vel veeter – Page 151 – Cannonball Read 17

I’m on Kauai, in Hawaii, today, Friday, August 5, 2005.

What I talk about when I talk about Running by Haruki Murakami

September 5, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

A short collection of memoir essays by Haruki Murakami about running. What’s most interesting about this collection is how banal he approaches the subject. To be fair, a lot of Murakami novel dwell in the banal by design, so this is not a surprise really, but it really works here. One of the reasons that works is because he actually is a serious runner, but still an amateur. So this is not a memoir by a professional or competitive runner, but of a writer who […]

My father, unlike so many of the men he served with, knew just what he wanted to do when the war was over.

The Risk Pool by Richard Russo

August 31, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

CBR12Bingo Pandemic – This is the second novel by the American novelist Richard Russo, and the second of his that I’ve read. On the cover we’re told in a blurb that that reader loved the characters in this novel the way he loved the characters in John Irving’s The World According to Garp, and while I can see that comparison in a way, I feel this is more of a case of Saul Bellow than John Irving, if we’re looking for forbears. The novel takes […]

In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearable frenzy, an old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.

Dune by Frank Herbert

August 28, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

So this is my third reading of this book. The cover I put in this post is from my first 1990 copy of it, and it’s how I think of it. I’ve seen the movie a handful of times, and the miniseries twice, and I honestly feel both are terrible (David Lynch’s movie has a lot of good in it), and I think it all comes down to what feels impossible to convey in a film version without some real trying. I think the new […]

It was early spring, and the second day of our journey.

The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy

The Beggar by Naguib Mahfouz

The Thief and the Dogs by Naguib Mahfouz

Autumn Quall by Naguib Mahfouz

Deed of Trust by Claudia Allen

Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl

Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn

The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts by JMG le Clezio

Fire Down Below by William Golding

Cult X by Fuminori Nakamura

The Long Valley by John Steinbeck

Being the Change by Sara K Ahmed

August 23, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The Kreutzer Sonata – 4/5 Stars This is a strange murder story by Leo Tolstoy in which we find a man who murdered his wife for having an affair (having caught her in the act) and then in acquitted. I am not spoiling this story for you at all because all of this is told to you in the first few pages. But what comes out of this telling is more about the nature of his crime and how he found himself in the position […]

The Swede.

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth

Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth

Patrimony by Philip Roth

The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth

August 20, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

American Pastoral – 5/5 Stars This is the second book of the “American Trilogy” by Philip Roth. I’ve previously read The Human Stain, and this book also involved Nathan Zuckerman as guide and narrator (and in this case, author) like that book did, and while he spends a lot of time telling parts of his own story, it’s not exactly a Nathan Zuckerman novel in its own right. Zuckerman has been contacted by a high school hero of his, a local athlete and local boy made […]

Kneeling in the fragrant moist grass of the village green Clara Morrow carefully hid the Easter egg and thought about raising the dead, which she planned to do right after supper.

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

The Last Colony by John Scalzi

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque

My Mum is a Twat by Anoushka Warden

Bella Bella by Harvey Fierstein

Intimations by Zadie Smith

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton

Leviathan by Paul Auster

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Light of Day by Eric Ambler

Omeros by Derek Walcott

Humiliated and Insulted by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Rumble Fish by SE Hinton

Becoming Abigail by Chris Abani

August 19, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The Cruelest Month – 3/5 Stars This is the third Louise Penny “Inspector Gamache” detective novel, and I think it’s a decided dip in quality from an overarching look at it. The mystery itself, quaint, small town, punctuated with poetry and art and other little considerations is perfectly interesting. At a seance, from a combination of fright and maybe poisoning, a woman is found dead. There must be an elaborate set of circumstances to come to pass to have her die, but if they were […]

Loreen on “I made promises to you that I’m not sure I can keep.”Just so you know, there are now 18 books banned in Utah. Here’s the list compiled by the Salt Lake...
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...

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