I’m sure it’s not a first for the site, but it’s the first for me – I’m reviewing this book on the strength of another cannonballer’s review. I liked That Mitchell and Webb Look as well as Peep Show, and the memoir seemed pleasant enough by the first reviewer’s estimation, so why not? The central conceit – the comedian goes through his life story on a walk through his neighborhood necessitated by a bad back – pretty much sums up the book’s tone. Laconic, familiar, […]
Shut up; I’m not crying, you’re crying!
Oh man, this book. Erik Larson is a master of creative non-fiction, and I thoroughly enjoyed his previous books Devil in the White City and In the Garden of Beasts, even if I found the former overly populist and the latter dry. He manages to navigate the two extremes well in general, and they are exceptionally well balanced in this book. His skill is here, as always, finding the personal in the impersonal, bringing a richness to stories time has reduced to facts and […]
Does a unique premise outweigh a flat story?
Of Fire and Stars is the sort of book I wanted to like more than I actually did. An Onion AV Club writer listed it as something she was reading and piqued my interest, as she noted that the story was a typical fantasy tale made more complex by its protagonist falling in love not with the prince she has been promised to in an arranged marriage, but his sister. The book treats the romance between Denna, the princess destined to marry Mare’s brother, and […]
Fuck Cancer: The Biography of Our Nemesis
So obviously we all hate cancer, which is as controversial an opinion as saying puppies are cute, but considering that this post is going up on a site honoring one of our own lost to the disease, this review feels a bit like critiquing a biography of Lex Luthor for the Daily Planet. Thait said, let me adjust my robes and address the choir. The subtitle of the book is “a biography of cancer,” and it aims to follow the disease and its treatments from […]
The First Book After Baby WOULD Be The Nest
I started reading this book an actual lifetime ago. Granted, that life is all of two weeks old and belongs to my son, but I’m counting it. Mostly because that makes me feel better about being behind on my goal for CBR; I’m five books behind on my one per week to stay on track. In any case, I finished my first book in a good long while, and it’s more than possible my good feelings and copious hormones have colored my estimation of the […]
The Failure Narrative
I have a soft spot for failure narratives, and I’m soliciting recommendations for more, which isn’t the most auspicious start for the review of this one. I’m an easy sell on books about failure, particularly on failure in the entertainment industry, and I was looking forward to reading this one about the failure and merger of the UPN and WB networks into the CW. I figured it would be a nice addition to a collection that includes Song of Spider-Man, The Devil’s Candy, and The […]