfect for me. (And there's another one coming! December can't come soon enough.)

Merged review:

"Varied" isn't typically the first word used to describe Cormac McCarthy's oeuvre. After all, I think you could pick any random sentence in the world and I could tell you if McCarthy wrote it or not, and not just because of the lack of punctuation. His writer's DNA is just that potent. But looking back on all of his published work, there's a heckuva lot of variety there.

His career started out as a Faulknerian emulation, chronicling hillbilly tragedies and grotesqueries in The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark and Child of God. Slight stylistic and thematic twist to Suttree's existential ramblings (more Shakespeare than Faulkner), then a swift righthand turn to philosophical Westerns with Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy. Then pulp fiction in No Country for Old Men, and finally what for a long time seemed like it would be the last thing we'd get from McCarthy: the postapocalyptic father-son tale of The Road, which somehow is simultaneously the bleakest and the most hopeful book he ever wrote. This is not to mention his plays and screenplays and the short stories that are hard to get hold of.

What's great about The Passenger is that it feels like a walking tour through his whole career. Stylistically, this feels most similar to Suttree, with long digressions, a mostly silent protagonist, and a meandering plot, but it also has scenes of carefully described action a la No Country for Old Men or The Road. It's got the philosophically bloviant minor characters of The Border Trilogy. It's set in the same South of his first three books. Heck, it's got straight-up references to Blood Meridian.

But it treads a lot of new ground as well. This may be the biggest leap McCarthy has ever taken, bigger than switching from Southern dreadfuls to Western dreadfuls or apocalypses. I never would have expected McCarthy to write a transgender character in a way that wouldn't embarrass either of us, with grace. I didn't think I'd see characters travel around not only America but also Europe. While I knew McCarthy was interested in mathematics and physics, it was hard for me to imagine how he would fit them into one of his stories; he's always so concerned with life or death circumstances, with the corporeal. But in this book, the science fits with his themes perfectly.

For me, McCarthy has always stood alone. I don't like to imagine him in the modern world, talking to other people. I imagine him cloistered in a monk's cell, lined with bookshelves of Shakespeare and Milton and Melville and whatever other arcane books, spinning out his yarns. But The Passenger had me making a lot of unexpected connections. The structure and paranoia of Pynchon. The dialogue of David Foster Wallace. The family dynamics of Salinger's Glass family, even. I didn't know I wanted McCarthy to be brought down to earth, to be able to be compared with other authors I love. But it works.

This book is definitely not for everyone. It's not going to satisfy you if you're looking for the gripping, pulpy plot of No Country For Old Men, even though it's being advertised similarly. There is the seed of a pulp fiction here, where protagonist Bobby Western, a salvage diver, discovers a sunken airplane that's just covered with mysterious circumstances, but this is no reason to read the book. It's got other things on its mind. The Passenger is basically plotless, but that doesn't mean it's storyless. There's story dripping off the pages; history and tangents and dreams are abundant here. But most of all, there's character.

I have an affinity for shaggy, overgrown and serpentine novels. When it comes to Pynchon, I prefer V. over The Crying of Lot 49. I love the sprawl of Delillo's Underworld to the focused precision of White Noise. Give me the bloated mess of Les Miserables over Dickens's tightly plotted novels any day. And while I love McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Suttree is more suited to my tastes.

So this is the perfect book for me. It feels like a gift McCarthy gave me personally, not to be overly sentimental about it. He could have left me with The Road and I would have been perfectly happy with that, but now he's given me this: a strange, difficult, bloated, wonderful novel. It's perfect for me. (And there's another one coming! December can't come soon enough.)]]> 3.58 2022 The Passenger (The Passenger #1)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/08
date added: 2024/02/09
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, favorites, great-american-novel, postmodern, vergangenheitsbewaltigung
review:
"Varied" isn't typically the first word used to describe Cormac McCarthy's oeuvre. After all, I think you could pick any random sentence in the world and I could tell you if McCarthy wrote it or not, and not just because of the lack of punctuation. His writer's DNA is just that potent. But looking back on all of his published work, there's a heckuva lot of variety there.

His career started out as a Faulknerian emulation, chronicling hillbilly tragedies and grotesqueries in The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark and Child of God. Slight stylistic and thematic twist to Suttree's existential ramblings (more Shakespeare than Faulkner), then a swift righthand turn to philosophical Westerns with Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy. Then pulp fiction in No Country for Old Men, and finally what for a long time seemed like it would be the last thing we'd get from McCarthy: the postapocalyptic father-son tale of The Road, which somehow is simultaneously the bleakest and the most hopeful book he ever wrote. This is not to mention his plays and screenplays and the short stories that are hard to get hold of.

What's great about The Passenger is that it feels like a walking tour through his whole career. Stylistically, this feels most similar to Suttree, with long digressions, a mostly silent protagonist, and a meandering plot, but it also has scenes of carefully described action a la No Country for Old Men or The Road. It's got the philosophically bloviant minor characters of The Border Trilogy. It's set in the same South of his first three books. Heck, it's got straight-up references to Blood Meridian.

But it treads a lot of new ground as well. This may be the biggest leap McCarthy has ever taken, bigger than switching from Southern dreadfuls to Western dreadfuls or apocalypses. I never would have expected McCarthy to write a transgender character in a way that wouldn't embarrass either of us, with grace. I didn't think I'd see characters travel around not only America but also Europe. While I knew McCarthy was interested in mathematics and physics, it was hard for me to imagine how he would fit them into one of his stories; he's always so concerned with life or death circumstances, with the corporeal. But in this book, the science fits with his themes perfectly.

For me, McCarthy has always stood alone. I don't like to imagine him in the modern world, talking to other people. I imagine him cloistered in a monk's cell, lined with bookshelves of Shakespeare and Milton and Melville and whatever other arcane books, spinning out his yarns. But The Passenger had me making a lot of unexpected connections. The structure and paranoia of Pynchon. The dialogue of David Foster Wallace. The family dynamics of Salinger's Glass family, even. I didn't know I wanted McCarthy to be brought down to earth, to be able to be compared with other authors I love. But it works.

This book is definitely not for everyone. It's not going to satisfy you if you're looking for the gripping, pulpy plot of No Country For Old Men, even though it's being advertised similarly. There is the seed of a pulp fiction here, where protagonist Bobby Western, a salvage diver, discovers a sunken airplane that's just covered with mysterious circumstances, but this is no reason to read the book. It's got other things on its mind. The Passenger is basically plotless, but that doesn't mean it's storyless. There's story dripping off the pages; history and tangents and dreams are abundant here. But most of all, there's character.

I have an affinity for shaggy, overgrown and serpentine novels. When it comes to Pynchon, I prefer V. over The Crying of Lot 49. I love the sprawl of Delillo's Underworld to the focused precision of White Noise. Give me the bloated mess of Les Miserables over Dickens's tightly plotted novels any day. And while I love McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Suttree is more suited to my tastes.

So this is the perfect book for me. It feels like a gift McCarthy gave me personally, not to be overly sentimental about it. He could have left me with The Road and I would have been perfectly happy with that, but now he's given me this: a strange, difficult, bloated, wonderful novel. It's perfect for me. (And there's another one coming! December can't come soon enough.)

Merged review:

"Varied" isn't typically the first word used to describe Cormac McCarthy's oeuvre. After all, I think you could pick any random sentence in the world and I could tell you if McCarthy wrote it or not, and not just because of the lack of punctuation. His writer's DNA is just that potent. But looking back on all of his published work, there's a heckuva lot of variety there.

His career started out as a Faulknerian emulation, chronicling hillbilly tragedies and grotesqueries in The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark and Child of God. Slight stylistic and thematic twist to Suttree's existential ramblings (more Shakespeare than Faulkner), then a swift righthand turn to philosophical Westerns with Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy. Then pulp fiction in No Country for Old Men, and finally what for a long time seemed like it would be the last thing we'd get from McCarthy: the postapocalyptic father-son tale of The Road, which somehow is simultaneously the bleakest and the most hopeful book he ever wrote. This is not to mention his plays and screenplays and the short stories that are hard to get hold of.

What's great about The Passenger is that it feels like a walking tour through his whole career. Stylistically, this feels most similar to Suttree, with long digressions, a mostly silent protagonist, and a meandering plot, but it also has scenes of carefully described action a la No Country for Old Men or The Road. It's got the philosophically bloviant minor characters of The Border Trilogy. It's set in the same South of his first three books. Heck, it's got straight-up references to Blood Meridian.

But it treads a lot of new ground as well. This may be the biggest leap McCarthy has ever taken, bigger than switching from Southern dreadfuls to Western dreadfuls or apocalypses. I never would have expected McCarthy to write a transgender character in a way that wouldn't embarrass either of us, with grace. I didn't think I'd see characters travel around not only America but also Europe. While I knew McCarthy was interested in mathematics and physics, it was hard for me to imagine how he would fit them into one of his stories; he's always so concerned with life or death circumstances, with the corporeal. But in this book, the science fits with his themes perfectly.

For me, McCarthy has always stood alone. I don't like to imagine him in the modern world, talking to other people. I imagine him cloistered in a monk's cell, lined with bookshelves of Shakespeare and Milton and Melville and whatever other arcane books, spinning out his yarns. But The Passenger had me making a lot of unexpected connections. The structure and paranoia of Pynchon. The dialogue of David Foster Wallace. The family dynamics of Salinger's Glass family, even. I didn't know I wanted McCarthy to be brought down to earth, to be able to be compared with other authors I love. But it works.

This book is definitely not for everyone. It's not going to satisfy you if you're looking for the gripping, pulpy plot of No Country For Old Men, even though it's being advertised similarly. There is the seed of a pulp fiction here, where protagonist Bobby Western, a salvage diver, discovers a sunken airplane that's just covered with mysterious circumstances, but this is no reason to read the book. It's got other things on its mind. The Passenger is basically plotless, but that doesn't mean it's storyless. There's story dripping off the pages; history and tangents and dreams are abundant here. But most of all, there's character.

I have an affinity for shaggy, overgrown and serpentine novels. When it comes to Pynchon, I prefer V. over The Crying of Lot 49. I love the sprawl of Delillo's Underworld to the focused precision of White Noise. Give me the bloated mess of Les Miserables over Dickens's tightly plotted novels any day. And while I love McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Suttree is more suited to my tastes.

So this is the perfect book for me. It feels like a gift McCarthy gave me personally, not to be overly sentimental about it. He could have left me with The Road and I would have been perfectly happy with that, but now he's given me this: a strange, difficult, bloated, wonderful novel. It's perfect for me. (And there's another one coming! December can't come soon enough.)

Merged review:

"Varied" isn't typically the first word used to describe Cormac McCarthy's oeuvre. After all, I think you could pick any random sentence in the world and I could tell you if McCarthy wrote it or not, and not just because of the lack of punctuation. His writer's DNA is just that potent. But looking back on all of his published work, there's a heckuva lot of variety there.

His career started out as a Faulknerian emulation, chronicling hillbilly tragedies and grotesqueries in The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark and Child of God. Slight stylistic and thematic twist to Suttree's existential ramblings (more Shakespeare than Faulkner), then a swift righthand turn to philosophical Westerns with Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy. Then pulp fiction in No Country for Old Men, and finally what for a long time seemed like it would be the last thing we'd get from McCarthy: the postapocalyptic father-son tale of The Road, which somehow is simultaneously the bleakest and the most hopeful book he ever wrote. This is not to mention his plays and screenplays and the short stories that are hard to get hold of.

What's great about The Passenger is that it feels like a walking tour through his whole career. Stylistically, this feels most similar to Suttree, with long digressions, a mostly silent protagonist, and a meandering plot, but it also has scenes of carefully described action a la No Country for Old Men or The Road. It's got the philosophically bloviant minor characters of The Border Trilogy. It's set in the same South of his first three books. Heck, it's got straight-up references to Blood Meridian.

But it treads a lot of new ground as well. This may be the biggest leap McCarthy has ever taken, bigger than switching from Southern dreadfuls to Western dreadfuls or apocalypses. I never would have expected McCarthy to write a transgender character in a way that wouldn't embarrass either of us, with grace. I didn't think I'd see characters travel around not only America but also Europe. While I knew McCarthy was interested in mathematics and physics, it was hard for me to imagine how he would fit them into one of his stories; he's always so concerned with life or death circumstances, with the corporeal. But in this book, the science fits with his themes perfectly.

For me, McCarthy has always stood alone. I don't like to imagine him in the modern world, talking to other people. I imagine him cloistered in a monk's cell, lined with bookshelves of Shakespeare and Milton and Melville and whatever other arcane books, spinning out his yarns. But The Passenger had me making a lot of unexpected connections. The structure and paranoia of Pynchon. The dialogue of David Foster Wallace. The family dynamics of Salinger's Glass family, even. I didn't know I wanted McCarthy to be brought down to earth, to be able to be compared with other authors I love. But it works.

This book is definitely not for everyone. It's not going to satisfy you if you're looking for the gripping, pulpy plot of No Country For Old Men, even though it's being advertised similarly. There is the seed of a pulp fiction here, where protagonist Bobby Western, a salvage diver, discovers a sunken airplane that's just covered with mysterious circumstances, but this is no reason to read the book. It's got other things on its mind. The Passenger is basically plotless, but that doesn't mean it's storyless. There's story dripping off the pages; history and tangents and dreams are abundant here. But most of all, there's character.

I have an affinity for shaggy, overgrown and serpentine novels. When it comes to Pynchon, I prefer V. over The Crying of Lot 49. I love the sprawl of Delillo's Underworld to the focused precision of White Noise. Give me the bloated mess of Les Miserables over Dickens's tightly plotted novels any day. And while I love McCarthy's Blood Meridian, Suttree is more suited to my tastes.

