The Nuclear Age by Tim O'Brien
There’s still a part of me that wants to close out Tim O’Brien’s catalog. There was once a part of me that REALLY wanted to. Like a lot of people I read The Things They Carried when I was young (about 20) and thought it was amazing. I still do. Then I read If I Die in a Combat Zone and Going After Cacciato and thought they were amazing. I still do. In the Lake of the Woods? It’s really good! Tomcat in Love? Oh no! And it fell off […]
The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison by Ralph Ellison
There’s something inherently amazing about a collected letters of any famous person, or in this case a famous writer. For one, there’s extraordinary amount of research and footwork put into the project, from collecting the letters from a potential wide-ranging set of recipients to placing them in order, providing editorial content, and for verifying different aspects of the letters, let alone providing an analysis of the content. So the editors of this collection have been very successful (so far is readily apparent in reading them). […]
The Assault by Harry Mulisch
A small novel from 1982 by the Dutch writer Harry Mulisch. The novel begins with a rumination on the scene of violence that is going to the be the center of the novel and the in the life of Anton Steenwijk throughout. Like Anton, we don’t know what’s going on except that it’s at the end of the war in occupied Netherlands, that things seem to be winding down, and therefore, a sense of cautious optimism and safety is permeating Haarlem. This proves to be […]
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
So the plug for this book on a recent edition says “The book that foreshadowed Trump’s appeal” or some nonsense like that. A novel can’t foreshadow reality, but it can prefigure it. Sinclair Lewis knows Americans really well, and while there’s a lot here that will look like mind-reading, is really just good observation. Like Stephen King, like plenty of other, Lewis knows what makes Americans work, and this book, unfortunately feels prescient right now. The book itself describes the rise of a particular American […]
Because Internet by Gretchin McCulloch
To Marry Medusa by Theodore Sturgeon
Come Closer by Sara Gran
The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey by James Lecesne
Coming Out Party by Nikki Levy
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
An Act of God by David Javerbaum
Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler
Ripley's Game by Patricia Highsmith
Henrietta and Eleanor by Libby Spurrier
Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech
Break Shot by James Taylor
Because Internet: 4/5 Stars A book whose title and public relations/previews made me really not want to read, this ended up being a) much different from what I thought it was going to be and b) a lot better as well. This is not an amateur at language in a way that may very well be accurate enough, but would also be facile or shallow. Instead, Gretchen McCulloch writes an interesting analysis of language for amateurs, but using the tools of her work as a […]
Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend
Uh oh! We’re getting into the territory where the vulnerable foibles of youth are turning into the entrenched and ossified frailties of adulthood. Adrian Mole is 23 now and a LOT has happened. I won’t tell you all of it, but among the best of the bunch is that his old friend Barry has written a novel called the “Dork’s Diary” which has found a lot of success, Pandora is working on a PhD (D Phill actually she tells us), Adrian’s parents are held in […]
