octothorp – Page 23 – Cannonball Read 17

I hated, hated, hated this book

Magic and Loss by Virginia Heffernan

January 21, 2020 by octothorp 2 Comments

I’m actively angry at this book. “Probing my own experience, I discovered I generally find happiness in book reading when it’s desultory, unregulated, and somehow truant. I confess to taking gross liberties with traditional books, savoring the rule breaking, skipping forewords, concordances, and boring chapters, while lavishing prurient attention on jacket copy, dedications, and acknowledgements.” So what you’re saying is you judge books by their covers and don’t pay attention while reading? That’s evident from the prose. Apparently Heffernan doesn’t pay attention while writing either. […]

Not dead, just tired

The Tyranny of Dead Ideas by Matt Miller

January 21, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

I have a hard time explaining the type of business and economics books that I’m interested in; I really enjoy explanations for the unpredictability of human behavior and science-based thinking about the irrationality of people on an individual and group scale. I’m not opposed to hard data, but prefer the quirkier parts. I just keep thinking about this comic: I may not love economics, but I definitely look at its butt when it walks by. Since I’m a dilettante in the field, it’s hard to […]

A change of pace by being straightforward

And Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

January 21, 2020 by octothorp 1 Comment

I really enjoyed this book, although I have to admit not quite as much as the first of Jewell’s I read (Watching You). It’s strange to read a book about a mystery where the “who” and “what” are exactly what they seem, it’s just a matter of filling in the “how” and “why.” Mysteries by definition are all about piecing things together; there’s a reason they’re often dismissed as “whodunnits.” Here, without giving too much away, we know exactly who is to blame for Ellie […]

Not in the way of the ancient greeks, but like a human loves a dog, or a robot loves a human, or occasionally, the way a gorilla loves a kitty

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

January 20, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

This is a spoiler-tastic review. Proceed with caution. Can you complain that a book about a family adopting a chimpanzee is predictable? I think I’ve spent too much time reading about behavioral studies and animal behavior because I knew about quite a few of the real-life chimps this book seemed to take inspiration from, including poor Nim Chimpsky who seems to be the primary source for the novel. But it’s less the science that’s predictable; this chimp’s sister, the protagonist of our book, has a […]

The hell did I just read?

The Obsoletes by Simeon Mills

January 17, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

I don’t mind weird – and weird this was indeed – but I’ve watched enough Adult Swim at two AM in college to be all full up on weirdness for it’s own sake. And this definitely felt aimless. The story of two brothers who are secretly robots in a 1990s where robots are common and feared by the general populace, Darryl embraces his nature while his brother Kanga denies it and strives to be as human as possible. Darryl tries to keep a low profile, […]

I kind of want to read a book about this book

In Other Words by Jhumpa Lahiri

January 14, 2020 by octothorp Leave a Comment

…But to be fair, a lot of this book is kind of a book about this book. Ok, bad way to start a review. Let’s back up. Jhumpa Lahiri’s third language is Italian, learned in adulthood, and this book was written by her in Italian, and translated by another writer into English. There are some short stories here, but most of the book is about the act of writing in another language, and the author’s relationship to Italian. It shouldn’t work, but it does. The […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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