So this is the perfect book for me. It feels like a gift McCarthy gave me personally, not to be overly sentimental about it. He could have left me with The Road and I would have been perfectly happy with that, but now he's given me this: a strange, difficult, bloated, wonderful novel. It's perfect for me. (And there's another one coming! December can't come soon enough.)
]]> Uzumaki 17837762
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral � the hypnotic secret shape of the world. This bizarre masterpiece of horror manga is now available in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!]]> 653 Junji Ito 1421561328 Christopher 3
The first few chapters are amazing. It’s about a town that is haunted not by a ghost or monster, but by spirals. Characters get obsessed with spirals, spending their days gazing at snail shells or plumes of smoke or whirlpools in a stream. Or they are completely disturbed and repelled by the sight of spirals� and did you know that you have spirals on your body? Your fingertips, your hair� there’s even a part inside your ear that makes a perfect spiral. And what do you do if you’re terrified of spirals and start discovering them on your own body?

Like I said, the first few chapters are amazing, but it soon gets too ridiculous and melodramatic and far-fetched. The earlier chapters are really disturbing and compelling, but the magic got used up too quickly. There are more than 600 pages and I wish I had stopped around page 200.]]> 4.45 2000 Uzumaki
author: Junji Ito
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: comics-graphic-novels, fantasy, horror, japanese, 20th-century
review:
I’ve always been hesitant to pick up any manga or anime, I admit. The style, the over the top emotions, the (sometimes) cheap looking art� they don’t do much for me. This book, however, has something special. The art is anything but cheap, it’s beautiful and disturbing and intricate and strange.

The first few chapters are amazing. It’s about a town that is haunted not by a ghost or monster, but by spirals. Characters get obsessed with spirals, spending their days gazing at snail shells or plumes of smoke or whirlpools in a stream. Or they are completely disturbed and repelled by the sight of spirals� and did you know that you have spirals on your body? Your fingertips, your hair� there’s even a part inside your ear that makes a perfect spiral. And what do you do if you’re terrified of spirals and start discovering them on your own body?

Like I said, the first few chapters are amazing, but it soon gets too ridiculous and melodramatic and far-fetched. The earlier chapters are really disturbing and compelling, but the magic got used up too quickly. There are more than 600 pages and I wish I had stopped around page 200.
]]> <![CDATA[Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)]]> 8855321
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.]]> 592 James S.A. Corey 1841499889 Christopher 4 4.30 2011 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/02/02
shelves: 21st-century, 500-pages-or-more, american, fiction, science-fiction
review:
A page-turner, even if I did turn the pages rather slowly. It's better than the tv show, and the tv show wasn't bad (I only watched the first season.) For the most part, they're very similar, but there were some differences, especially near the end. The book is actually less complex than the show, which had more characters and plotlines to follow. Here, there are two points of view: Holden and Miller. I get the sense that the scope is going to open up in the next book, but this was a such an easy, quickly paced book, it was hard not to like. I'm excited to continue.
]]> Zeroville 921569
]]> 329 Steve Erickson 1933372397 Christopher 4
It's about a guy who shows up in Hollywood in 1969, just as the Manson murders happen. He arrives like an alien: shaved head, tattoos of his favorite movie scene on his skull, doesn't know how to communicate, just knows that he is obsessed with film. Hollywood swirls around him and he finds himself among many strange people, and he becomes a fixture in the scene.

Roberto Bolaño would have believed this to be a very good book. I bet Rachel Kushner would, too. There are some artists that can make really good art about art, and Bolaño, Kushner, and Erickson are some of the best. They make books that feel alive and vibrant. Zeroville, The Savage Detectives, and The Flamethrowers belong right next to each other on the shelf.

Shame about the film adaptation, though.]]> 4.10 2007 Zeroville
author: Steve Erickson
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/18
date added: 2023/11/18
shelves: american, fiction, postmodern, metafiction, 21st-century
review:
I heard great things about this book. It seems like a cult favorite, like one of those best known little-known books. It's a strange one, but not in the way that many strange books are difficult to read or comprehend. It's just a book that ignores many of the rules of literature, but it works.

It's about a guy who shows up in Hollywood in 1969, just as the Manson murders happen. He arrives like an alien: shaved head, tattoos of his favorite movie scene on his skull, doesn't know how to communicate, just knows that he is obsessed with film. Hollywood swirls around him and he finds himself among many strange people, and he becomes a fixture in the scene.

Roberto Bolaño would have believed this to be a very good book. I bet Rachel Kushner would, too. There are some artists that can make really good art about art, and Bolaño, Kushner, and Erickson are some of the best. They make books that feel alive and vibrant. Zeroville, The Savage Detectives, and The Flamethrowers belong right next to each other on the shelf.

Shame about the film adaptation, though.
]]> The Lost Village 53137992 The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar in this brilliantly disturbing thriller from Camilla Sten, an electrifying new voice in suspense.

Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,� since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left—a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn—have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened.

But there will be no turning back.

Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice:

They are not alone.

They’re looking for the truth�
But what if it finds them first?]]> 340 Camilla Sten 1250249252 Christopher 2
The problem is, you can already guess almost everything about the story just from that description. There were several twists in this book, but no surprises. I loved the unsettling atmosphere, but the story and characters were too predictable to get excited about. But I enjoyed it as a comfortable read (if this is the type of book you're in the mood for), despite it not being particularly well written or executed.]]> 3.50 2019 The Lost Village
author: Camilla Sten
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2023/11/09
date added: 2023/11/09
shelves: 21st-century, swedish, horror, fiction
review:
Sixty years ago, a small Swedish village's population disappeared overnight without a trace, other than a murdered woman's body in the town square and an infant. Now, a documentary film crew has arrived to investigate the still-untouched ghost town. Some weird, creepy stuff starts happening, the crew start getting to each other, are they even really alone?... you get the picture.

The problem is, you can already guess almost everything about the story just from that description. There were several twists in this book, but no surprises. I loved the unsettling atmosphere, but the story and characters were too predictable to get excited about. But I enjoyed it as a comfortable read (if this is the type of book you're in the mood for), despite it not being particularly well written or executed.
]]> Heatwave 55711633 A vivid, mesmerizing novel about a teenage boy on vacation who makes an irrevocable mistake and becomes trapped in a spiral of guilt and desire—in the tradition of Alice McDermott�s That Night and E. Lockhart�s We Were Liars.

Oscar is dead because I watched him die and did nothing.

Seventeen-year-old Leo is sitting in an empty playground at night, listening to the sound of partying and pop music filtering in from the beach, when he sees another, more popular boy strangle himself with the ropes of the swings. Then, in a panic, Leo drags the other to the beach and buries him.

Over the next 24 hours, Leo wanders around the campsite like a sleepwalker, haunted by guilt and fear, and distracted by his desire for a girl named Luce. Meanwhile, the teenage summer rituals continue all around him—the fighting and flirting, the smell of salt and sunscreen, the tinny announcements from the loudspeaker, and above all, the crushing, relentless heat...

A prizewinning sensation in France and now stunningly translated by Sam Taylor, Heatwave is Victor Jestin’s unforgettable debut—a searing portrait of adolescent desire and recklessness, and secrets too big to keep.

*Originally published in France under the title La Chaleur.]]> 112 Victor Jestin 1982143487 Christopher 3 The Stranger was so unhappy at the beach he just had to kill an Arab. Alberto Moravia's Agostino, instead of relaxing and working on his base tan, obsesses over his mom's sexuality to the point of despair. And then there's this French kid Leonard who sees a friend choking to death on a swingset and can't muster up the enthusiasm to untangle the ropes for him.

A finely and simply written, if depressing, tale of teenage angst taken to the extreme. Big dollops of Camus and Salinger.]]> 3.11 2019 Heatwave
author: Victor Jestin
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/07
date added: 2023/11/07
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, french, novellas, vergangenheitsbewaltigung
review:
I swear, Europeans are always so miserable when they're on a beach vacation. Meursault from Camus's The Stranger was so unhappy at the beach he just had to kill an Arab. Alberto Moravia's Agostino, instead of relaxing and working on his base tan, obsesses over his mom's sexuality to the point of despair. And then there's this French kid Leonard who sees a friend choking to death on a swingset and can't muster up the enthusiasm to untangle the ropes for him.

A finely and simply written, if depressing, tale of teenage angst taken to the extreme. Big dollops of Camus and Salinger.
]]> <![CDATA[Seven Surrenders (Terra Ignota, #2)]]> 28220647
In which automation now provides for everybody’s basic needs.
In which nobody living can remember an actual war.
In which it is illegal for three or more people to gather for the practice of religion—but ecumenical “sensayers� minister in private, one-on-one.
In which gendered language is archaic, and to dress as strongly male or female is, if not exactly illegal, deeply taboo.
In which nationality is a fading memory, and most people identify instead with their choice of the seven global Hives, distinguished from one another by their different approaches to the big questions of life.

And it is a world in which, unknown to most, the entire social order is teetering on the edge of collapse.

Because even in utopia, humans will conspire. And also because something new has arisen: Bridger, the child who can bring inanimate objects to conscious life.]]> 365 Ada Palmer 0765378027 Christopher 4 Too Like the Lightning. This is a curious series, because it's difficult to read, frustrating at times, way more complex than it really needs to be, but I could not put it down. I wanted to take a break after the first book and spend some time reading easier books, but this world called me back.

Too Like the Lightning was weird; this book gets even weirder. It strains the brain to retain all the different concepts, characters, philosophy, and even the plot. There are many twists within the story, but they aren't the normal twists you'd expect from sci-fi, where something out of left field happens and surprises you. The twists here are more about reinterpreting what you've already learned from the story. You'll encounter a revelation about a character's past that totally changes the way you feel about them and what they've done, and it'll flip the whole plot on its head. At the end of book one, a revelation about the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash' changes everything about how you interpret the entire story so far. That happens several times in this book as well.

Spoiler notes for myself to review when I pick up book three, to refresh my memory: [spoilers removed]]]> 4.20 2017 Seven Surrenders (Terra Ignota, #2)
author: Ada Palmer
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/06
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves: american, 21st-century, fiction, dystopia, science-fiction
review:
A great continuation of the story begun in Too Like the Lightning. This is a curious series, because it's difficult to read, frustrating at times, way more complex than it really needs to be, but I could not put it down. I wanted to take a break after the first book and spend some time reading easier books, but this world called me back.

Too Like the Lightning was weird; this book gets even weirder. It strains the brain to retain all the different concepts, characters, philosophy, and even the plot. There are many twists within the story, but they aren't the normal twists you'd expect from sci-fi, where something out of left field happens and surprises you. The twists here are more about reinterpreting what you've already learned from the story. You'll encounter a revelation about a character's past that totally changes the way you feel about them and what they've done, and it'll flip the whole plot on its head. At the end of book one, a revelation about the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash' changes everything about how you interpret the entire story so far. That happens several times in this book as well.

Spoiler notes for myself to review when I pick up book three, to refresh my memory: [spoilers removed]
]]> Elon Musk 122765395 From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.

His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.

At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,� he said.

It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.

For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?]]> 688 Walter Isaacson 1982181281 Christopher 4
I admit I thought it very strange when I first heard that Walter Isaacson wrote this book. Elon Musk is just 52. A biography seems premature, especially because it seems we're currently at some kind of tipping point in which Musk's career will either begin to fall apart or he becomes even more consequential to this world. But Walter Isaacson is the right guy for this job, however strange it is. He's great at writing about flawed, divisive geniuses. There are many parallels between this book and Steve Jobs.

Like Jobs, Musk is a genius. Also, an asshole. But it's that dichotomy that makes both of them so interesting. Are they so effective and successful because or in spite of their flaws? Is there something about being a genius that makes you a difficult person? What should we all think or say about a person with so much power and potential, but such a mercurial relationship with the world? Along with the story of Musk's life, these are the questions Isaacson sets to explore, if not actually answer.

One of the reasons I chose to read this is to try to make sense of how Musk, an exceedingly brilliant thinker and strategist, could be making so many bizarre and self-destructive mistakes of late. The answer is simply that he is a severely damaged person. There's a good bit in here about his rough childhood, his absolutely demented father, his mental health struggles, his megalomania, his hero complex, his strained relationships with women and his children. To be honest, it's surprising that he's as healthy as he is.

And if you're wondering specifically about his follies with Twitter, there's quite a bit of that here. The book does a good job of laying out the context of each decision made with Twitter and while Musk definitely has made a lot of mistakes in its purchase and running it, things do make a little more sense than it seems when I scroll Reddit. For one, it does seem like there was a huge amount of waste. Musk does not abhor anything more than waste. He runs lean, no-nonsense companies. One of the biggest themes of the book is Musk's algorithm, which he applies to products, systems, and workforces... question every requirement; delete any piece you can (and if you don't have to add any pieces back later, you didn't delete enough.) The mass layoffs at Twitter were the first step in that algorithm: he deleted so many employees, he's having a hard time hiring back enough of them to run the company. Inhumane, perhaps, but not an insane strategy.

Musk is also an extreme risk taker and an adrenaline junkie. He thrives on drama and is exhilarated by controversy. The amount of times he placed his companies on the line for a risky bet to pay off is almost unbelievable. And somehow, they've just about always worked out. Maybe with Twitter, he's finally running out of luck.

The questions I wanted to answer with this book was this: does the good Elon Musk has contributed to the world outweigh the bad? Is he fundamentally good or evil? And there is no answer, not yet at least. The story's not over yet.]]> 4.28 2023 Elon Musk
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/05
date added: 2023/11/05
shelves: 21st-century, american, non-fiction, audiobooks
review:
Whatever you think about Elon Musk, it's undeniable he has become one of the most relevant and influential people in the world. He's not just an eccentric billionaire anymore; he's in the middle of just about every major issue going on right now. I used to admire him quite a bit. Now I'm conflicted, to say the least.

I admit I thought it very strange when I first heard that Walter Isaacson wrote this book. Elon Musk is just 52. A biography seems premature, especially because it seems we're currently at some kind of tipping point in which Musk's career will either begin to fall apart or he becomes even more consequential to this world. But Walter Isaacson is the right guy for this job, however strange it is. He's great at writing about flawed, divisive geniuses. There are many parallels between this book and Steve Jobs.

