vel veeter – Page 400 – Cannonball Read 17

–We’re some family all the same, wha’.

The Snapper by Roddy Doyle

January 17, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This novel is part two of Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy, which starts off with The Commitments and closes with The Van. In this novel, we meet the Rabbitte family half a generation earlier from where we started in the previous novel. So to call it a sequel is right and not right and to call it a prequel is right and not right. My understanding is that the third book moves backward in this same fashion. If you liked The Commitments I am certain you’re going to like this […]

This seems like an impossible book to write.

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock

January 17, 2017 by vel veeter 2 Comments

Janet Mock writes about her journey through contemporary America as transgender woman of Color from a complicated background. In this memoir, she narrates her story, talks about trans issues in general, and attempts to communicate her experiences not just as a transgender woman but as a someone trying to make sense of the world around them. Because in some ways this is an advocacy/celebrity memoir, the writing is perfectly competent. I will say that I listened to the audiobook version and hearing Mock read it […]

Before Gone Girl there was the horribly sad dying marriage in this novel

Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

January 16, 2017 by vel veeter 2 Comments

This is kind of a brutal novel. It’s been generally been reviewed far less positively than many of her other novels. I first reviewed The Beet Queen and if I didn’t know much about the author, I don’t know that I could identify them as the same person. That said, I do think this is a strong novel in a lot of ways, but it’s not a fun novel, or really a beautiful novel. But it is powerful and terrifying and has a real energy […]

Fences – A Re-re-re-re-re-review

Fences by August Wilson

January 16, 2017 by vel veeter 1 Comment

I re-read Fences fairly regularly, every couple years or so, because I have taught it a few times in the past. With the movie coming out, I decided to teach it again this year, and my AP Literature students are currently reading it. What I plan on doing with this short review is to go over some of the considerations I have talked about in class and how we approached some of our conversations about the novel. If you haven’t read or seen Fences, I do recommend […]

Divorced Dad Proto Character

The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

January 16, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I THINK this is a very 1980s novel. It’s a very male novel too, but it’s not really very chauvinistic or sexist. I was talking about it with my girlfriend and she suggested it might just be a very northeastern novel. I am not sure which, but what I mean by this is that the main character focuses a lot of energy thinking about people’s ethnic background (so lots of “Pollacks,””Jews,” and “Negroes”) and how it tracks with or doesn’t track with their behavior. One […]

Ken Loach by way of Faulkner

Last Orders by Graham Swift

January 13, 2017 by vel veeter 1 Comment

Last Orders is about a group of men tasked with taking their friend’s ashes to the seaside. Not a truly novel concept, but well executed through some quality storytelling and narrative focus. This novel has several different narrators, spans multiple timelines, and deals with the inner workings of the type of characters who could too easily play to type or be too guarded or closed off to see their emotional core. The novel starts in a pub. Jack, the master butcher, has died. He […]

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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