One of my projects this year was to make a dent in the Atwood canon, and I seem to have done so in the latter half of 2017. I had heard very little about Life Before Man, but I thought it would be intriguing to see some of her earlier work, since I had never read any books published prior to The Handmaid’s Tale. You can see her sly humor and nascent feminism here, even if there are some heavily domestic tropes in the novel. […]
Sad story, annoying envelope
My friend S was going through books and passed on her copy of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius to me. I had heard it referenced before in many cultural contexts (including a Gilmore Girls episode, if memory serves) but had never read it. The only Dave Eggers I had read was The Circle which I found quite interesting (if some parts a little frustrating). I was eager to see how this work stacked up. The premise of the story is eye-catching. Dave Eggers’ parents […]
Not the Disney version, but very good.
Back in the 1990s, my mom did not allow me to watch Disney’s adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because she thought it looked too dark and scary (watching it many years later as an adult, I have to say that she’s not entirely wrong. It’s really not a children’s film at all). Hilariously enough, my parents got me the novel for Christmas a mere few years later, not realizing that this is a Little Mermaid situation in that the Disney adaptation is a […]
Read this book as a statement, not a question. And weep.
Peeps. We’ve been living this nightmare for almost a year now. It feels like ten. I don’t want to relitigate the 2016 election, except to say that I was blue no matter who (thanks to my Throwing Shade podcast for that line!), and I am tired of Hillary Clinton being burned in the town square of public opinion. She is not president of the United States, and she is not running again. And after reading her book, I began to understand the enormity of what […]
Dark high fantasy that just didn’t do it for me.
Many years ago, my sister had told me about the Way of Shadows, a fantasy novel and part of a trilogy that she had read. I was sufficiently intrigued and added it to my TBR. Two CBR Book Exchanges ago, Malin had graciously added it to my book haul and hoped that I would enjoy the reading experience. And, while I admit that this book was not my cup of tea, I am grateful for the experience and the diversity in reading material that she […]
A re-read that was worth the time
At the end of September, I presented a paper on P.D. James’s The Children of Men and technological anxieties. I used two academic metaphors: Michel Foucault’s reading of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon model; and Donna Haraway’s cyborg. I argue that these examine male anxiety and female empowerment, particularly in an age of surveillance. That’s the sparknotes version, because I am fairly certain you don’t want to hear my presentation, but my thoughts on the book instead. Obviously, because I wrote about Children of Men, I had […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- …
- 122
- Next Page »