Like Jobs, Musk is a genius. Also, an asshole. But it's that dichotomy that makes both of them so interesting. Are they so effective and successful because or in spite of their flaws? Is there something about being a genius that makes you a difficult person? What should we all think or say about a person with so much power and potential, but such a mercurial relationship with the world? Along with the story of Musk's life, these are the questions Isaacson sets to explore, if not actually answer.

One of the reasons I chose to read this is to try to make sense of how Musk, an exceedingly brilliant thinker and strategist, could be making so many bizarre and self-destructive mistakes of late. The answer is simply that he is a severely damaged person. There's a good bit in here about his rough childhood, his absolutely demented father, his mental health struggles, his megalomania, his hero complex, his strained relationships with women and his children. To be honest, it's surprising that he's as healthy as he is.

And if you're wondering specifically about his follies with Twitter, there's quite a bit of that here. The book does a good job of laying out the context of each decision made with Twitter and while Musk definitely has made a lot of mistakes in its purchase and running it, things do make a little more sense than it seems when I scroll Reddit. For one, it does seem like there was a huge amount of waste. Musk does not abhor anything more than waste. He runs lean, no-nonsense companies. One of the biggest themes of the book is Musk's algorithm, which he applies to products, systems, and workforces... question every requirement; delete any piece you can (and if you don't have to add any pieces back later, you didn't delete enough.) The mass layoffs at Twitter were the first step in that algorithm: he deleted so many employees, he's having a hard time hiring back enough of them to run the company. Inhumane, perhaps, but not an insane strategy.

Musk is also an extreme risk taker and an adrenaline junkie. He thrives on drama and is exhilarated by controversy. The amount of times he placed his companies on the line for a risky bet to pay off is almost unbelievable. And somehow, they've just about always worked out. Maybe with Twitter, he's finally running out of luck.

The questions I wanted to answer with this book was this: does the good Elon Musk has contributed to the world outweigh the bad? Is he fundamentally good or evil? And there is no answer, not yet at least. The story's not over yet.
]]> The Shipping News 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Christopher 4 3.88 1993 The Shipping News
author: Annie Proulx
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/18
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves: american, 20th-century, fiction, future-classics
review:
This is like if someone tasked Cormac McCarthy with writing a John Irving novel: portrait of a sadsack, written in alternatively spare and florid prose. I liked it very much at first. Loved the writing, but the story, apart from some very cool moments, didn't do a ton for me. I haven't seen the movie and it's hard for me to imagine how someone turned this into a sensical Hollywood film.
]]> <![CDATA[The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)]]> 8130423 In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.]]> 361 Rick Riordan Christopher 3 4.44 2008 The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom]]> 236056 195 Louis Sachar 0590590898 Christopher 5 Sideways Stories from Wayside School is pure joy and zaniness for a child to read, but it's a metafictional delight for an adult to read to a child. Holes shows a greater depth to an author who could have just stuck to silliness. It's a story with twists and turns and important themes like generational trauma and guilt; it's like Dickens for young readers.

But I wasn't emotionally prepared to read this book aloud to my son. It's about the bully Bradley Chalkers, who is an absolute pestilence at the outset. He torments his classmates, he's never done a lick of homework, and he seems to revel in his villainy. But then you start to see his inner life; his imaginary friends; his yearning to be "normal"; glances of how he came to be this way, his fear of abandonment. Sachar shows that a bully isn't a rotten apple, but something that we could all become, given certain circumstances.

Sachar shows that bullies deserve sympathy, or at least empathy. But more importantly, he shows that they are not lost causes. It takes awhile for even Bradley to realize it, but he doesn't want to be a bully. He doesn't want to be a loner, or to be shunned by teachers; he actually has a curious mind, he wants to have friends, but he doesn't have the tools for it.

But along comes Carla, an absolutely incredible school counselor. I don't know if there are many Carlas out there in the real world, but I'm convinced that with enough Carlas, we could solve all the world's problems. In Bradley's world, she served as a nonjudgmental someone who accepted him as he was, who didn't tell him "the right" thing to do or demand that he get his act together. She just showed him what unconditional friendship is. And it's not really a surprise that, given some time, Bradley started modelling that behavior as well.

This may not be Louis Sachar's funnest book, but it is the only one to make me cry. And it may be his most important.]]> 3.98 1987 There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom
author: Louis Sachar
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/06
date added: 2023/10/06
shelves: 20th-century, american, children-s, fiction, favorites
review:
I'm not kidding when I say that Louis Sachar is one of my favorite authors. I liked him when I was a kid; I've found a deeper appreciation for his work as an adult. Sideways Stories from Wayside School is pure joy and zaniness for a child to read, but it's a metafictional delight for an adult to read to a child. Holes shows a greater depth to an author who could have just stuck to silliness. It's a story with twists and turns and important themes like generational trauma and guilt; it's like Dickens for young readers.

But I wasn't emotionally prepared to read this book aloud to my son. It's about the bully Bradley Chalkers, who is an absolute pestilence at the outset. He torments his classmates, he's never done a lick of homework, and he seems to revel in his villainy. But then you start to see his inner life; his imaginary friends; his yearning to be "normal"; glances of how he came to be this way, his fear of abandonment. Sachar shows that a bully isn't a rotten apple, but something that we could all become, given certain circumstances.

Sachar shows that bullies deserve sympathy, or at least empathy. But more importantly, he shows that they are not lost causes. It takes awhile for even Bradley to realize it, but he doesn't want to be a bully. He doesn't want to be a loner, or to be shunned by teachers; he actually has a curious mind, he wants to have friends, but he doesn't have the tools for it.

But along comes Carla, an absolutely incredible school counselor. I don't know if there are many Carlas out there in the real world, but I'm convinced that with enough Carlas, we could solve all the world's problems. In Bradley's world, she served as a nonjudgmental someone who accepted him as he was, who didn't tell him "the right" thing to do or demand that he get his act together. She just showed him what unconditional friendship is. And it's not really a surprise that, given some time, Bradley started modelling that behavior as well.

This may not be Louis Sachar's funnest book, but it is the only one to make me cry. And it may be his most important.
]]> Nipponia Nippon 66092885 A fast-paced, darkly ironic novella from one of Japan’s contemporary luminaries (and the husband of Mieko Kawakami), making his English language debut.

Perfect for fans of Earthlings by Sayaka Murata and Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs.

Isolated in his Tokyo apartment, 17-year-old Haruo spends all his time online, researching the plight of the endangered Japanese crested ibis, Nipponia Nippon.

Living on an allowance from his parents, he drops ever further into a fantasy world in which he alone shares a special connection with the last of these noble birds, held at a conservation centre on the island of Sado.

His conclusion is simple: it is his destiny to free the birds from a society that does not appreciate them, by whatever means necessary. With his emotional state becoming ever more erratic, he begins sourcing weapons and preparing for a reckoning in this darkly ironic study of toxic masculinity.]]> 155 Kazushige Abe 1782278532 Christopher 2
Simplicity is something I appreciate about Japanese literature. I don't know what it is--if it's a translation thing, or a cultural thing, or what--but most of the Japanese fiction I've read has a wonderful straightforwardness about it. Simple sentence after simple sentence, making a pure sort of story. Even when it gets really weird, like with Haruki Murakami or Sayaka Murata or Kobo Abe, each sentence seems pared down to its basic and most important parts in service of the story.

But there's a difference between simple and plain; this book feels rather plain. When you hear me say "this is a story about an incel obsessed with birds", you can already guess this whole story. There are no surprises here. I don't think this was based on a true story or person, but it feels a lot like a long form NYT article detailing how a disturbed individual ended up doing something rash. So while there's nothing very wrong with this book, there's also nothing about it that makes it stand out.]]> 3.33 2001 Nipponia Nippon
author: Kazushige Abe
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at: 2023/10/02
date added: 2023/10/02
shelves: 21st-century, fiction, japanese
review:
A bit of a disappointment. This is a short novel about a young man named Haruo with some unhealthy and obsessive tendencies. In the West, we'd probably call him an incel; in Japan, there's the term "". After some vague bad business with a young woman in his hometown, he's sent off to Tokyo to live alone, where he becomes absolutely obsessed with the Japanese crested ibis (scientific name: Nipponia nippon), a species on the edge of extinction.

Simplicity is something I appreciate about Japanese literature. I don't know what it is--if it's a translation thing, or a cultural thing, or what--but most of the Japanese fiction I've read has a wonderful straightforwardness about it. Simple sentence after simple sentence, making a pure sort of story. Even when it gets really weird, like with Haruki Murakami or Sayaka Murata or Kobo Abe, each sentence seems pared down to its basic and most important parts in service of the story.

But there's a difference between simple and plain; this book feels rather plain. When you hear me say "this is a story about an incel obsessed with birds", you can already guess this whole story. There are no surprises here. I don't think this was based on a true story or person, but it feels a lot like a long form NYT article detailing how a disturbed individual ended up doing something rash. So while there's nothing very wrong with this book, there's also nothing about it that makes it stand out.
]]> <![CDATA[Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1)]]> 26114545
The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labeling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world's population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competition is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life.

And in this world, Mycroft and Carlyle have stumbled on the wild card that may destablize the system: the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true. Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life...]]> 432 Ada Palmer 0765378000 Christopher 4
The world has seen peace for a few hundred years. Society is broken up into Seven Hives. Nations are a thing of the past; at a certain age, each person is free to choose their own Hive, depending on their own values. Geography is no longer consequential, because flying cars can taken you anywhere in the world in a matter of a couple of hours.

What makes it even more interesting (for me, at least; I'm sure this is the boring part for some) is that this world is organized by principles from Enlightenment era philosophers. And they aren't just sly references by the authors. The characters in this book are constantly referencing and using the works of Kant, Rousseau, Hume, Locke, Diderot, and others to justify their actions or worldviews. These people of the future are much smarter than me.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I think it's needlessly complex in some areas, but that's also some of the fun... it's a rich, layered world filled with weird characters and locales. There was one aspect that was just a step too far and really didn't work for me: [spoilers removed]

At the very end, I appreciated [spoilers removed]

One thing I didn't like about the book is that I don't think there's a single "normal" human in it. Everyone is a power player or a pawn of a power player and I really have no idea how the average person lives in this world. I don't think that anyone works anymore, but I have no idea what people do. I wish we got more of a ground level view of how everything our characters are doing affects the masses.

I'm pretty sure I'll continue on with the books, but not right away. The things that will keep me reading: [spoilers removed]]]> 3.81 2016 Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1)
author: Ada Palmer
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/28
date added: 2023/09/28
shelves: 21st-century, dystopia, fiction, science-fiction, metafiction
review:
An eccentric and very complex read. This story takes place in the 25th century over the period of a few days. Our storyteller is Mycroft Canner, a "Servicer" who is repaying society for old crimes by basically being a slave to everyone who feels like giving him a task. He's not just an ordinary Servicer, though; his services are frequently used by the most elite of the world.

The world has seen peace for a few hundred years. Society is broken up into Seven Hives. Nations are a thing of the past; at a certain age, each person is free to choose their own Hive, depending on their own values. Geography is no longer consequential, because flying cars can taken you anywhere in the world in a matter of a couple of hours.

What makes it even more interesting (for me, at least; I'm sure this is the boring part for some) is that this world is organized by principles from Enlightenment era philosophers. And they aren't just sly references by the authors. The characters in this book are constantly referencing and using the works of Kant, Rousseau, Hume, Locke, Diderot, and others to justify their actions or worldviews. These people of the future are much smarter than me.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I think it's needlessly complex in some areas, but that's also some of the fun... it's a rich, layered world filled with weird characters and locales. There was one aspect that was just a step too far and really didn't work for me: [spoilers removed]

At the very end, I appreciated [spoilers removed]

One thing I didn't like about the book is that I don't think there's a single "normal" human in it. Everyone is a power player or a pawn of a power player and I really have no idea how the average person lives in this world. I don't think that anyone works anymore, but I have no idea what people do. I wish we got more of a ground level view of how everything our characters are doing affects the masses.

I'm pretty sure I'll continue on with the books, but not right away. The things that will keep me reading: [spoilers removed]
]]> <![CDATA[Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands]]> 59069071 Celebrated cartoonist Kate Beaton vividly presents the untold story of Canada.

Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark A Vagrant fame, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. After university, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, what the journey will actually cost Beaton will be far more than she anticipates.

Arriving in Fort McMurray, Beaton finds work in the lucrative camps owned and operated by the world’s largest oil companies. Being one of the few women among thousands of men, the culture shock is palpable. It does not hit home until she moves to a spartan, isolated worksite for higher pay. She encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet never discussed. Her wounds may never heal.

Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, Northern Lights, and Rocky Mountains. Her first full-length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.]]> 430 Kate Beaton 1770462899 Christopher 2
The majority of the book is populated by nine-panel pages, punctuated with big, pretty splash pages depicting a serene winter landscape or the hell of acres of industrial buildings and smokestacks. There's some really nice art, but most of it is not very interesting to look at. The typical nine panel page just features a couple characters' talking heads and speech bubbles.

The plot is a bit repetitive, as she moves around the provinces, from drill site to drill site. At each site, she meets a new cast of characters, most of which don't receive a lot of distinguishing characterization, so I quickly forgot who was who. Beaton's style is just not well suited to a large character roster, because there's not a lot of visual distinction going on there; it's often hard to tell who she's talking to, if it's someone I'm supposed to recognize. At one pivotal moment in the story, I was unsure who a key player was, even after flipping pages back and forth to try to figure it out.

I'm left thinking that this book was either too ambitious or not quite ambitious enough. The wit and joy of her quick, funny comics didn't translate here. This story either needed to be told more simply and succinctly, or a more elaborate visual and storytelling style needed to be developed for it.]]> 4.41 2022 Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
author: Kate Beaton
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/06
date added: 2023/09/06
shelves: 21st-century, canadian, comics-graphic-novels, memoir, non-fiction
review:
Kate Beaton (of Hark! A Vagrant fame) has here a big, long graphic memoir about her time working in the oil fields of Canada. It's lonely, depressing work, unfriendly for a woman in her early 20s, outnumbered by men 50 to 1. It's not the most uplifting or exciting narrative, but it's certainly an important story.

