vel veeter – Page 184 – Cannonball Read 17

I always get the shakes before a drop.

Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein

March 16, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I read this years ago, I think in high school or college and thought it was great. I don’t think it’s nearly as great, but it’s still very good. This is a book about endless war, asymmetrical war, and the dehumanizing process of war on both soldiers and enemy combatants — as well as the cynical ways in which participation in war is seen as a legitimizing, if not the only legitimizing, active part of citizenship, despite how empty warfare is (especially post-WWII). Johnny decides […]

In the morning, the one who is mostly enlightened comes in.

Weather by Jenny Offill

March 13, 2020 by vel veeter 1 Comment

This is the follow-up novel to The Dept of Speculation, a novel that was heavily praised, but I didn’t happen to like. This one, though, I found prescient and compelling and terrifying and smart. Weather as you can imagine takes place in a kind of soon-to-be future, a sense of the dying endtimes, a looming specter, and a deepy anxiety, but also slight ironic detachment. There’s little to no plot, and the novel instead, is about a mother going about her days as she experiences both mundane […]

Edison Powell, all confidence with a smile that revealed glittering white teeth.

Nowhere is a Place by Bernice McFadden

March 12, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I really like Bernice McFadden novels. I have been able to access three of them now via audiobook and it’s been a pleasure to hear her writing read by especially gifted readers. In this novel, we have multiple storylines being advanced simultaneously through the book as we have a cross-country trip between a woman around 30 and her mother, while the woman, a writer has recently found out she is pregnant (the father is white) and among other things she is planning on driving her […]

In the weeks before the English Department at Oberlin College was about to decide whether or not I would be granted tenure, I was haunted by dreams of running away–of disappearing–yes, even on dying.

Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks

March 12, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is an orientation book, not a praxis one — not really. Thinking on the title alone, the grammar of “Teaching to Transgress” whether teaching is a used as a gerund form “Teaching” or as a participial form or simply both matters, and so the dual nature of how you can read the title of the book was curious to me. This book also clearly reminded me how far behind practical, everyday conversations, especially online are from transformative theory in academic settings are. The book […]

While the sisters of the Our Lady of the Impossible Constellations argued themselves in circles, the Reverend Mother sat silently in her chair…

Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

March 10, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

In which a convent of nuns of the Holy Order, aboard an organically grown and living spaceship, travel across the far reaches of space, and respond to a distress beacon that will challenge their beliefs and promises. In a lot of ways, this novella is really interesting, and certainly the central conceit is one that is ripe for exploration. In other ways, this would have been a lot more successful as part of a larger collection of stories where its limitations, weakness, and mostly derivative […]

When my mother was angry with me, which was often, she said, “The Devil led us to the wrong crib.”

Why be Happy when you could be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

March 10, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

A very good memoir, and an especially good audiobook. What makes this is good audiobook is that Jeanette Winterson is the reader here, and like with a lot of memoir audiobooks, that makes all the difference. In some ways this book follows a lot of the same history as Winterson’s fist novel, the kind of autobiographical Oranges are not the only Fruit, but we clearly see the difference in a lot of ways. Jeannette, as a baby, is given up for adoption and found and raised […]

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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