2014 Book #40: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
This isn’t my first round with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. When I was fourteen, or so, I checked it out from my high school library and read it voraciously. I loved every minute of it. I thought 42 was the best number in the way only a teenager can grasp false significance. This book […]
2014 Book #39: Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Since I adopted a certain puppy a few months ago, I’ve spent a lot of time outside on walks, about an hour a day. At first, I was busy talking to her and trying to make her behave, but, for the most part, she’s settled down, and I figured I should use this extra time […]
2014 Book #38: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami‘s lastest novel, was released in English on the perfect day: the very day I was flying to DC from Louisiana and had nothing better to do than read all day. I’d been looking forward to this book since it was published in Japan, about a year […]
2014 Book #37: The 42nd Parallel (USA part 1)
Okay, so The 42nd Parallel only qualifies as its own book in the way that The Lord of the Rings does: John Dos Passos‘s USA trilogy is really one big book. That’s my disclaimer. Note that I’m disregarding this disclaimer because USA is loooong – at least as long as The Lord of the Rings. Three books it is, then. Still suffering […]
2014 Book #36: (a biography of) Richard III
If you’ve ever seen my blog before, you’ve probably noticed that my reading statistics are overwhelmingly stacked in fiction’s favor. I have a habit of falling asleep when I try to read nonfiction, but sometimes these books seep in. My favorite English kings are Richards II and III. One was a tyrant, and the other […]
2014 Book #35: The Flamethrowers
Aaaand back to our regular programming. I’ve been putting off reviewing The Flamethrowers since I finished it a few days ago because I wasn’t sure what to say about it. I think I have it straight now. Here’s the gist: It’s a really good book that could have been a Great book but got a little lost on […]
2014 Book #34: The Cleanest Race – and a couple additions to the Fail Pile
North Korea fascinates me. The culture is so vastly different than my own, and it’s so secretive, that I’m intrigued. I saw The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters on Oyster, and it sounded really interesting. I’d just finished Butcher’s Crossing and had no idea where to go next, so I thought […]
2014 Book #33: Butcher’s Crossing
I’m generally no fan of westerns. I’ve often put westerns in my List of Genres I Don’t Read, which includes the likes of mystery and romance. Well, that was until I started reading Cormac McCarthy and Stephen King‘s Dark Tower series. I softened my position a bit, though I figured those were big exceptions. Maybe they were, […]
2014 Book #32: Sputnik Sweetheart
I’m generally a wee bit reluctant to reread books by Haruki Murakami because I don’t always like them as much the second time around. The problem is that I’ve read all of his novels published in English, so I’m kind of out of new material. After the terror of Bird Box, I wanted to read something […]
2014 Book #31: Bird Box
Y’ALL. Bird Box. Read it. It’s the most terrifying book I’ve read in I-can’t-remember-when. “But Lindsay,” you say, “you don’t like scary books! Remember Salem’s Lot?” Yes, that is, indeed, the case. I generally don’t read scary books, and I rarely like them when I do. But Bird Box is different! And it’s so hard to talk […]