This is a book that works best when you go in without knowing much. To fully explain the plot of Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is its own kind of spoiler. The plot is centered around a secret, or more accurately, around a reveal. I went into the book already knowing the “twist” that’s revealed about 80 pages into the book and I spent those pages going “aha. I see that hint. I know what’s going to happen.” I wonder how […]
“That’s what bravery is. Standing by the consequences of your mistakes.”
On a desolate island miles from civilization, a man finds himself faced with an impossible choice. The man is Tom, a stoic, principled veteran, recently returned to Australia after serving in World War I. He’s damaged goods, carrying a heavy load of guilt for being one of the few to actually make it home from the war, alive and physically unscathed. He finds a job that speaks to his solitary tendencies as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, an isolated island about half a day’s […]
A Necessary Slog
This was not an easy book to get through. Complicated, dense and full of tiny print, I felt my eyes glazing over at least once every chapter. And let’s be clear-I like hard books. I like history. I like nonfiction. I’m used to people coming over to me while I’m reading my book and asking me what college class it’s for (as a side note, WHY ARE YOU INTERRUPTING ME WHILE I’M READING?!). But Eric Foner’s Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877 was really tough to […]
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Every good fairy tale starts with a wish. The little mermaid wishes to walk on land. Cinderella wishes to go to the ball. Maleficent wishes someone would just throw her a fucking bone and invite her to a baby shower. And in Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, all our hero wants is to get the girl. The other thing every good fairy tale needs is a quest. In this case, the quest is for the heart of Victoria Foster, the most beautiful girl in the village. Or […]
Resist the urge to go fetal
He was a wannabe gangster and a high school dropout who got tattoos, drank and smoked, and sold drugs on the streets of Jordan. His mother was so concerned, she sent him to Muslim self-help classes. There, Ahmad Fadil found a new path. By the time he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006, Fadil-by then known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi- had lead a new terrorist insurgency in Iraq and Jordan that resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths. That group was ISIS. […]
Maybe it’s me?
I’m not having a great week when it comes to book club picks. Come tomorrow, I’ll be sitting with my coworkers as they gush about the Nyquil-on-a-page memoir Comma Queen (at least that’s my bet. They love all the books I hate). And next week, I’ll be with you excellent Cannonballers, talking about another book that I tried so hard to like, Bollywood Bride. Ria is a Bollywood star, known for playing the ingénue who usually gets married by the end of the movie. She’s known […]
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