The majority of the book is populated by nine-panel pages, punctuated with big, pretty splash pages depicting a serene winter landscape or the hell of acres of industrial buildings and smokestacks. There's some really nice art, but most of it is not very interesting to look at. The typical nine panel page just features a couple characters' talking heads and speech bubbles.

The plot is a bit repetitive, as she moves around the provinces, from drill site to drill site. At each site, she meets a new cast of characters, most of which don't receive a lot of distinguishing characterization, so I quickly forgot who was who. Beaton's style is just not well suited to a large character roster, because there's not a lot of visual distinction going on there; it's often hard to tell who she's talking to, if it's someone I'm supposed to recognize. At one pivotal moment in the story, I was unsure who a key player was, even after flipping pages back and forth to try to figure it out.

I'm left thinking that this book was either too ambitious or not quite ambitious enough. The wit and joy of her quick, funny comics didn't translate here. This story either needed to be told more simply and succinctly, or a more elaborate visual and storytelling style needed to be developed for it.
]]> A Streetcar Named Desire 12220 Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams� essay “The World I Live In.�

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared�57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams� A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the �40s and �50s.]]> 107 Tennessee Williams 0822210894 Christopher 3
I thought a lot about one of my favorite plays, Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, while reading this. They’re both about a female protagonist/antihero who’s undergoing an emotional crisis. But whereas Gabler feels like a Greek myth, a purity plucked from the heavens by Ibsen, something so perfect it was inevitable; Streetcar is much more complex, messier perhaps, more open-ended. That’s not to say it was bad, it was just less impactful to me.

I’ve never seen the Marlon Brando/Vivien Leigh film. Maybe the performances will change my mind. ]]> 3.98 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1947
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/02
date added: 2023/09/02
shelves: 20th-century, american, drama, classics, modern-classics
review:
Quite the reputation, this one has. Which can sometimes lead to overblown expectations. While I liked it, I just wasn’t blown away by it.

I thought a lot about one of my favorite plays, Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, while reading this. They’re both about a female protagonist/antihero who’s undergoing an emotional crisis. But whereas Gabler feels like a Greek myth, a purity plucked from the heavens by Ibsen, something so perfect it was inevitable; Streetcar is much more complex, messier perhaps, more open-ended. That’s not to say it was bad, it was just less impactful to me.

I’ve never seen the Marlon Brando/Vivien Leigh film. Maybe the performances will change my mind.
]]> Bearskin 36301046
More bears are killed on the preserve and Rice’s obsession with catching the poachers escalates, leading to hostile altercations with the locals and attention from both the law and Rice’s employers. Partnering with his predecessor, a scientist who hopes to continue her research on the preserve, Rice puts into motion a plan that could expose the poachers but risks revealing his own whereabouts to the dangerous people he was running from in the first place.

James McLaughlin expertly brings the beauty and danger of Appalachia to life.ĚýThe result is an elemental, slow burn of a novel—one that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.]]> 352 James A. McLaughlin 0062742795 Christopher 4 Panther Gap.]]> 3.67 2018 Bearskin
author: James A. McLaughlin
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/29
date added: 2023/08/29
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction
review:
I've been on a reading kick of wilderness thrillers. Peter Heller scratched that itch really well. This is like Peter Heller meets Breaking Bad. It has some really beautiful nature writing as well. It's more complex, in a good way, but less pageturny than Heller. It was really good and I'm excited to check out Panther Gap.
]]> The Guide 56098122 The best-selling author of The River returns with a heart-racing thriller about a young man who, escaping his own grief, is hired by an elite fishing lodge in Colorado, where amid the natural beauty of sun-drenched streams and forests he uncovers a plot of shocking menace.

Kingfisher Lodge, nestled in a canyon on a mile and a half of the most pristine river water on the planet, is known by locals as Billionaire's Mile and is locked behind a heavy gate. Sandwiched between barbed wire and a meadow with a sign that reads Don't Get Shot! the resort boasts boutique fishing at its finest. Safe from viruses that have plagued America for years, Kingfisher offers a respite for wealthy clients. Now it also promises a second chance for Jack, a return to normalcy after a young life filled with loss. When he is assigned to guide a well-known singer, his only job is to rig her line, carry her gear, and steer her to the best trout he can find.

But then a human scream pierces the night, and Jack soon realizes that this idyllic fishing lodge may be merely a cover for a far more sinister operation. A novel as gripping as it is lyrical, as frightening as it is moving, The Guide is another masterpiece from Peter Heller.]]> 257 Peter Heller 0525657762 Christopher 3 The River.]]> 3.55 2021 The Guide
author: Peter Heller
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction
review:
A nice, quick read. Not bad, but far less dramatic and enticing than The River.
]]> The Pallbearers Club 59314693 The Cabin at the End of the World and Survivor Song.

What if the coolest girl you've ever met decided to be your friend?

Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a seventeen-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis, and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers Club was cool. And she brought along her Polaroid camera to take pictures of the corpses.

Okay, that part was a little weird.

So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things—terrifying things—that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right?

Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing The Pallbearers Club: A Memoir. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she's making cuts.

Seamlessly blurring the lines between fiction and memory, the supernatural and the mundane, The Pallbearers Club is an immersive, suspenseful portrait of an unusual and disconcerting relationship.]]> 288 Paul Tremblay 0063069954 Christopher 3 A Head Full of Ghosts is a fantastic head trip of a novel that keeps the reader guessing. The horror of it is ambiguous: are these supernatural horrors or just the average, daily horror of human brokenness?

In this book, Tremblay tries to repeat the same magic trick, but it just didn't work for me as well. This one is about vampires: are they real or is the narrator losing it? I won't spoil it, but I'll say that most of the book was not exactly riveting. For such a short book, it sure felt trudgy at points. But the end turned it around a bit; I liked the ending.]]> 3.23 2022 The Pallbearers Club
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/10
date added: 2023/08/10
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, metafiction, horror
review:
Paul Tremblay's A Head Full of Ghosts is a fantastic head trip of a novel that keeps the reader guessing. The horror of it is ambiguous: are these supernatural horrors or just the average, daily horror of human brokenness?

In this book, Tremblay tries to repeat the same magic trick, but it just didn't work for me as well. This one is about vampires: are they real or is the narrator losing it? I won't spoil it, but I'll say that most of the book was not exactly riveting. For such a short book, it sure felt trudgy at points. But the end turned it around a bit; I liked the ending.
]]> <![CDATA[Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (Wayside School, #4)]]> 51946033 For the first time in twenty-five years, Wayside School is back in session in this brand-new, fourth installment in the perennially beloved and bestselling series by Newbery Medal-winning author Louis Sachar.

Welcome back to Wayside School!

Your favorite students and teachers are all here. That includes Sharie, who loves her striped-and-spotted umbrella more than anything; Kathy, who has a bad case of oppositosis; Jason, who has to read the longest book in the world; and the rest of Mrs. Jewls’s class on the thirtieth floor, who are busily collecting toenail clippings.

Everyone is scrambling to prepare for the all-important Ultimate Test, but meanwhile, there is a mysterious Cloud of Doom looming above them�

More than fifteen million readers in the U.S. have laughed at the clever and hilarious stories of Wayside School. So what are you waiting for? Come visit Wayside School!]]> 192 Louis Sachar 0062965387 Christopher 3
But after 25 years, it seems some of the magic was lost. The students didn't seem quite as alive, their situations not as relatable, the backwards logic a little less un-nonsensical? I just want to hear about Paul trying to resist pulling Leslie's pigtails!]]> 4.14 2020 Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (Wayside School, #4)
author: Louis Sachar
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/10
date added: 2023/08/10
shelves: 21st-century, american, children-s, fiction, metafiction
review:
Thematically, I like the book, but it's the least interesting Wayside School entry (an opinion held by both my son and me.) Apparently, the titular cloud of doom was a manifestation of Louis Sachar's anxieties related to the rise of Trump as well as climate change.

But after 25 years, it seems some of the magic was lost. The students didn't seem quite as alive, their situations not as relatable, the backwards logic a little less un-nonsensical? I just want to hear about Paul trying to resist pulling Leslie's pigtails!
]]> Upgrade 123280211 You are the next step in human evolution.

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.]]> 349 Blake Crouch 0593157524 Christopher 2
I don't have a problem with far-out sci-fi. I like ridiculous stuff. But I don't like when something that's supposed to be plausible feels ridiculous. This is supposed to be a near future scenario. Look, I don't know a lot about science or genetics, but I know when somebody tells you that humans only use ten percent of their brainpower and then say that we could unlock the other 90% and become super geniuses, I know that's BS.

This book could have used some subtlety. Every scene ends in a gunfight or an explosion. It probably would work as a movie; I find that action books don't work for me the same way action movies do. I love Mission:Impossible and in the movie theatre I can ignore silliness as long as what's happening onscreen is gripping enough, but I would have no interest in reading a Mission:Impossible book.]]> 3.79 2022 Upgrade
author: Blake Crouch
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/02
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: 21st-century, american, audiobooks, fiction, science-fiction
review:
I listened to this on audiobook on a drive from Kentucky to Florida. I've heard a lot about Blake Crouch's breakneck novels and thought it sounded like perfect keep-me-awake-while-driving fare, but I found it pretty bland. I'm not sure anyone could have satisfied me with this premise, though: it's about a guy who receives a genetic upgrade that transforms him--within a matter of days--into a genius martial artist who can basically mindread. He's got to go on the run from, but also stop, a group of scientists intent on releasing the upgrade into the general public in a last ditch effort to save the world from climate change.

I don't have a problem with far-out sci-fi. I like ridiculous stuff. But I don't like when something that's supposed to be plausible feels ridiculous. This is supposed to be a near future scenario. Look, I don't know a lot about science or genetics, but I know when somebody tells you that humans only use ten percent of their brainpower and then say that we could unlock the other 90% and become super geniuses, I know that's BS.

This book could have used some subtlety. Every scene ends in a gunfight or an explosion. It probably would work as a movie; I find that action books don't work for me the same way action movies do. I love Mission:Impossible and in the movie theatre I can ignore silliness as long as what's happening onscreen is gripping enough, but I would have no interest in reading a Mission:Impossible book.
]]> The Man in My Basement 84553 Hailed as a masterpiece-the finest work yet by an American novelist of the first rank-this is the mysterious story of a young black man who agrees to an unusual bargain to save the home that has belonged to his family for generations.

Walter Mosley pierces long-hidden veins of justice and morality with startling insight into the deepest mysteries of human nature.]]> 249 Walter Mosley 031615931X Christopher 4
The narrator is a 30-something year old black man in New England. He's undeniably a bit of a loser (no job, no girlfriend, has a bit of an alcohol problem), but in an innocent way. He doesn't mean anyone harm, he minds his own business. He's a man-child who inherited a large family home and he does the bare minimum to keep it up.

One day, an enigmatic white man knocks on his door and wants to rent out his basement for a couple weeks so he can have some sort of hermitic experience. Mysterious, shadowy conversations about power and history and good and evil ensue. What does our heritage mean? What does it mean to be a slave or a master? How does one deal with guilt? Is it even possible to live a moral life in the modern world?

Surprisingly, the book that this most reminded me of was John Fowles's The Magus. You hardly ever can be sure of what's going on. Sometimes it feels like you're reading a man's nervous collapse. It also feels much like a plot that Muriel Spark could have conjured in one of her devilish little books. And lastly, the narrator is a soulmate of Holden Caulfield: innocent but disturbed, world-weary without a grasp on how the world works.

Highly recommended. Really cool book.]]> 3.67 2004 The Man in My Basement
author: Walter Mosley
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/01
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: american, fiction, 21st-century, vergangenheitsbewaltigung
review:
I didn't really know what to expect with this book. All I knew about Walter Mosley--all I still know, really--is that he wrote some detective stories, so I thought this would be kind of pulpy. And it was kind of pulpy, but more in the way that masters of literature write pulpy things: the pulp isn't the point, it's just a way for them to explore important themes in an approachable way.

The narrator is a 30-something year old black man in New England. He's undeniably a bit of a loser (no job, no girlfriend, has a bit of an alcohol problem), but in an innocent way. He doesn't mean anyone harm, he minds his own business. He's a man-child who inherited a large family home and he does the bare minimum to keep it up.

One day, an enigmatic white man knocks on his door and wants to rent out his basement for a couple weeks so he can have some sort of hermitic experience. Mysterious, shadowy conversations about power and history and good and evil ensue. What does our heritage mean? What does it mean to be a slave or a master? How does one deal with guilt? Is it even possible to live a moral life in the modern world?

Surprisingly, the book that this most reminded me of was John Fowles's The Magus. You hardly ever can be sure of what's going on. Sometimes it feels like you're reading a man's nervous collapse. It also feels much like a plot that Muriel Spark could have conjured in one of her devilish little books. And lastly, the narrator is a soulmate of Holden Caulfield: innocent but disturbed, world-weary without a grasp on how the world works.

Highly recommended. Really cool book.
]]> The Voyage Out 1421744 ]]> 384 Virginia Woolf 0156936259 Christopher 3
The book draws its focus on Rachel and it begins to feel like an awakening. But then they get to South America and the scope of the novel expands to accept an entire new cast of characters and a very standard romance. Woolf tries to pack in so many perspectives that we don't ever get a sufficient view of any one of them. I wanted to know Rachel; she was the star in my mind, but three-quarters of the way through the novel she was basically abandoned by Woolf for other, less interesting characters. Even at the end, after [spoilers removed]

This is allegedly Woolf's most plotty novel, but it's not very plotty, and if this is the kind of plot Woolf would write, I'd say that's probably a good thing, because the summary is: [spoilers removed] There's not a lot to it, and it's not exactly a compelling story.]]> 3.87 1915 The Voyage Out
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1915
rating: 3
read at: 2018/04/30
date added: 2023/07/27
shelves: 20th-century, british, classics, fiction, modern-classics
review:
It started out perfectly: Helen Ambrose crying as she walks to a steamer ship that will carry her away from children to South America. Her husbands stands a ways off, aloof from her sadness. Then on the boat we meet the harried Captain Vinrace and his unschooled and sheltered daughter Rachel, who seemed to be the inspiration for so many Shirley Jackson protagonists I've loved. Also on board are the strange academic Mr. Pepper and the would-be swingers the Dalloways, and together they all make a great and not too large cast of characters.

