Richard is a Californian, kind of poor kid that goes off to college on the East Coast. He is also kind of lost: he’s already changed his major twice, and now he chooses to study only Greek (and a little French) knowing fully well that it won’t lead to any job opportunities later on. There is an air of mystery surrounding the Greek professor and his select few students. Richard is in awe of them. Their world, partly because they come from rich families, is […]
Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer
I had to look up T. Kingfisher’s ”Summer in Orcus” after reading melanier’s five-star review. It seemed to have all the elements to a great fairy tale: magical beings, adventure, overcoming your fears. Just the kind of book you read to escape for a while, just the kind of book that fills your heart with wonder. Summer is an 11-year old girl who lives with her overprotective, anxiety-ridden mother. She’s hardly allowed to leave the house for fear of bad things happening to her, let […]
I just died in your arms tonight
Is there life after death? This is the question Mary Roach attempts to find the answer to in ”Spook”. Through visits to mediums, neuroscientists and psychologists (both of the normal and the paranormal kind) she explores such issues as ghosts, near-death experiences and ectoplasm that is secreted out of said mediums’ vaginas. This is the second book by Mary Roach that I’ve read. The first one, Packing for Mars, left me indifferent to her style of writing. Having read great reviews about some of her […]
Spirited away
I obviously must have spent all of my childhood under a rock, because I somehow missed Madeleine L’Engle’s classic ”A wrinkle in time”. One of my favourite activities as a child was to go to our nearby library, pick a book from the shelves and make myself comfortable in their reading room, which was very cozy, all covered in cushions. Still, this book managed to fly under my radar. It was only thanks to the several Cannonballers who have reviewed it over the years that […]
Why should I care?
Elisabeth Kolbert’s book ”The sixth extinction” is about loss. Loss of species through catastrophic events that have occurred since complex life forms emerged. The latest catastrophic event to cause the extinction of animals and the plants they depend on is the evolution of humans – and it is going on as we speak. Each chapter deals with the extinction, or near extinction, of one species. Species from ammonites to mastodons have been the victims of catastrophic events, be that a meteorite or other, invasive species […]
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will turn me into a puppet
Max Barry’s ”Lexicon” is a book I’ve wanted to read for years, probably since it came out and I saw that the reviews about it were great. I eagerly picked it up as my fifth book for the half Cannonball, having breezed through the first four during a rare period in my life when I both had time and energy to read. That energy disappeared while I was reading Lexicon. I don’t think it was Lexicon’s fault. A book about words and their power, filled […]
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