Hoo boy. There is a LOT going on in this one. It’s Paris, World War II. The Nazis are trying their best to occupy the city, but it’s a little difficult, because some mystical bomb went off in a café, and now there are creatures (manifestations, or ‘manifs’) from Surrealist paintings and poems walking around the city, casually eating or dismembering Parisians and Nazis alike. Tables with wolf heads, puddles in the street with carnivorous plants living in them, giant stone statues walking around bashing […]
“Dependably good” doesn’t sound like high enough praise, but it’s meant to be
I love starting a book I know is going to be good, and Tana French has quickly become one of those authors who send me tripping home from the library in gleeful anticipation. I think The Likeness has been my favorite so far, but I was in a lazy zone then and didn’t review that one. Oops. This one was good too, but seemed even darker. Frank Mackey is a detective in the undercover department (that sounds wrong, but you know what I mean). When […]
Fundamental Interconnectedness of high school flashbacks
I decided to reread this before the BBC show started, which turned out to be totally unnecessary. I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode of the show, but it has nothing to do with the book, except for one line about the “fundamental interconnectedness of all things,” and maybe some passing references to pizza and Thor. Still gonna watch, still gonna enjoy the book. Dirk Gently doesn’t actually show up in his own book until page 85, and then he disappears again for a while. This […]
I got moles…big, mutant, junky moles
I really enjoy recommending things, and I really enjoy China Mieville, but up till now I haven’t had a go-to China book to recommend to people. He’s not the most easily digestible author, although his stuff is fantastic. I found Railsea in the young adult section of the library, and that might be why it’s a little more accessible, but it doesn’t lack any of his trademark atmosphere and incredible world-building. Sham ap Soorap has been apprenticed to a doctor on a mole-hunting train. The […]
An advice columnist goes rogue
Did you guys know Judith Viorst wrote grown-up books? I grew up loving Alexander and the No-Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day (too lazy to look that up and see if I got all the adjectives), so when I saw Murdering Mr. Monti on the shelf at a used bookstore, I had to investigate. Brenda Kovner is the worst kind of meddler. She’s an advice columnist convinced she knows everything, and she terrorizes her friends, family, and neighbors. With one son engaged to a wimp with […]
I still miss Christina Yang
I like Shonda Rhimes. I’ve watched Grey’s Anatomy since the beginning, I’m enjoying How to Get Away with Murder, and I even, lord help me, stuck with Private Practice till the end. I’m not sure how I missed Scandal, but I’m sure I’ll catch up someday. So I was intrigued when a friend gave me Shonda’s Year of Yes. I like all her shows, and now, I want to hang out with her. Shonda is a problematic thing to be: a famous introvert. When people […]
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