The book draws its focus on Rachel and it begins to feel like an awakening. But then they get to South America and the scope of the novel expands to accept an entire new cast of characters and a very standard romance. Woolf tries to pack in so many perspectives that we don't ever get a sufficient view of any one of them. I wanted to know Rachel; she was the star in my mind, but three-quarters of the way through the novel she was basically abandoned by Woolf for other, less interesting characters. Even at the end, after [spoilers removed]

This is allegedly Woolf's most plotty novel, but it's not very plotty, and if this is the kind of plot Woolf would write, I'd say that's probably a good thing, because the summary is: [spoilers removed] There's not a lot to it, and it's not exactly a compelling story.
]]> The River 40216324 The story of two college friends on a wilderness canoe trip—of a friendship tested by fire, white water, and violence

Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing.

When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey.

When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman?]]> 253 Peter Heller 0525521879 Christopher 4
Two main inspirations I see here: James Dickey’s Deliverance (how could you write a story about a canoe trip gone awry without being influenced by this book?) and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (the prose, especially the intro, is without a doubt a mimic of McCarthy’s masterpiece; the title is possibly a reference, given that the characters of both books follow the path of the titular geographical feature for the entirety of their plots.)

It was a rollicking good time that kept my interest from first to last, with a couple of criticisms. (1) I hate it when plots depend on poor communication between characters. There were two major hinges of the story that could have been resolved if characters just talked to each other or asked each other a simple question. (2) Without revealing anything, the ending was a bit unsatisfying and I would have liked to witness a key piece of action firsthand rather than cutting away.

Nevertheless, Peter Heller will be an author I return to when I want to read something thrilling and fast paced. ]]> 3.78 2019 The River
author: Peter Heller
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/25
date added: 2023/07/25
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction
review:
This was a fantastic vacation read. It’s a thriller about two friends on a multiweek canoe adventure through Canadian wilderness. A canoe adventure with complications: a mighty wildfire heading their way, a rescue mission, and some guns that you just know are going to go off at some point.

Two main inspirations I see here: James Dickey’s Deliverance (how could you write a story about a canoe trip gone awry without being influenced by this book?) and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (the prose, especially the intro, is without a doubt a mimic of McCarthy’s masterpiece; the title is possibly a reference, given that the characters of both books follow the path of the titular geographical feature for the entirety of their plots.)

It was a rollicking good time that kept my interest from first to last, with a couple of criticisms. (1) I hate it when plots depend on poor communication between characters. There were two major hinges of the story that could have been resolved if characters just talked to each other or asked each other a simple question. (2) Without revealing anything, the ending was a bit unsatisfying and I would have liked to witness a key piece of action firsthand rather than cutting away.

Nevertheless, Peter Heller will be an author I return to when I want to read something thrilling and fast paced.
]]> Slow Learner: Early Stories 997948 193 Thomas Pynchon 0316724424 Christopher 3 thing rather than somebody. But in this introduction (which really should be read as an afterword, if you're spoiler-phobic), he writes pretty casually and frankly about his early days as a writer. And he's not a fan of his juvenilia, which he makes abundantly clear as he dissects each story, pointing out his embarrassment over his "tin ear" for dialogue or the faux pas of originating a story from a theme, rather than letting the theme and story arise naturally from its characters. Seeing how self-critical he is over these stories, it makes me surprised and thankful that we have this collection at all. Maybe he was running a bit low on funds and needed a quick payday, which is absolutely fine with me.

The Small Rain: I never would have guessed this was written by Pynchon. It feels more like a Hemingway/Heller/Kerouac hybrid. Interesting by virtue of its dissimilarity, but not something I particular enjoyed or will remember much about. Two stars

Low-lands: This, on the other hand, feels very much like Pynchon, like it could have been lifted straight out of V. It contains at least one great character and one really strange but awesome set-piece. As Pynchon himself says, it's more of a character study than a story, but I'd say it's a really nice character study. Four stars.Ěý

Entropy: I read all the words and knew most of them, but put all together the way they were, I really have no idea what this was. And there wasn’t enough fun or interesting to make me care enough to figure it out. Two stars.Ěý

Under the Rose: Fits right in with V. In fact, I read almost the whole story before realizing I was reading about characters and events that also appear in V. (Pynchon rewrote this story into a chapter of his first novel.) At times it becomes too convoluted, but it's mostly an enjoyable spy story inhabited by strange/pitiful/goofy/terrifying characters. Three stars.

The Secret Integration: Stands a bit apart from the rest of Pynchon's work; there are no tedious, paranoid ramblings or cartoonish chase scenes or fuzzy dream sequences. This is a relatively straightforward story of kids dealing with the civil rights era and their parents who are stuck in the past. It's one of the best things I've read by Pynchon, which raises the question: do I like Pynchon best when he's being the most un-Pynchonesque? Five stars.]]> 3.39 1984 Slow Learner: Early Stories
author: Thomas Pynchon
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.39
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2023/05/12
shelves: 20th-century, american, fiction, metafiction, postmodern
review:
Introduction: It's so strange reading Pynchon as Pynchon, directly addressing the reader. Because there are no interviews, no letters, no photographs even, he's become to me a mythic figure, something rather than somebody. But in this introduction (which really should be read as an afterword, if you're spoiler-phobic), he writes pretty casually and frankly about his early days as a writer. And he's not a fan of his juvenilia, which he makes abundantly clear as he dissects each story, pointing out his embarrassment over his "tin ear" for dialogue or the faux pas of originating a story from a theme, rather than letting the theme and story arise naturally from its characters. Seeing how self-critical he is over these stories, it makes me surprised and thankful that we have this collection at all. Maybe he was running a bit low on funds and needed a quick payday, which is absolutely fine with me.

The Small Rain: I never would have guessed this was written by Pynchon. It feels more like a Hemingway/Heller/Kerouac hybrid. Interesting by virtue of its dissimilarity, but not something I particular enjoyed or will remember much about. Two stars

Low-lands: This, on the other hand, feels very much like Pynchon, like it could have been lifted straight out of V. It contains at least one great character and one really strange but awesome set-piece. As Pynchon himself says, it's more of a character study than a story, but I'd say it's a really nice character study. Four stars.Ěý

Entropy: I read all the words and knew most of them, but put all together the way they were, I really have no idea what this was. And there wasn’t enough fun or interesting to make me care enough to figure it out. Two stars.Ěý

Under the Rose: Fits right in with V. In fact, I read almost the whole story before realizing I was reading about characters and events that also appear in V. (Pynchon rewrote this story into a chapter of his first novel.) At times it becomes too convoluted, but it's mostly an enjoyable spy story inhabited by strange/pitiful/goofy/terrifying characters. Three stars.

The Secret Integration: Stands a bit apart from the rest of Pynchon's work; there are no tedious, paranoid ramblings or cartoonish chase scenes or fuzzy dream sequences. This is a relatively straightforward story of kids dealing with the civil rights era and their parents who are stuck in the past. It's one of the best things I've read by Pynchon, which raises the question: do I like Pynchon best when he's being the most un-Pynchonesque? Five stars.
]]> <![CDATA[Destructive Reasoning (The Authorities, #2)]]> 63289754
A note arrives claiming responsibility and explaining the man died not for who he was, but for who he pretended to be. He played Dr. Watson in a production of Sherlock Holmes. The note promises to kill everybody in Hollywood currently playing Dr. Watson: a surprisingly long list.

Billionaire Vince Capp sends his crime fighting team, the Authorities, down from Seattle to solve the crime, stop the killer, save lives, and above all else, increase their national profile. But it won't be easy. Detective Sloan will have to wrestle with the most irritating case of her career while two of her key operatives are terribly distracted: Rutherford has found a new role model to follow and emulate, and Max must tangle with a mysterious figure from a past he'd rather forget.]]> 336 Scott Meyer 1950056066 Christopher 3 4.14 2022 Destructive Reasoning (The Authorities, #2)
author: Scott Meyer
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/30
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves: 21st-century, american, audiobooks, fiction
review:
Listened to this audiobook while I measured a big house and it hit the spot. Silly, fast paced, with a great narration. Scott Meyer/Luke Daniels is always a fun, ridiculous combo. To be honest, I would never read this as a book-book, though.
]]> The Eighth Life 41071389 Six romances, one revolution, the story of the century.

'That night Stasia took an oath, swearing to learn the recipe by heart and destroy the paper. And when she was lying in her bed again, recalling the taste with all her senses, she was sure that this secret recipe could heal wounds, avert catastrophes, and bring people happiness. But she was wrong.'

At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian Empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified: this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste ...

Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the centre of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg. Stasia's is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century.

Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends.]]> 944 Nino Haratischwili 191161746X Christopher 5
It's a multigenerational family saga about a Georgian family during the twentieth century, so you see Lenin and the Russian Revolution, Stalin and the formation of the Soviet Union, its collapse, and Georgia's struggle for independence. I'm not very good at history and didn't understand much of it before reading this book, and it managed to give me a much better knowledge and understanding of all the different factions involved and how all the events lead to one another.

That makes it sound like it's a book about the history of that area, but it's not. It's very much a character-based story, and it's got lovely, flawed, wonderful characters. And the things that happen to the characters are sort of allegories for the history of Russia and Georgia that is happening around them, but not in a direct or corny way.

Anyway, at the beginning of the book I got really attached to certain characters and storylines, and knowing that the book's timeline lasts a hundred years, I was kind of dreading having to move on to other characters and having to leave the characters and plotlines that I already loved, but each section and character in the book is just as perfect as the previous one.

The only complaint I have is that some of the historical exposition got a little bit tedious at times, but there's not much of it and what is there is pretty short. Otherwise, I thought the book was perfect!

I kept a dramatis persona with character descriptions, which is something I do for every big book I read. I'll leave it here below (beware spoilers!).

[spoilers removed]]]> 4.47 2014 The Eighth Life
author: Nino Haratischwili
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/14
date added: 2023/04/02
shelves: 21st-century, 500-pages-or-more, fiction, russian, favorites, metafiction, future-classics, eastern-european
review:
I love big books and I cannot lie, and this one really hit the spot, where it felt important and big, without being too difficult or overwhelming. It's really easy to disappear into this book and its world and after reading 900+ pages, it's impossible not to feel like the characters are real people that you know personally.

It's a multigenerational family saga about a Georgian family during the twentieth century, so you see Lenin and the Russian Revolution, Stalin and the formation of the Soviet Union, its collapse, and Georgia's struggle for independence. I'm not very good at history and didn't understand much of it before reading this book, and it managed to give me a much better knowledge and understanding of all the different factions involved and how all the events lead to one another.

That makes it sound like it's a book about the history of that area, but it's not. It's very much a character-based story, and it's got lovely, flawed, wonderful characters. And the things that happen to the characters are sort of allegories for the history of Russia and Georgia that is happening around them, but not in a direct or corny way.

Anyway, at the beginning of the book I got really attached to certain characters and storylines, and knowing that the book's timeline lasts a hundred years, I was kind of dreading having to move on to other characters and having to leave the characters and plotlines that I already loved, but each section and character in the book is just as perfect as the previous one.

The only complaint I have is that some of the historical exposition got a little bit tedious at times, but there's not much of it and what is there is pretty short. Otherwise, I thought the book was perfect!

I kept a dramatis persona with character descriptions, which is something I do for every big book I read. I'll leave it here below (beware spoilers!).

[spoilers removed]
]]> The Unstrung Harp 392307 64 Edward Gorey 0747550344 Christopher 4 4.22 1953 The Unstrung Harp
author: Edward Gorey
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/01
date added: 2023/04/01
shelves: 20th-century, british, comics-graphic-novels, fiction, metafiction
review:
This is a book called The Unstrung Harp, about the creation of a book called The Unstrung Harp, written by an anxiety-ridden Mr. Earbrass. Every other page has a paragraph of written words, and the pages that are not those pages have beautifully crosshatched illustrations of Mr. Earbrass going about his business. It’s Wes Anderson; it’s British society novels; it’s metafiction; it’s Edward Gorey.
]]> <![CDATA[Wayside School Is Falling Down (Wayside School #2)]]> 563908 Bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author Louis Sachar knows how to make readers laugh. And there are laughs galore in perennial favorite Wayside School Is Falling Down!

Yum! Miss Mush is dishing out her famous Mushroom Surprise in the Wayside School cafeteria. Ron says it tastes like hot dogs and grape jelly. Clean your plate and you’ll turn green in time for class picture day. Wear your craziest outfit and you’ll fit right in between Maurecia in her striped bikini and Clavin, who’s wearing his birthday tattoo. Say cheese!

More than nine millions readers have laughed at the wacky stories of Wayside School. So what are you waiting for? Come visit Wayside School!]]> 192 Louis Sachar Christopher 4
But the characters are just the best. All of Mrs. Jewls’s students are back from last year, and there’s the addition of Benjamin Nushmutt, who’s too embarrassed to admit that his name is not actually Mark Miller� and what happened to the real Mark Miller?

