Back when I first started graduate school in 2009 (my Master’s degree, to be precise), I thought I was going to specialize in British eighteenth and nineteenth century literature. I thought I was going to look at Gothic novels as part of that specialty. I acquired several Gothic novels over the course of the next two years. And lo and behold, I changed my mind in the first year of my PhD. Oops. I have a small handful of British novels yet to read, and […]
One of my favorites, but definitely polarizing.
Ian McEwan tends to be a polarizing author in literary fiction circles. I have friends who LOVE HIM (my sister and I are in that camp, for sure), friends who HATE HIM and despise his work, and friends who run hot-and-cold. If you’re not sure if you’ll like McEwan, Atonement is actually the perfect place to start, since it’s largely considered to be his finest work (and I certainly agree with that argument). It definitely lacks the macabre that characterized his early works. [sidenote: ask […]
How NyQuil killed my buzz for great big Russian novels.
I’M FRE—I mean, FINISHED!!!! Yay, I read an enormous Russian novel!!!! Seriously, what was I thinking??? For real, though. I’ve had the stupidest chest cold since last Saturday, and I feel disgusting. I had to work from home and conference with my students via Skype on Wednesday because I was coughing too hard to really make my long commute feasible. And spending my day and night hopped up on cold medicine was not conducive to paying periods of rapt attention to a seriously dense […]
An intriguing Kickstarted graphic novel series
I’m always on the lookout for interesting, challenging graphic novels, especially ones that are geared towards young adults, so I broke my no-library rule and promptly checked out Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag, because it sounded intriguing. It was definitely worth checking out, though I am (a) definitely going to have to return to my home stack and (b) behind in grading now because I chose to work on reviews instead of grade essays (I regret nothing, but I will […]
Another Dinesen strike-out
Apparently, my great love for “Babette’s Feast” fooled me into thinking I would love every single thing that Karen Blixen (pseudonymously known as Isak Dinesen) wrote. If you read my review of Out of Africa, you’ll know that’s not the case. And it’s certainly doubly true here. Three of the four essays in here were largely unmemorable, but there was a rather arresting one that stood out. Full review here.
No sparks of joy flying here.
Ever since I’ve begun Marie Kondo-ing my bookshelves, I have discovered plunder that I never knew was there. I have also discovered headscratchers that made me angry I moved them from my parents’ house to my MA program, to my first house with The Chancellor, to our current apartment. All throughout my reading of Out of Africa, I could not help thinking, “I moved this book? TWICE??” [possibly more, dear reader, but I refuse to think about it] My full review is rather baffled and […]
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