Redshirts by John Scalzi
“From the top of the large boulder he sat on, Ensign Tom Davis looked across the expanse of the cave toward Captain Lucius Abernathy, Science Office Q’eeng and Chief Engineer Paul West perched on a second, larger boulder and thought, Well, this sucks” Well this sucks. I reread this book. I first read it in 2013 or so, close to when it came out. I can’t pinpoint it, but I know it was close because and when and where I was in my life. I […]
Don Quixote by Kathy Acker
“When she was finally crazy because she was about to have an abortion, she conceived of the most insane idea that any woman can think of. Which is to love. How can a woman love? By loving someone other than herself.” One of the more interesting things about this book is that it takes on Don Quixote and remixes it. Don Quixote itself is a remixing of romantic epics (or romantic adventures) of the 1300-1500s leading to the titular Don making his way into the […]
The Ancient Guide to Modern Life by Natalie Haynes
“I have been obsessed with the ancient world since I was eleven years old, when I begin learning about Roman life at school.” Classics is a subject that I have had to mild to passing interest in some ways, and earnest interest in others. I think I feel strongly about wanting to know more about Roman history, and Roman historical writing and philosophy, and not very much about Roman mythology. In the same way, I am earnestly interested in Greek mythology and philosophy, but then […]
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
“Once upon a time, before the boys were killed and when there were more cars than horses, before the male servants disappeared and they made do, at Upleigh and at Beechwood, with just a cook and a maid, the Sheringhams had owned not just four horses in their own stable, but what might be called a “real horse,” a racehorse, a thoroughbred. Its name was Fandango.” This small novel begins on the morning of “Mothering Sunday” which we learn (actually a few times in the […]
Family by J California Cooper
“History. Lived, not written, is such a thing not to understand always, but to marvel over.” This is the first novel of J California Cooper, who was primarily known as a playwright for much of her career, and then a short story writer for about a decade before writing this novel. This is a short novel with a slightly artificial frame, but really strong and powerful writing throughout. The novel is narrated by Clora, an enslaved woman who is the daughter of another enslaved woman […]
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
“Sing, Muse, he sings, and the edge in his voice makes it clear that this is not a request.” I tend to shy away from modern retellings of fairy tales for reasons I’ve discussed in other reviews, but I really enjoy retellings of myths (though I like the straight retellings of them within their own context more than modern renderings of them in contemporary contexts). The difference I think is that I took a class in college reading myth as literature, and even though in […]