These books are just the best. After reading the first book in the series, I thought about my love for postmodern and metafictional novels and thought that it makes a lot of sense that I liked these when I was a kid. But not I think that these books are the reason I now love metafiction and postmodern literature. If you want to raise your kids right, read them weird stuff like this!]]> 4.23 1989 Wayside School Is Falling Down (Wayside School #2)
author: Louis Sachar
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/01
date added: 2023/04/01
shelves: american, 20th-century, children-s, fiction
review:
The second wonderfully charming entry into the Wayside School series. As weird as the first book was, this one gets way weirder. A lot revolves around the nineteenth floor, which of course doesn’t exist, and Miss Zarves, who’s the teacher on the nineteenth floor, who of course doesn’t exist. But there are some really trippy scenes involving the floor and the teacher and the class who don’t exist.

But the characters are just the best. All of Mrs. Jewls’s students are back from last year, and there’s the addition of Benjamin Nushmutt, who’s too embarrassed to admit that his name is not actually Mark Miller� and what happened to the real Mark Miller?

These books are just the best. After reading the first book in the series, I thought about my love for postmodern and metafictional novels and thought that it makes a lot of sense that I liked these when I was a kid. But not I think that these books are the reason I now love metafiction and postmodern literature. If you want to raise your kids right, read them weird stuff like this!
]]> <![CDATA[Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals]]> 53087849 “The wonderful cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, one of the greatest achievements of European civilization, was on fire. The sight dazed and disturbed us profoundly. I was on the edge of tears. Something priceless was dying in front of our eyes. The feeling was bewildering, as if the earth was shaking.� —Ken Follett

“[A] treasure of a book.� �The New Yorker

In this short, spellbinding book, international bestselling author Ken Follett describes the emotions that gripped him when he learned about the fire that threatened to destroy one of the greatest cathedrals in the world—the Notre-Dame de Paris. Follett then tells the story of the cathedral, from its construction to the role it has played across time and history, and he reveals the influence that the Notre-Dame had upon cathedrals around the world and on the writing of one of Follett's most famous and beloved novels,ĚýThe Pillars of the Earth.

Ken Follett will donate his proceeds from this book to the charity La Fondation du Patrimoine.]]> 80 Ken Follett 1984880268 Christopher 4
To be honest, I’m sure you could learn a lot more about Notre Dame on Wikipedia, but this was a well organized, pleasantly written little book. I liked it. ]]> 3.88 2019 Notre-Dame: A Short History of the Meaning of Cathedrals
author: Ken Follett
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/01
date added: 2023/04/01
shelves: 21st-century, architecture, british, non-fiction
review:
This is a nice little book in which the author of The Pillars of the Earth (did you know that book came out in 1989, by the way? I swear I remember it coming out in about 2004) talks about his love of Notre Dame and gives a little history of it in six parts. First part is 2019, where he discusses the recent burning of the cathedral and his visit to see its rehabilitation. Flashback to 1163 when the cathedral was commissioned and nearly a hundred years later when it was completed. Then all the way to 1831, to see Victor Hugo’s take on it, then to 1844 because that’s when Eugene Viollet-le-Duc began restoring the cathedral, a task that took twenty years. Fast forward to 1944 to witness a touching scene just after Paris was liberated from the Nazis and the cathedral was once again used for Mass, all while a few rogue Germans were still trying to assassinate the attending General de Gaulle. And then finally on to 1989, to where it all began for this author, when Pillars of the Earth was released.

To be honest, I’m sure you could learn a lot more about Notre Dame on Wikipedia, but this was a well organized, pleasantly written little book. I liked it.
]]> The Sense of an Ending 10746542 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse.

This intense novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about - until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he'd left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he'd understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.]]> 150 Julian Barnes 0224094157 Christopher 4
It’s a nicely written and well-paced novel about the flaws of memory, about remorse and unintended consequences. ]]> 3.73 2011 The Sense of an Ending
author: Julian Barnes
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/02
date added: 2023/03/02
shelves:
review:
I went into this book knowing nothing and it appeared to be a Bildungsroman about some posh young British guys in one of those posh British schools, where they all wear khaki shirt and navy blazers and inspiringly recite poetry whilst standing atop their desks. But it wasn’t that. It started out as that, and then decades fly by in a matter of pages and I found myself reading about an old man reflecting on his life and trying to suss out a mystery from his childhood.

It’s a nicely written and well-paced novel about the flaws of memory, about remorse and unintended consequences.
]]> To Be Taught, If Fortunate 43190272
Ariadne is one such explorer. As an astronaut on an extrasolar research vessel, she and her fellow crewmates sleep between worlds and wake up each time with different features. Her experience is one of fluid body and stable mind and of a unique perspective on the passage of time. Back on Earth, society changes dramatically from decade to decade, as it always does.

Ariadne may awaken to find that support for space exploration back home has waned, or that her country of birth no longer exists, or that a cult has arisen around their cosmic findings, only to dissolve once more by the next waking. But the moods of Earth have little bearing on their mission: to explore, to study, and to send their learnings home.

Carrying all the trademarks of her other beloved works, including brilliant writing, fantastic world-building and exceptional, diverse characters, Becky's first audiobook outside of the Wayfarers series is sure to capture the imagination of listeners all over the world.]]> 153 Becky Chambers 0062936018 Christopher 4 4.19 2019 To Be Taught, If Fortunate
author: Becky Chambers
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/20
date added: 2023/02/20
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, science-fiction, audiobooks
review:
A really nice short novel set in Becky Chambers's cozy Wayfarers universe. This one's only got humans--no aliens here, or at least not any sentient ones. They're out exploring planets, researching slimy creatures, wondering how the folks back on Earth are doing. It's good stuff!
]]> <![CDATA[Sideways Stories from Wayside School]]> 563859 A Crazy Mixed-Up School.

There'd been a terrible mistake. Wayside School was supposed to be built with thirty classrooms all next to each other in a row. Instead, they built the classrooms one on top of the other ... thirty stories tal! (The builder said he was very sorry.)

That may be why all kinds of funny things happen at Wayside School ... especially on the thirtieth floor. You'll meet Mrs. Gorf, the meanest teacher of all, terrible Todd, who always gets sent home early, and John who can read only upside down - along with all the other kids in the crazy mixed-up school that came out sideways. But you'll never guess the truth about Sammy, the new kid ... or what's inside for Wayside School on Halloween!]]> 124 Louis Sachar 0380698714 Christopher 5 4.24 1978 Sideways Stories from Wayside School
author: Louis Sachar
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/31
date added: 2023/01/31
shelves: 20th-century, american, children-s, fiction, favorites, metafiction, postmodern
review:
Some of the best metafiction and postmodern literature happens to be written for children.
]]> Mount Chicago 59630375
“Adam Levin is one of our wildest writers and our funniest.� –George Saunders, bestselling, award-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo

A one-in-ten-billion natural disaster devastates Chicago. A Jewish comedian, his most devoted fan, and the city’s mayor must struggle to move forward while the world—quite literally—caves beneath their feet. With this polyphonic tale of Chicago-style politics and political correctness, stand-up comedy and Jewish identity, celebrity, drugs, and animal psychology, Levin has constructed a monument to laughter, love, art, and resilience in an age of spectacular loss.]]> 592 Adam Levin 0385548249 Christopher 2 V., is probably his most self-indulgent; no whim was left unsatisfied, yet it works somehow, it's his best, in my opinion. David Foster Wallace, another serial self-indulger, has varying success; some of it works so well, but he often goes too far. Postmodern authors are the most self-indulgent and self-pleased of all, which is why they're so controversial. Not everyone is up for the metafictional magic tricks they throw out, and even fewer will sit through the endless digressions they love so much.

Adam Levin's making a name for himself amongst those authors, not just because he's similarly self-indulgent, but because his work is very good and unique and moving. His first novel The Instructions was a blast that was compared incessantly to Infinite Jest but it is so much more readable. His second novel Bubblegum proved that he's no simple DFW clone by being--again--ultra-readable and emotional and addictive.

This book, however, sadly, is not what I'd call ultra-readable or addictive. It's on the wrong side of self-indulgent, as far as I'm concerned. So much of it seems like it was designed to be off-putting, like he took a page from Samuel Beckett's diarrhea-filled playbook and maybe a page from Pynchon's zany book of duck penises. Seriously, there's too much talk about diarrhea and duck penises and Louis CK and there are altogether too many shaggy dog stories that either go too far or not far enough.

There's a thread of anti-wokeness or at least anti-political correctness woven through here that's similarly off-putting. There's a section that talks about how hard it is for a white male author to get published in the current cultural climate, because everyone is interested in seeing perspectives other than that of white males. I don't think Levin is anti-woke in the way that Fox News is anti-woke, or that he's bemoaning his awful fate as a white male, but his willingness to step into this debate as a digression from the main story of his book, is just a little off-putting. The fridging of the protagonist's wife (an obvious stand-in for Levin's actual wife) in the first pages of the book feels like it was included as a middle finger to the awareness of fridging that's come up recently. It's like he's strewn nuggets of semi-anti-wokeness throughout the novel just for a little bit more edge.

I can forgive a lot in a book, however, if I am attached to the characters. I never grew attached to anyone in this book. There's Solomon Gladman, an author and professor who moonlights as a purposely schlocky comedian. There's Apter Schutz, a wunderkind who can do no wrong. And there's a ridiculous mayor. None of these gained my loyalty.

That's not to say there are no good parts. I really enjoyed the beginning. And I enjoyed the ending, which would have been very moving (rather than somewhat moving) had I developed a deeper bond with the characters.

Suffice it to say, this is my least favorite of Adam Levin's novels. But that's not to say I won't be excited when he releases another book. I know this guy's a great talent; he just missed the mark on this one for me.]]> 3.92 2022 Mount Chicago
author: Adam Levin
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/01/24
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, 500-pages-or-more, metafiction, postmodern, satire
review:
An author being self-indulgent sounds like a criticism, but in my experience, it doesn't have to be. Thomas Pynchon's first novel, V., is probably his most self-indulgent; no whim was left unsatisfied, yet it works somehow, it's his best, in my opinion. David Foster Wallace, another serial self-indulger, has varying success; some of it works so well, but he often goes too far. Postmodern authors are the most self-indulgent and self-pleased of all, which is why they're so controversial. Not everyone is up for the metafictional magic tricks they throw out, and even fewer will sit through the endless digressions they love so much.

Adam Levin's making a name for himself amongst those authors, not just because he's similarly self-indulgent, but because his work is very good and unique and moving. His first novel The Instructions was a blast that was compared incessantly to Infinite Jest but it is so much more readable. His second novel Bubblegum proved that he's no simple DFW clone by being--again--ultra-readable and emotional and addictive.

This book, however, sadly, is not what I'd call ultra-readable or addictive. It's on the wrong side of self-indulgent, as far as I'm concerned. So much of it seems like it was designed to be off-putting, like he took a page from Samuel Beckett's diarrhea-filled playbook and maybe a page from Pynchon's zany book of duck penises. Seriously, there's too much talk about diarrhea and duck penises and Louis CK and there are altogether too many shaggy dog stories that either go too far or not far enough.

There's a thread of anti-wokeness or at least anti-political correctness woven through here that's similarly off-putting. There's a section that talks about how hard it is for a white male author to get published in the current cultural climate, because everyone is interested in seeing perspectives other than that of white males. I don't think Levin is anti-woke in the way that Fox News is anti-woke, or that he's bemoaning his awful fate as a white male, but his willingness to step into this debate as a digression from the main story of his book, is just a little off-putting. The fridging of the protagonist's wife (an obvious stand-in for Levin's actual wife) in the first pages of the book feels like it was included as a middle finger to the awareness of fridging that's come up recently. It's like he's strewn nuggets of semi-anti-wokeness throughout the novel just for a little bit more edge.

I can forgive a lot in a book, however, if I am attached to the characters. I never grew attached to anyone in this book. There's Solomon Gladman, an author and professor who moonlights as a purposely schlocky comedian. There's Apter Schutz, a wunderkind who can do no wrong. And there's a ridiculous mayor. None of these gained my loyalty.

That's not to say there are no good parts. I really enjoyed the beginning. And I enjoyed the ending, which would have been very moving (rather than somewhat moving) had I developed a deeper bond with the characters.

Suffice it to say, this is my least favorite of Adam Levin's novels. But that's not to say I won't be excited when he releases another book. I know this guy's a great talent; he just missed the mark on this one for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)]]> 60526802
1972, BLACK RIVER FALLS, Alicia Western, twenty years old, with forty thousand dollars in a plastic bag, admits herself to the hospital. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alicia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby. Instead, she contemplates the nature of madness, the human insistence on one common experience of the world; she recalls a childhood where, by the age of seven, her own grandmother feared for her; she surveys the intersection of physics and philosophy; and she introduces her cohorts, her chimeras, the hallucinations that only she can see. All the while, she grieves for Bobby, not quite dead, not quite hers. Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is a searching, rigorous, intellectually challenging coda to The Passenger, a philosophical inquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and existence.]]> 190 Cormac McCarthy 0307269000 Christopher 4
In many ways it's a retread of McCarthy's earlier treatise on suicide, The Sunset Limited, which is likewise wholly a conversation between two characters about whether or not one of them should kill himself. But somehow Stella Maris feels gentler; though the stakes are just as high, the pages of Stella Maris and the hospital represented feel like a lacuna, a safe space away from the realities of the world and of suicide. Alicia does not feel like she's in danger, even though we know her fate from the first pages of The Passenger.

It's about how smart people--really smart people, geniuses, not just bright people--are often the saddest. It's about wanting to be the best at something but not being able to live up to your own standards. It's about the beauty and elegance of science and math, but how that beauty can also be terrifying, as in the case of the atomic bomb. It's about unrequited love and it's about taboo. It's got the classic McCarthy push-and-pull between beauty and despair that always keeps me coming back to him as my favorite author.]]> 3.83 2022 Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/13
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, novellas
review:
Up until a few months ago, I never thought I'd be comparing Cormac McCarthy and JD Salinger, but here we are. This is a book that is entirely dialogue, the transcriptions of a session between a young woman with schizophrenia and her psychiatrist while she's a patient at a psychiatric hospital. It's about a suicidal math genius who if you told me she was a long lost Glass daughter, I'd believe you.

