vel veeter – Page 395 – Cannonball Read 17

Man the French are not funny

The Dictionary of Received Ideas by Gustave Flaubert

February 14, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

So this is kind of like The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, which I also don’t think is funny. So I definitely didn’t think this was funny. Even the editor of the collection was like “Look, it’s hard to translate humor sometimes and also this isn’t a really funny book.” Apparently Flaubert said something to the effect that the goal was make a super hilarious book that went on and on and on was hilarious at every hilarious turn. Instead, here’s some samples: “Ice Cream: Eating […]

We should.

February 11, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This would make a nice gift to a lot of people in all our lives. It’s not radical, it’s not even that transgressive, but it is clear and succinct. This essay, which I listened to the author read, is a perfect distillation of the goals and tenets of feminism, while even addressing the hangups so many people have with the word itself. It’s not a perfect text, but it is a well-reasoned and carefully argued text that has layers of argument embedded within it. If […]

These are the books I worry about my nephew for

February 11, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Ugh….why does it have to be Lumberjanes?? Why not Lumberjohns…..wait, Lumberjames?! That’s right! First we ALMOST have a girl for president and then we have to sit here and lose our valuable logging industry to the worldwide GYNOCRACY! I worry about what my 10 year old nephew will do when he thinks he is picking up a a wholesome boyscout comic book and this is what he reads. Girls not needing boys, girls running around causing trouble, girls having great adventures, but not thinking about […]

When When the Emperor was Divine was just Ok

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka

February 10, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is one of the okayest books I have ever read. That sounds mean maybe, and I am not trying be, but that’s what it is. At the end, I was like, yes ok, I read that. That book. The one I read. The story is about Japanese Internment, with especial focus on the order, the disappearance of a father, the children affected, and the accompanying racist milieu in the country at large. This is obviously a relevant topic today for plenty of reasons. We […]

Recommended by many Middle-School Students

Copper Sun by Sharon Draper

February 10, 2017 by vel veeter 1 Comment

I have a standing (almost never used ) policy with my students that if they tell me about a book or bring me a book I will read it and talk with them about it. Ideally, they will write me a paragraph explaining why they like it or why they want to share it. This is one of those books. It’s interesting because this particular student is really sweet and funny, but not necessarily always engaged in class or has shown this kind of initiative […]

“I’d ban coincidences, if I were a dictator of fiction.”

Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes

February 10, 2017 by vel veeter 2 Comments

This is a funny, playful book. It most definitely does not seem like it should be. It starts with a nameless narrator looking for a stuffed parrot. I know, I know. But specifically it’s the parrot that the French writer Flaubert used as inspiration while writing his short story “A Simple Heart”, which I also read before starting this. This parrot, we are led to believe, sat on the desk having been borrowed from a museum until Flaubert became so annoyed and frustrated by it […]

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