vel veeter – Page 397 – Cannonball Read 17

“I don’t trust unfinished novels.” – vel veeter (me)

Sanditon - The Watsons - Lady Susan by Jane Austen

February 5, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I would say there’s a reason why novels go unfinished, and the obvious reason is that the person dies. And here we are! Sanditon In this collection, which I will separate out, we have two unfinished novels and one short novel by Jane Austen. For the most part, I don’t know what to tell you. I will explain why I don’t trust unfinished novels. Well, because they weren’t finished. So any take we have on them is necessarily partial, incomplete, and somewhat uninformed. But Jane […]

“The most dreamlike business he’d ever witnessed waking”

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

February 5, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I think I liked this novella. I mean, it’s quite short (a scant…very scant 110 pages) and for the most part it’s whispy and floating and haunting in its narration. But I don’t think I trust a book called ” _____ Dreams” and then people describe as dreamy. It’s a little too on the nose and little too aware of contrivance. That said, it was narrated by Will Patton on my audiobook, and well, he’s perfect. So I can’t complain. Will Patton has that kind […]

View from Above

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

February 4, 2017 by vel veeter 3 Comments

When I first read The Handmaid’s Tale, I was getting my Master’s Degree and it was for a class on Body Politics in literature. Then for my second reading, I was working on a PhD and it was for a “Democracy in Literature of the Americas” class. For the first class, Bush was president and for the second time, Obama was brand new to the office. And now, well, it’s Trump. I picked this one up again to read as a companion piece to my review […]

Spoiler: The Piano is a symbol

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

February 4, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

There’s a moment in Fences where Troy and Bono are telling a story about eating watermelon. In this play, we begin with two characters having secured a truckload of watermelons in order to sell. A student asked me this week what’s the deal with the watermelons. So I asked her “Hey, what’s the deal with the watermelons?” She said, maybe it’s to make the white people in the audience feel really uncomfortable? I said, I didn’t know the answer, but I think she’s onto something. One […]

If a book is well written, I always find it too short.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

February 4, 2017 by vel veeter 4 Comments

Note: Did you know that they made one of these without the sea monsters? By the author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I apparently have cultivated a reputation with my girlfriend that I don’t like Jane Austen novels. But really, I do. I just happen find them a little tasking when I am starting out, just like I do with anything that is more than 100 or so years old. I just have to work at them a little more than others. It didn’t […]

This is how you lose her – Fairy Tale Edition

A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham

February 4, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Usually calling a collection of short stories “tales” or anything other than “stories” is a bad sign for me. It means the author is “doing” something, and too often, that’s not a good thing. Michael Cunningham wrote The Hours. It won a bunch of prizes. He also wrote a few other books that I have generally liked. Specimen Days is a weird kind of triptych novel set against New York with connections to Walt Whitman and terrorism and cyborgs. And I really liked it. I did not […]

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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