Fun story: I read Moby-Dick for the very first time after I had jaw surgery in the summer of 2004. I was taking an American Literature survey that fall, and I wanted to prepare, especially because I would be pretty much confined to no strenuous physical activity with lots of free time (and sure enough, the most workout I could muster was carrying a stack of books from the library. I read 40-some books that summer alone, and watched countless movies in between my mom […]
My first-ever cyperpunk novel, guys!
I am not–strictly speaking–a sci-fi reader. I had never heard of The Diamond Age until my sister recommended it to me. My sister is an awesome person. She has read so many books that I have recommended to her, including ones for my dissertation, that I thought it was long past time I returned the favor. So I picked up The Diamond Age. It starts with a man named Bud who buys an illegal skullgun, beats a man, and is then sentenced to death. The […]
The Children Act (.)
Ian McEwan gets it. He understands the complicated nature of the human heart, the means by which we process love, loss, faith, loss of faith, life and death. His later novels are especially interested in human nature, not as an abstract concept, but as a reality. A solid, concrete, beating heart. And it’s to this material that he again returns with The Children Act. The novel’s title is a pun of sorts, deriving both from The Children Act of 1989, and a short, declarative sentence. […]
Unlucky Jason (a more painful Lucky Jim, in letters)
As an academic, I do enjoy poking fun at myself and my profession every once in awhile. Like any other profession, there is plenty about academia that is ridiculous/absurd/unfair/hilarious. I don’t particularly enjoy Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (and I suspect that has as much to do with the sort of white-boyisms that populate the novel, and that Jim is kind of a twit), and I haven’t yet read any of David Lodge’s work (I hear The British Museum Is Falling Down is excellent, however). So […]
A beautiful, complex doorstop of a novel that needs to be a BBC mini-series. Like, right now.
Ever since The Luminaries was announced as 2013’s Man Booker Prize winner, I have been intrigued to read it. When I heard that Eleanor Catton, the author, was my age, I immediately felt depressed that I have not even finished my (about) 200-page dissertation, when Ms. Catton quadrupled my page count. The sheer size discouraged me from picking it up before now (and I felt rather foolish for borrowing this tome, thinking I would just have to return it to the library). And then I […]
Confession: I like cheese. And cupcakes.
I love food. I like to talk about it, read about it, view it via cookbooks or shows, prepare it, and eat it. So I was highly intrigued by the Barnes and Noble display that featured David Sax’s The Tastemakers. Hmmmm, I thought. Just why are we so crazy about cupcakes and tired of fondue? (disclosure: I love a good fondue. Who doesn’t love a meal that consists of you dipping bread and fruit into gourmet melted cheese? Just saying) David Sax expertly explains food […]
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