vel veeter – Page 35 – Cannonball Read 17

Et al

To Hold up the Sky by Cixin Liu

The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust

Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry

Dance to the Music of Time: The Valley of Bones by Anthony Powell

Dance to the Music of Time: The Soldier's Art by Anthony Powell

Dance to the Music of Time: The Military Philosophers by Anthony Powell

Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

December 9, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

To Hold up the Sky – 3/5 I really like the Cixin Liu novels I’ve read, and have felt that the short story collections are a mixed bag. The issue tends to be a lack of closing confidence. There’s also some cool premises, and some interesting premises explored in strange ways. The opening story “The Village Teacher” splits the narrative between a simple country teacher and an intergalactic war, and the way in which these get resolved is really interesting. Another story takes a huge […]

Correspondents

Correspondents by Tim Murphy

December 5, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a pretty harrowing book, although not entirely. It’s not a misery slog or anything like that, but it is deeply affecting and sad, and certainly is about very sad things. The novel begins at a family get together near Boston. We meet a blended American family of Irish Catholic and Lebanese Catholics getting together for a celebration. One of our main characters, Rita, is a journalist from DC bringing her Jewish boyfriend to meet the family. As we circulate around, we meet some […]

The Darkest Child

The Darkest Child by Dolores Phillips

December 2, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This book is presented with an introduction by Tayari Jones, who explains her first interaction with the book and how she regrets never getting to meet the author. She also suggests the book might give off the impression as being connected in some way to The Bluest Eye, but that in her estimation it owes more to I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Thematically, all three books are similar, and are also similar to two of Tayari Jones’s novels: Silver Sparrow and The Untelling. […]

Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815

Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 by Tim Blanning

December 1, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a decidedly blank spot in my understanding of history, especially European history, as the only close study of it I’ve ever probably takes comes from either novels or 10th grade world history. I probably would have taken AP European History if it had been offered, but alas. The US edition of this book has the subtitle of “The Five Revolutions That Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815” which feels a little forced as the French, English, and American revolution are front and center here, but […]

Raintree County

Raintree County by Ross Lockridge Jr

December 1, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I knew about this book from some list of long American novels, but I got my first real taste of the novel from a pretty scathing James Baldwin review of it from an early essay collection. He revised his review when Ross Lockridge died by suicide shortly after publication, but his revision is almost more scathing. The review is somewhat unfair. I can’t say that this is a great novel in the sense of being a truly deep and earnest interrogation of its subject, but […]

Three books that kind of played off each other accidentally

Dispatches by Michael Herr

Koko by Peter Straub

No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker

November 28, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The post title here refers to the fact that I decided to read all three of these books before any kind of consideration about how they might be tied together. In fact, only with Dispatches did I even have any idea what the books were even about. The other two just connected in unintended ways. Dispatches – 5/5 Dispatches is a series of memoir, oral history, and reportage pieces from the embedded journalist Michael Herr, who was in his mid-20s when he was in […]

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...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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