as byatt – Cannonball Read 17

He had no idea who she might be.

Possession by AS Byatt

September 4, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is one of those books that going into it, I knew would require a lot of careful reading, patience, and oddly, tapping into some old resentments to enjoy it. I spent a lot of years in and around English departments at multiple levels. I was never a professor, but I’ve seen plenty of drama, and this book is dramatic in some ways, but understated as well. The novel begins with Roland Michell reading a 150 year old copy of Vico’s The New Science. This […]

There will always be people who will slash open the other cheek when it is turned to them.

The Game by AS Byatt

July 14, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is an early, actually very early novel by the writer AS Byatt. She was only about 30 when she wrote this, and it’s about two sisters, a writer and a literary critic, who find themselves reconnected in their late 30s after a few years apart because of the various circumstances of their lives. Julia, the writer, is looking for inspiration for her new novel, one in which she wished to greatly interrogate the interorities of domestic space. Her sister, Cassandra, has found herself invited […]

Tony, informed, said: They love funerals.

The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick by Elizabeth Hardwick

We Live In Water by Jess Walter

Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton

Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman

Elementals by AS Byatt

December 31, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

New York Stories – 4/5 Stars I read Elizabeth Hardwick’s collected essays earlier this year. I also read her novel Sleepless Nights last year. This is a collection of stories that encompasses about 45-50 years worth of short stories edited and selected by Darryl Pinckney, another novelist and critic who also famously worked with and was friends with Hardwick. I read these stories in a variety of orders, and since they are not part of an intentional collection this blending and mixing up of the […]

I’d much rather watch people do what they do than talk to them across a desk

August 2, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Draft no 4 – 3/5 Stars I don’t know much about John McPhee. I didn’t grow up reading the New Yorker or being around or knowledgeable about public intellectuals and they’re not much discussed in academic classes. What I was hoping this was is a book cataloging good writing and revision rules and advice the way books by like William Zinsser are. Instead it’s more like a writing memoir from a widely known and documented public career. There’s some advice here and there, but it’s […]

The reading eye must do the work to make them live, and so it did, again and again, never the same life twice, as the artist had intended.

February 23, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I don’t think I plan on reading “Norse Mythology” by Neil Gaiman. I am sure it is perfectly good, but for lots of reasons, this book being one of them, I feel like I have a lot of and plenty of experience reading about the Norse people and their myths. For one, I recently replayed “Age of Mythology” and saw “Thor: Ragnarok” so I am good. Oh, and you should be clear that this book is not related. This book is mostly the telling of […]

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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