In many ways it's a retread of McCarthy's earlier treatise on suicide, The Sunset Limited, which is likewise wholly a conversation between two characters about whether or not one of them should kill himself. But somehow Stella Maris feels gentler; though the stakes are just as high, the pages of Stella Maris and the hospital represented feel like a lacuna, a safe space away from the realities of the world and of suicide. Alicia does not feel like she's in danger, even though we know her fate from the first pages of The Passenger.

It's about how smart people--really smart people, geniuses, not just bright people--are often the saddest. It's about wanting to be the best at something but not being able to live up to your own standards. It's about the beauty and elegance of science and math, but how that beauty can also be terrifying, as in the case of the atomic bomb. It's about unrequited love and it's about taboo. It's got the classic McCarthy push-and-pull between beauty and despair that always keeps me coming back to him as my favorite author.
]]> <![CDATA[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]> 127515 224 Jack Finney 0684852586 Christopher 3
A fine experience overall, but I'm not sure it stands up to its reputation.]]> 3.91 1955 Invasion of the Body Snatchers
author: Jack Finney
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1955
rating: 3
read at: 2022/10/27
date added: 2022/10/27
shelves: 20th-century, american, audiobooks, fiction, horror, science-fiction
review:
This is old school sci-fi horror at its most okay. I've never seen any of the movies, but it's so ingrained into our culture that I felt like I knew the story. There aren't too many surprises, but one interesting thing I didn't expect is how much this seemed like a stepping stone between HG Wells and modern sci-fi. The main character is very Wellsian: he's a rational doctor who keeps a level head. If you rewrote this book with some late Victorian prose and relocated it to the English countryside, I'd believe it was written by Wells.

A fine experience overall, but I'm not sure it stands up to its reputation.
]]> HHhH 13166622
Who were these men, arguably two of the most discreet heroes of the twentieth century? In Laurent Binet's captivating debut novel, we follow Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubiš from their dramatic escape of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England; from their recruitment to their harrowing parachute drop into a war zone, from their stealth attack on Heydrich's car to their own brutal death in the basement of a Prague church.

A seemingly effortlessly blend of historical truth, personal memory, and Laurent Binet's remarkable imagination, HHhH―an international bestseller and winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman―is a work at once thrilling and intellectually engrossing, a fast-paced novel of the Second World War that is also a profound meditation on the nature of writing and the debt we owe to history.

HHhH is one of The New York Times' Notable Books of 2012.]]> 330 Laurent Binet 0374169918 Christopher 4
It's also the story of the author's fascination with those events. He's a careful writer who, by all appearances, wishes he was writing a nonfiction book of history but wasn't able to pull enough facts to make a lengthy enough book. So the short, snappy chapters of history are interwoven with short, snappy chapters of the author's metafictional musings. He talks about the other books he's read as research for this project, he rants about other novelists' tendencies to invent dialogue for their historical fiction (something he doesn't want to do, but occasionally does when it's just too tempting). I might call these chapters self-indulgent and pretentious if it all didn't flow so well together and make for such captivating reading.

I think this may launch me into the phase of WW2 obsession all dads seem to fall into. I just ordered The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Wish me luck!]]> 4.06 2010 HHhH
author: Laurent Binet
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/24
date added: 2022/10/24
shelves: 21st-century, french, fiction, metafiction, historical-fiction
review:
Hitler had a right-hand man named Himmler, and Himmler had a right-hand man named Heydrich. Himmlers Hirn heiĂźt Heydrich ("Himmler's brain is called Heydrich"), that's where the title of the book comes from. Heydrich was a particularly disgusting fellow; he was one of the main designers of the Holocaust, of Kristallnacht, of plenty of sadistic games the Nazis played with innocent lives. He was the head of a branch of the SS called the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and Hitler appointed him as Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia after the Nazis brutally annexed part of Czechoslovakia. This book is the story of his assassination, and it's wonderful.

It's also the story of the author's fascination with those events. He's a careful writer who, by all appearances, wishes he was writing a nonfiction book of history but wasn't able to pull enough facts to make a lengthy enough book. So the short, snappy chapters of history are interwoven with short, snappy chapters of the author's metafictional musings. He talks about the other books he's read as research for this project, he rants about other novelists' tendencies to invent dialogue for their historical fiction (something he doesn't want to do, but occasionally does when it's just too tempting). I might call these chapters self-indulgent and pretentious if it all didn't flow so well together and make for such captivating reading.

I think this may launch me into the phase of WW2 obsession all dads seem to fall into. I just ordered The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Wish me luck!
]]> Mendelssohn is on the Roof 1188126 228 Jiří Weil 0810116863 Christopher 0 4.11 1960 Mendelssohn is on the Roof
author: Jiří Weil
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/20
shelves: to-read, 20th-century, fiction, jewish
review:

]]> The French Lieutenant’s Woman 56034 470 John Fowles 0099478331 Christopher 4
I think the postmodern/metafictional aspects of this novel are overstated, though. At its heart, this is a Victorian love triangle novel and it can be read as such. If you don't want to indulge in the games the author plays between centuries, that's okay. It's still a great story with well developed characters and one very enigmatic character; Fowles could stand next to the great Victorian authors with no shame.]]> 3.88 1969 The French Lieutenant’s Woman
author: John Fowles
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1969
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/12
date added: 2022/10/12
shelves: 20th-century, british, fiction, metafiction, postmodern, modern-classics, historical-fiction
review:
This is a dazzling display of Victorian mimicry, punctuated with postmodern games: what we have here is a novel written in the 1960s, aping the style of British novels of the 1860s, but the twentieth century keeps sticking its nose in to comment from its (more) modern perspective. The author himself appears a few times to wax philosophically on the nature of fiction, on Marx's and Darwin's effects on the environs of his story.

I think the postmodern/metafictional aspects of this novel are overstated, though. At its heart, this is a Victorian love triangle novel and it can be read as such. If you don't want to indulge in the games the author plays between centuries, that's okay. It's still a great story with well developed characters and one very enigmatic character; Fowles could stand next to the great Victorian authors with no shame.
]]> Sliver 25090096 A chilling psychological thriller that explores the menacing evil behind the glittering facades of Manhattan’s skyscrapers.



Kay Norris, a successful and lovely book editor, moves into the posh Carnegie Hill district of Manhattan, into an apartment in a slender high-rise. A man watches her. He watches her unpack, watches her make her bed. He owns the building: a shocking secret is concealed within its brick and concrete.

Sliver is a sinuous erotic thriller, a hypnotic story of obsession, suspense, and stunning surprises. It is a novel about the ultimate power, and the temptations the use of that power brings.]]> 203 Ira Levin 1605989312 Christopher 2
This book, though, is a trashy thriller that thinks it has the gravitas of a Greek tragedy. It's about divorced fiction editor Kay (described as sexy, of course) who moves into one of New York's sliver buildings (one of those skinny ones) and gets enmeshed with a bunch of residents who all have secrets to hide. There are rumors of suicides and accidents that have plagued the building, which--of course---is 1300 Madison Avenue. It's still fun to read, but in the fun even though it's bad way.

Ira Levin wrote five books between 1953 and 1976; then he didn't release a book until this one in 1991. During that time, the world must have passed him by, because this book feels way more dated than any of his older ones. There's talk of high end video surveillance equipment and you can just imagine a hacker in a dark room, trails of glowing green data flowing down some giant, bulky computer screens. High-powered executives meet for lunch at the Four Seasons and talk about how maybe they'll cross paths with Trump. Sharon Stone, William Baldwin and Tom Berenger star in the film adaptation, because of course they do.

The moral is, read Ira Levin's older books, but probably steer clear of this one.

P.S. I just took the time to read the Wiki entry for the Sliver film adaptation (because there's absolutely no way I'm wasting my time to watch it) and wow, it sounds even worse than the book. [spoilers removed]]]> 3.55 1991 Sliver
author: Ira Levin
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1991
rating: 2
read at: 2022/09/19
date added: 2022/09/19
shelves: 20th-century, american, fiction
review:
Ira Levin was the author of Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives, and The Boys From Brazil, novels from the 60s and 70s that are still adored and were adapted into adored films. They're a lot of fun to read; they're almost written like screenplays and they're particularly good at portraying paranoia and the unraveling of conspiracies.

This book, though, is a trashy thriller that thinks it has the gravitas of a Greek tragedy. It's about divorced fiction editor Kay (described as sexy, of course) who moves into one of New York's sliver buildings (one of those skinny ones) and gets enmeshed with a bunch of residents who all have secrets to hide. There are rumors of suicides and accidents that have plagued the building, which--of course---is 1300 Madison Avenue. It's still fun to read, but in the fun even though it's bad way.

Ira Levin wrote five books between 1953 and 1976; then he didn't release a book until this one in 1991. During that time, the world must have passed him by, because this book feels way more dated than any of his older ones. There's talk of high end video surveillance equipment and you can just imagine a hacker in a dark room, trails of glowing green data flowing down some giant, bulky computer screens. High-powered executives meet for lunch at the Four Seasons and talk about how maybe they'll cross paths with Trump. Sharon Stone, William Baldwin and Tom Berenger star in the film adaptation, because of course they do.

The moral is, read Ira Levin's older books, but probably steer clear of this one.

P.S. I just took the time to read the Wiki entry for the Sliver film adaptation (because there's absolutely no way I'm wasting my time to watch it) and wow, it sounds even worse than the book. [spoilers removed]
]]> <![CDATA[Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel]]> 24724564 ĚýBats of the Republic Ěýfeatures original artwork and an immaculate design to create a unique novel of adventure and science fiction, of political intrigue and future dystopian struggles, and, at its riveting core, of love.

Ěý Ěý ĚýIn 1843 Chicago, fragile naturalist Zadock Thomas falls in love with the high society daughter of Joseph Gray, a prominent ornithologist. Mr. Gray sets an impossible condition for their marriage—Zadock must deliver a sealed and highly secretive letter to General Irion, fighting one thousand miles southwest, deep within the embattled and newly independent Republic of Texas. The fate of the Union lies within the mysterious contents of that sealed letter, but that is only the beginning . . .
ĚýĚýĚýĚý Three hundred years later, in the dystopian city-state of the Texas Republic, Zeke Thomas has just received news of the death of his grandfather, an esteemed Chicago senator. The world has crumbled. Paper documents are banned, citizens are watched, and dissenters are thrown over the walls into "the rot." When Zeke inherits—and then loses—a very old, sealed letter from his grandfather, Zeke finds himself and the women he loves at the heart of a conspiracy whose secrets he must unravel, if it doesn't destroy his relationship, his family legacy, and the entire republic first.
ĚýĚýĚýĚý The two propulsive narratives converge through a wildly creative assortment of documents, books within books, maps, notes, illustrations, and more. Zach Dodson has created a gorgeous work of art and an eye-popping commercial adventure for the 21st century.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 448 Zachary Thomas Dodson 0385539835 Christopher 0 3.52 2015 Bats of the Republic: An Illuminated Novel
author: Zachary Thomas Dodson
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/16
shelves: to-read, 21st-century, american, curio, fiction, science-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers, #3)]]> 36220698
Hundreds of years ago, the last humans on Earth boarded the Exodus Fleet in search of a new home among the stars. After centuries spent wandering empty space, their descendants were eventually accepted by the well-established species that govern the Milky Way.

But that was long ago. Today, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, the birthplace of many, yet a place few outsiders have ever visited. While the Exodans take great pride in their original community and traditions, their culture has been influenced by others beyond their bulkheads. As many Exodans leave for alien cities or terrestrial colonies, those who remain are left to ponder their own lives and futures: What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination? Why remain in space when there are habitable worlds available to live? What is the price of sustaining their carefully balanced way of life—and is it worth saving at all?

A young apprentice, a lifelong spacer with young children, a planet-raised traveler, an alien academic, a caretaker for the dead, and an Archivist whose mission is to ensure no one’s story is forgotten, wrestle with these profound universal questions. The answers may seem small on the galactic scale, but to these individuals, it could mean everything.]]> 358 Becky Chambers 0062699229 Christopher 3
This book is set in the Exodan Fleet. Humans haven’t found a planet to call home, so they’re still living in these gigantic ships, orbiting around a star from which they can draw power. Most of the characters are humans born in the Fleet, but there’s also a Harmagian (sluggy alien) ethnographer who's researching humans and a human who was born on an alien planet but who has decided to immigrate to the Fleet to make it his home.

Both of the previous books in this series were five-star reads for me; this one, while it's not a bad book, felt like a letdown in comparison. I just didn't connect with these characters on the same level. The subjects of the novel don't know each other; by the end, they intersect a bit, but for the most part, this is a mashup of several short stories that are thematically connected. It just didn't have the magic of the first two novels.]]> 4.15 2018 Record of a Spaceborn Few (Wayfarers, #3)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/16
date added: 2022/09/16
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, science-fiction
review:
Becky Chambers’s Wayfarers series is the most optimistic sci-fi series out there. In the distant future, humans are a space-dwelling race. We ruined Earth, but now we’re out among the stars, one of the humblest species out there. There are some wars between alien races, but for the most part, everyone is coexisting and trying their best to be chill.

This book is set in the Exodan Fleet. Humans haven’t found a planet to call home, so they’re still living in these gigantic ships, orbiting around a star from which they can draw power. Most of the characters are humans born in the Fleet, but there’s also a Harmagian (sluggy alien) ethnographer who's researching humans and a human who was born on an alien planet but who has decided to immigrate to the Fleet to make it his home.

