I have had this one on the bookshelf to read for quite a while and was looking for an audiobook to round out the year, so Mr. Penumbra’s is it. I struggled with my rating, vacillating between 3 and 4 stars. For me this book was uneven, in that some parts I loved, and some left me wanting more, but overall I found it a charming and delightful story, and definitely of interest to book lovers, nerds, the anyone who finds themselves in both categories. […]
Encryption and immortality
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, is, I think, a book that works very well if the reader doesn’t look for a ton of deeper meaning in its story just because it’s a “book about books” — a category which nerds and bibliophiles tend to over-analyze, looking for messages and aphorisms about life and wisdom in reading. Which is funny, because that’s kind of what Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is exactly about. Clay, our main character, takes a job at the titular bookstore, and quickly notices it’s […]
Bookstore Shmookstore
I’m certainly not the first, nor will I probably be the last, CBRer to review Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. That being said, I won’t go on too much about the plot. The book’s been out for quite a few years and garnered some attention on those lists everyone has of MUST READ THIS books. Basically, this young graphic designer in San Francisco, Clay Jannon (I think? His last name is rarely mentioned) finds himself unemployed and desperate. Wandering around the city one afternoon […]
Playing Catch-Up — Five 100(ish) Word Reviews for the Price of One Click!
Flat-Out Celeste – Jessica Park Flat-Out Celeste is the story of a girl who’s not quite like everyone else. Sometimes she starts to Google “Asperger’s” but can’t quite pull the trigger. At 17, Celeste is looking forward to leaving behind the awkward interactions of high school for the intellectual freedom of an Ivy League education. And then she meets Justin. Justin is a student-ambassador for a California liberal arts school, 3000 miles away from Celeste’s world. He doesn’t save her, but he helps her embrace […]
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
“Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines — it’s hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits.” I have read so many reviews of this book, mostly here on Cannonball Read, so I don’t really have anything new to add to the subject. I also strongly feel like it’s one of those books that’s more fun if you know nothing going into it: just sit down, and start reading. Briefly, it stars Clay Jannon as an unemployed web designer […]
I prefer bookstores
“There is no immortality that is not built on friendship and work done with care.” (288). It’s hard to know what to make of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. It’s a quest, it’s a mystery, it’s one man finding himself, and it’s the coalescing of a group of friends. It’s all this and more. Clocking in at fewer than 300 pages, Robin Sloan manages to craft an epic adventure for his protagonist and his merry band of players. And it’s simply delightful. The story is based […]