2013 Book #36: The Angel Esmeralda
And DeLillo reappears. The Angel Esmeralda, DeLillo’s first collection of short stories that I know of, has been sitting on my Kindle for a long time. Languishing. By now, you probably know my thoughts on DeLillo, so I’ll keep the explanation short: he writes the same novel over and over again. Meh. That said, these are […]
Stephen King and the American Way?
I’m not a huge fan of Stephen King, but he fascinates me. Not in the same way that Hemingway does, a way that makes me want to devour anything he ever produced, but in a sort of admiration from afar. Lydia Kiesling, in an essay on The Millions called “Everything I Know about America I […]
2013 Book #35: A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories
I have an embarrassing confession to make: Until I picked up this collection, I hadn’t read the oft-assigned “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” What, you ask? How did you get an English degree without having read this most ubiquitous of short stories? A simple, two parted answer: I pretended to have read it, […]
2013 Book #34: A Storm of Swords
I can’t stop! I’m entirely hooked on A Game of Thrones, now. I’m sad that I’m not currently reading one, and that’s right after I finished A Storm of Swords, a true behemoth. I’m also ahead of HBO! Having never actually seen the show, I figured the third season covered the third book (like the first season the […]
2013 Book #33: Anansi Boys
Roughly halfway through every year, I get tired of reviewing every single book I read. That feeling is compounded by the fact that I’ve been reading so much lately. Which explains why I’ve waited so long to review a book I finished two weeks ago. Anyway. Anansi Boys. Have I mentioned that I love Neil […]
2013 Book #32: All the Pretty Horses
I only discovered Cormac McCarthy a few years ago. It might even have been The Road that put me on notice. (I loved that book, by the way.) I think I read Outer Dark after that one. Outer Dark is my second-favorite. Blood Meridian is my favorite. So where does All the Pretty Horses fit […]
2013 Book #31: The Third Reich
I’m on a tear! Actually, too much of one. Anyway. The Third Reich is the second Bolaño novel I’ve read. This one was easier to read than The Savage Detectives, but it wasn’t as rewarding. Though it’s still an excellent novel. It’s about a German named Udo who goes to Spain on vacation with his girlfriend, […]
2013 Book #30: A Moveable Feast
After the intensity of Salem’s Lot and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I needed something more calm and grounded. Enter Hemingway, who is always safe. (Though I don’t particularly like two of his novels, they never make my head feel like it’s going to explode.) A Moveable Feast has been on my list for quite […]
2013 Book #29: The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Oh, God, I loved this book. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is definitely my favorite Neil Gaiman novel. (If you’re wondering what my least favorite is, it’s Good Omens, which is funny because Gaiman co-wrote it with another of my favorite authors, Terry Pratchett. But that’s another story.) My first Gaiman was Stardust, which I […]
2013 Book #28: Salem’s Lot
I’m gonna get this one out of the way and out of my mind quickly. I didn’t like Salem’s Lot. Here’s yet another case of It’s-not-a-bad-book-but-I-didn’t-like-it. At all, in this case. I don’t read all that much genre fiction, in the first place, and when I do, it’s usually fantasy. I’m kind of a book snob […]