May 2013
2 posts
Wonklife: My problem with the Great Gatsby →
wonklife:
Warning: This post contains spoilers from The Great Gatsby. On the other hand, the book is 88-years-old. Perhaps it’s time to get on that.
I can’t go quite as far as Kathryn Schulz. I don’t “despise” the Great Gatsby. I don’t mind Fitzgerald’s moralism. I’m comfortable with the…
May 2012
1 post
3 tags
March 2012
1 post
2 tags
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
Yesterday was Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and I feel that I should note it.
The first book I read on my own, at the ripe old age of 4, was Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!. I must have read it, say, a million times. I read it to my mom when I was sure I could do it. Then I read it to my dad when he got home from work. Then I read it to my sister, who was too young to read or even really...
February 2012
1 post
3 tags
For Whom the Bell Tolls
This story by Ernest Hemingway is frequently regarded as his best, but I preferred A Farewell to Arms.
From Amazon:
In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from “the good fight,” For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American...
January 2012
3 posts
3 tags
The Haunting of Hill House
Shirley Jackson’s thriller is one of the scarier books I’ve ever read. I read it back in October, as a Halloween “I should read something scary” book.
Originally, I was leaning towards something Stephen King, or rereading Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves (which scared me like no other book ever), but I wanted to read something new. My mom had recommended this one to me ages ago, and I...
3 tags
This Side of Paradise
I loved This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald as much as I hated The Beautiful and Damned (also by Fitzgerald).
From Amazon…
Fitzgerald’s first novel…uses numerous formal experiments to tell the story of Amory Blaine, as he grows up during the crazy years following the First World War.
…beware, spoilers ahead!
We follow the life of Amory Blaine from childhood...
October 2011
1 post
4 tags
The Tempest
I read The Tempest by William Shakespeare after reading the Prospero’s Daughter series - the series is based on the play. I’d seen the play live before but never read it.
One of my favorite things about Shakespeare plays is that I get to read literary criticism and history on them before I review them, so I feel extra smart.
I don’t really feel the need to put “SPOILER...
September 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Prospero Regained
This was the final book of the Prospero’s Daughter trilogy by L. Jagi Lamplighter.
From Amazon:
Prospero, the sorcerer on whose island of exile William Shakespeare set his play, The Tempest, has endured these past many centuries. His daughter Miranda runs the family business, Prospero, Inc. so smoothly that the vast majority of humanity has no idea that the Prosperos’ magic has...
3 tags
Indigo Springs
Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica was the August book for the Women of Fantasy book club.
From Amazon:
Dellamonica’s debut suburban fantasy opens with Astrid Lethewood in custody, charged with kidnapping and murder and being interrogated by hostage negotiator Will Forest. Astrid and her friends, Sahara Knax and Jackson, are central to a bizarre uprising against the government, but ...
August 2011
2 posts
3 tags
All the Windwracked Stars
All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear was the July book for the Women of Fantasy book club I joined.
From Amazon:
It all began with Ragnarok, with the Children of the Light and the Tarnished ones battling to the death in the ice and the dark. At the end of the long battle, one Valkyrie survived, wounded, and one valraven – the steeds of the valkyrie.
Because they lived,...
4 tags
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
…that’s the full name of the play. I’ll just call it Hamlet here. I started (re)reading Hamlet because I was going to see it performed at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and I have to say, it translates much better as a performance. So I re-read it. Nothing I put here is a criticism of the performance I saw, because that was quite good. So, when I read Shakespeare, I...
June 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Harvest Home
I bought this book by Thomas Tryon at around the same time I bought his another of his books, called The Other. While the other book was more suspense, this one was horror. Flat out, gory horror.
This book doesn’t even have details on Amazon. It was originally published in 1973 and I think is out of print. I got it on half.com.
…spoilers ahead.
I skimmed this book, because I had...
3 tags
The Beautiful and Damned
This book was free on Kindle, and I’m glad I didn’t spend any money on it, because, frankly, it pissed me off. Tremendously pissed me off.
From Amazon:
“The Beautiful and Damned”, first published in 1922, was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel. It tells the story of Anthony Patch (a 1920s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon’s fortune), his...
3 tags
I'll Mature When I'm Dead: Dave Barry's Amazing...
This was the first book I read on my new Kindle! From Amazon:
Some people may wonder what this subject has to do with Dave Barry, since Dave’s struggled hard against growing up his entire life-but the result is one of the funniest, warmest, most pitch-perfect books ever on that mystifying territory we call “adulthood”. In hilarious, brand-new pieces, Dave tackles everything...
May 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story
I should premise this by saying I’ve been fascinated with the Kennedy family since my freshman year of college when, while working in the library, more or less managed to read an entire book on them while I should have been “working” putting books back on the shelves.
That said, I haven’t read many books on the Kennedys besides that one from college, partially because...
5 tags
War for the Oaks
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull was the May book for my Women of Fantasy book club. I finished it in record time.
From Amazon:
Emma Bull’s debut novel, War for the Oaks, placed her in the top tier of urban fantasists and established a new subgenre. Unlike most of the rock & rollin’ fantasies that have ripped off Ms. Bull’s concept, War for the Oaks is well worth...
2 tags
The Dragon Book
The Dragon Book is comprised of short stories by modern fantasy authors and is edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Since it’s a short story collection, that’s the premise.
I was so excited when I got this book. I love dragons. Everything about them. The stories, the art, the statuettes (I have 3 on my own). Plus, I got the hardcover book for uber!cheap. About $6. …and I...
April 2011
5 posts
4 tags
Four and Twenty Blackbirds [An Eden Moore Story]
Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest is a story that I really, really, really wanted to like. And I thought I did for awhile.
From Amazon:
The classic Southern gothic gets an edgy modern makeover in Priest’s debut novel about a young woman’s investigation into the truth of her origins. What Eden Moore digs up in the roots of her diseased family tree takes her across the...
2 tags
5 tags
Prospero Lost & Prospero in Hell [Prospero's...
My latest book obsession is the Prospero’s Daughter series by L. Jagi Lamplighter.
I read the first one, Prospero Lost for my Women of Fantasy book club.
The premise, pulled from a Publisher’s Weekly review on Amazon, is this:
Four centuries after the events of The Tempest, Prospero’s daughter Miranda runs Prospero Inc., a company with immense influence in the supernatural...