Both of the previous books in this series were five-star reads for me; this one, while it's not a bad book, felt like a letdown in comparison. I just didn't connect with these characters on the same level. The subjects of the novel don't know each other; by the end, they intersect a bit, but for the most part, this is a mashup of several short stories that are thematically connected. It just didn't have the magic of the first two novels.
]]> Thirst 55442513
« On n'apprend des vérités si fortes qu'en ayant soif, qu'en éprouvant l'amour et en mourant : trois activités qui nécessitent un corps. » Avec sa plume inimitable, Amélie Nothomb donne voix et corps à Jésus Christ, quelques heures avant la crucifixion. Elle nous fait rencontrer un Christ ô combien humain et incarné, qui monte avec résignation au sommet du Golgotha. Aucun défi littéraire n'arrête l'imagination puissante et fulgurante d'Amélie Nothomb, qui livre ici un de ses textes les plus intimes.]]> 96 Amélie Nothomb 1787702901 Christopher 4 The Last Temptation of Christ) and boring ones (The Gospel According to the Son). There were really touching ones (The Testament of Mary) and conspiracy-minded ones (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal). There are a few I stumbled across that tangentially glance off the life of Jesus (Barabbas, The Master and Margarita.)

This one shares a lot of DNA with Colm Toibin's The Testament of Mary, which is a first person narration by Mary the mother of Jesus. Quiet, reflective, confessional. Thirst is a first-person narrative by Jesus himself, taking place over the last day of his life. Nothomb's Jesus is very human, but still divine. He is God's true son, but most of this book is concerned with his body. After all, it's called "Thirst", which is a physical thing, and his last day was a very physical trial. Jesus waxes philosophical about the corporeal:
If one would just listen to it, one would realize that the body is always intelligent. In some distant future, it will be possible to measure people's intellectual quotient. It will serve no purpose. Fortunately, it will never be possible to evaluate an individual's degree of incarnation other than through intuition: their supreme value.
And later:
Try this experiment: after dying of thirst for a good long while, don't drink your glass of water all in one go. Take a single sip and keep it in your mouth for a few seconds before swallowing. Notice how wonderful it feels. That dazzling moment is God. [...] This is not a metaphor for God. The love you feel in that precise moment for your sip of water is God. It is I who am able to feel this love for everything that exists. That is what it means to be Christ.
This Jesus certainly isn't the Bible's authoritative version of Jesus, if there is such a thing, but, as with many of the other books about Jesus I've read, I'm surprised by the delicacy and reverence this Jesus is treated with. The authors of these books (even Christopher Moore) seem to have a real respect for Jesus and his message, though I don't think any of them are Christians themselves, at least in the ordinary sense of the word.

This book is just short enough to not overstay its welcome, and though it doesn't break much new ground from the other books I've mentioned, it's an interesting character study and has some nice philosophical meanderings, if you're into that sort of thing.]]> 3.68 2019 Thirst
author: Amélie Nothomb
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/14
date added: 2022/09/14
shelves: 21st-century, fiction, french, novellas
review:
Years ago I started a reading project of novels about Jesus. There have been great ones (The Last Temptation of Christ) and boring ones (The Gospel According to the Son). There were really touching ones (The Testament of Mary) and conspiracy-minded ones (Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal). There are a few I stumbled across that tangentially glance off the life of Jesus (Barabbas, The Master and Margarita.)

This one shares a lot of DNA with Colm Toibin's The Testament of Mary, which is a first person narration by Mary the mother of Jesus. Quiet, reflective, confessional. Thirst is a first-person narrative by Jesus himself, taking place over the last day of his life. Nothomb's Jesus is very human, but still divine. He is God's true son, but most of this book is concerned with his body. After all, it's called "Thirst", which is a physical thing, and his last day was a very physical trial. Jesus waxes philosophical about the corporeal:
If one would just listen to it, one would realize that the body is always intelligent. In some distant future, it will be possible to measure people's intellectual quotient. It will serve no purpose. Fortunately, it will never be possible to evaluate an individual's degree of incarnation other than through intuition: their supreme value.
And later:
Try this experiment: after dying of thirst for a good long while, don't drink your glass of water all in one go. Take a single sip and keep it in your mouth for a few seconds before swallowing. Notice how wonderful it feels. That dazzling moment is God. [...] This is not a metaphor for God. The love you feel in that precise moment for your sip of water is God. It is I who am able to feel this love for everything that exists. That is what it means to be Christ.
This Jesus certainly isn't the Bible's authoritative version of Jesus, if there is such a thing, but, as with many of the other books about Jesus I've read, I'm surprised by the delicacy and reverence this Jesus is treated with. The authors of these books (even Christopher Moore) seem to have a real respect for Jesus and his message, though I don't think any of them are Christians themselves, at least in the ordinary sense of the word.

This book is just short enough to not overstay its welcome, and though it doesn't break much new ground from the other books I've mentioned, it's an interesting character study and has some nice philosophical meanderings, if you're into that sort of thing.
]]> <![CDATA[Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret]]> 37732
But none of them can believe Margaret doesn’t have religion, and that she isn’t going to the Y or the Jewish Community Center. What they don’t know is Margaret has her own very special relationship with God. She can talk to God about everything—family, friends, even Moose Freed, her secret crush.

Margaret is funny and real, and her thoughts and feelings are oh-so-relatable—you’ll feel like she’s talking right to you, sharing her secrets with a friend.]]> 149 Judy Blume 0689841582 Christopher 3
Some books give you entertainment. Some books increase your knowledge. My favorite books demand and increase your empathy. I can't say that I understand how a young girl feels as they start to go through puberty, but this book put me in that mindset for a little while, at least, and that can't be a bad thing.

Does anyone know what the male-equivalent book to this might be? I don't just mean a good male-centric young adult novel, because there are hundreds of those. I mean one that takes everything about being a young boy and plops it right out there on the page, all the awkward and painful and scary stuff, one that every boy or once-boy can identify with. What book would that be?]]> 3.93 1970 Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
author: Judy Blume
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1970
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/13
date added: 2022/09/13
shelves: 20th-century, children-s, epistolary, fiction, bildungsroman, novellas, young-adult
review:
I must admit it feels a bit uncomfortable reading this book as a 36 year old man. The experience is, in essence, snooping into the diary of an eleven year old girl that details her thoughts on boys, bras, menstruation, religion, et cetera. In these pages, Margaret tries out Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, she buys her first bra, she finds and flips through a Playboy with her friend. She and her friends appeal to an unnamed higher power for bigger breasts with chants of "we must, we must, we must increase our busts!"

Some books give you entertainment. Some books increase your knowledge. My favorite books demand and increase your empathy. I can't say that I understand how a young girl feels as they start to go through puberty, but this book put me in that mindset for a little while, at least, and that can't be a bad thing.

Does anyone know what the male-equivalent book to this might be? I don't just mean a good male-centric young adult novel, because there are hundreds of those. I mean one that takes everything about being a young boy and plops it right out there on the page, all the awkward and painful and scary stuff, one that every boy or once-boy can identify with. What book would that be?
]]> <![CDATA[The Letters of Shirley Jackson]]> 55873256 A bewitchingly brilliant collection of never-before-published letters from the renowned author of "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson is one of the most important American authors of the last hundred years and among America's greatest chroniclers of the female experience. This extraordinary compilation of personal correspondence has all the hallmarks of Jackson's beloved fiction: flashes of the uncanny in the domestic, sparks of horror in the quotidian, and the veins of humor that run through good times and bad.

"I am having a fine time doing a novel with my left hand and a long story—with as many levels as Grand Central Station—with my right hand, stirring chocolate pudding with a spoon held in my teeth, and tuning the television with both feet."

Written over the course of nearly three decades, from Jackson's college years to six days before her early death at the age of forty-eight, these letters become the autobiography Shirley Jackson never wrote. As well as being a bestselling author, Jackson spent much of her adult life as a mother of four in Vermont, and the landscape here is often the everyday: raucous holidays and trips to the dentist, overdue taxes and frayed lines of Christmas lights, new dogs, and new babies. But in recounting these events to family, friends, and colleagues, she turns them into remarkable stories: entertaining, revealing, and wise. At the same time, many of these letters provide fresh insight into the genesis and progress of Jackson's writing over nearly three decades.

"The novel is getting sadder. It's always such a strange feeling—I know something's going to happen, and those poor people in the book don't; they just go blithely on their ways."

Compiled and edited by her elder son, Laurence Jackson Hyman, in consultation with Jackson scholar Bernice M. Murphy and featuring Jackson's own witty line drawings, this intimate collection holds the beguiling prism of Shirley Jackson—writer and reader, mother and daughter, neighbor and wife—up to the light.]]> 623 Shirley Jackson 0593134648 Christopher 4
- College-age Shirley writes remarkably well; her early letters have almost the same voice as her later letters, as well as many of her stories.
- It’s weird that Shirley and Stanley (her husband) like sports so much. She's constantly telling her parents or others about their experiences at baseball or football games, her hopes for her team's chances at the World Series, etc. When I imagine Shirley in her free time, I picture her practicing some light witchcraft, not cheering on her favorite batter.
- Shirley found Joyce's Ulysses to be a bore, which gives me some feeling of validation.
- Ralph Ellison was a close friend of Shirley and Stanley and wrote much of Invisible Man while staying with them.
-Shirley constantly wrote to her parents to ask for financial help. Even with her relative publishing success and Stanley's career as a professor at Bennington College, they always struggled to make ends meet.
-Stanley and Shirley had an open relationship, but not in the fun, modern sense. Stanley was a cheater and Shirley reluctantly allowed him to continue cheating with her knowledge. There are hints that many of his lovers were his students. (What a class act, eh?) There's no evidence that she engaged in any extramarital affairs.
-Stanley refused to read Hill House because he’s afraid of ghosts.
-Shirley LOVES the Wizard of Oz books and they come up constantly.
-Shirley, just like me, considered We Have Always Lived in the Castle to be her best work. She has good taste!
-In the end, I'm left with the same somber feeling: if she hadn't die of a heart attack at 48, what amazing literature would she have produced?]]> 4.54 2021 The Letters of Shirley Jackson
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Christopher
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/22
date added: 2022/08/22
shelves: 20th-century, american, audiobooks, epistolary, memoir, non-fiction, 500-pages-or-more
review:
Notes from my reading of Shirley Jackson's letters:

- College-age Shirley writes remarkably well; her early letters have almost the same voice as her later letters, as well as many of her stories.
- It’s weird that Shirley and Stanley (her husband) like sports so much. She's constantly telling her parents or others about their experiences at baseball or football games, her hopes for her team's chances at the World Series, etc. When I imagine Shirley in her free time, I picture her practicing some light witchcraft, not cheering on her favorite batter.
- Shirley found Joyce's Ulysses to be a bore, which gives me some feeling of validation.
- Ralph Ellison was a close friend of Shirley and Stanley and wrote much of Invisible Man while staying with them.
-Shirley constantly wrote to her parents to ask for financial help. Even with her relative publishing success and Stanley's career as a professor at Bennington College, they always struggled to make ends meet.
-Stanley and Shirley had an open relationship, but not in the fun, modern sense. Stanley was a cheater and Shirley reluctantly allowed him to continue cheating with her knowledge. There are hints that many of his lovers were his students. (What a class act, eh?) There's no evidence that she engaged in any extramarital affairs.
-Stanley refused to read Hill House because he’s afraid of ghosts.
-Shirley LOVES the Wizard of Oz books and they come up constantly.
-Shirley, just like me, considered We Have Always Lived in the Castle to be her best work. She has good taste!
-In the end, I'm left with the same somber feeling: if she hadn't die of a heart attack at 48, what amazing literature would she have produced?
]]> Freddy's Book 2908089 "Combines the fascination of a fairy tale . . . with beautifully defined characters and an underlying seriousness of purpose that makes it something far more important . . . Freddy's Book is the work of a master storyteller."-Anne Tyler

In a gloomy mansion in Madison, Wisconsin, a sheltered and sensitive young man slips a visiting professor his secret manuscript-a staggering and beautiful fantasy of knights, knaves, and fools, a rich tale of timeless battles with the devil himself over power and destiny.

John Gardner (1933 - 1982) was a major figure of twentieth-century letters.

]]> 245 John Gardner 039450920X Christopher 0
Abandoned for now, and probably forever.]]> 3.62 1973 Freddy's Book
author: John Gardner
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/19
shelves: american, 20th-century, fiction, metafiction, postmodern, abandoned
review:
The first quarter of this book was great, it was about a pompous history professor going to the house of a deranged history professor who claims to have a son who is monster. He meets the son, who is not a monster, but just has some sort of "glandular problem", but he's writing a book. This is all just a frame story for Freddy's book, which the professor reads. Except it's not really a frame story, because it never returns to the professor's viewpoint. Freddy's book is all there is for the rest of the pages, and I was not into it at all... it was about a Swedish knight trying to kill the devil or something, but like old Arthurian tales, it gives very little reason to care about the characters or what's going on.

Abandoned for now, and probably forever.
]]> The Keep 86655
Two cousins, irreversibly damaged by a childhood prank, reunite twenty years later to renovate a medieval castle in Eastern Europe. In an environment of extreme paranoia, cut off from the outside world, the men reenact the signal event of their youth, with even more catastrophic results. And as the full horror of their predicament unfolds, a prisoner, in jail for an unnamed crime, recounts an unforgettable story that seamlessly brings the crimes of the past and present into piercing relation.]]> 240 Jennifer Egan 1400043921 Christopher 5 3.47 2006 The Keep
author: Jennifer Egan
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/15
date added: 2022/08/15
shelves: 21st-century, american, fiction, vergangenheitsbewaltigung, metafiction
review:
A great gothic novel with some nice surprises in it. What starts out as a pretty straightforward story turns out to be a more intricate metafictional delight.
]]> My Sister, the Serial Killer 38819868
My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water...]]> 226 Oyinkan Braithwaite 0385544235 Christopher 3 3.64 2018 My Sister, the Serial Killer
author: Oyinkan Braithwaite
name: Christopher
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/12
date added: 2022/08/12
shelves: 21st-century, african, fiction
review:
A quick, fun read that you could absolutely knock out in one sitting. It's about two sisters: one of them kills her boyfriends and the other (the narrator) helps her cover up the murders. It's got splashes of Dexter and American Psycho, but it's not graphic or gratuitous. The first person narration is reminiscent of Gillian Flynn. It's not terribly deep or groundbreaking, but it's a good time!
]]>