Just a few days after I finished reading The Genius of Birds I observed four adorable white-crowned sparrows in my yard. Every fall I look forward to their arrival, when their journey from parts north ends in my Southern California backyard. Each year they arrive in mid to late September–seemingly bringing more friends each time–and spend the winter and early spring enjoying the Los Angeles weather, until a day comes in late spring when I realize I haven’t seen them in awhile. Next season, the pattern […]
Can a story about the fall of a Soviet regime stand up 25 years later?
When The Porcupine was published in 1992, the world was still absorbing the dramatic events of the anti-Communist revolutions that started in the late 1980s, culminating in the reunification of Germany in 1990 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Influenced by these events, Barnes spun this tale that takes place in a fictional Soviet satellite country that some critics will swear is based on Bulgaria, while others will insist it’s obviously inspired by Romania. In this unnamed nation, the Communist Party has […]
DISAPPOINTED
In 2002, I sat in a dark movie theater watching Attack of the Clones. Around the time Yoda goes from wise wielder of the Force to crazy Ninja muppet, I contemplated walking out. I’ve never left a movie theater mid-screening, but on that day I was sorely tempted. Not because Attack of the Clones was the worst movie I’d ever seen, or even the worst movie I’d ever paid to see; I just couldn’t face any more disappointment in that series. What was once a […]
It’s not a fish, dammit! (Sorry, I needed to get that off my chest.)
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I started reading Moby Dick. Of course everyone is familiar with Ahab and the Pequod and “Call me Ishmael,” possibly the most famous opening line in American literature. I knew that Starbuck was more than a source for satisfying my frappuccino craving and, thanks to Dana Scully’s ill-fated pomeranian, I knew there was a character called Queequeg, but that was about it. Opening to page 1 of this 135-chapter behemoth, I was pretty much a blank slate. My […]
This man called Ove seems vaguely familiar
Minor spoilers ahead. I suspect everyone has at least one curmudgeon in their life–that grump, that sourpuss, that malcontent who seemed to emerge from the womb yelling, “Turn that damn music down!” In certain hipster circles, they may refer to it as Early Onset Grumpiness. Now, I’m not trying to throw shade at any particular person in my life, but when I asked my husband whether he’d consider driving a Saab if they still made them, I got a ten minute lecture about how Saabs […]
Come for the Science; Stay for the End Notes
Sam Kean is my favorite science writer, for a few reasons. For one thing, he is a complete mad man about research. In chapter 2 of The Disappearing Spoon, Kean records the longest word in the English language. This champion of all English verbiage turns out to be a word that describes a protein on the first virus ever discovered and measures 1185 letters. (I’m not going to record it here because proofing that shit would take up the rest of my day.) What impresses […]
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