Even Neal Stephenson’s grocery lists are epic and huge. Their scope reaches beyond naming potential purchases, to examining the august fabric of food, the meaning behind grocery stores, the deep chemistry of our greasy gut juices. I doubt the man has ever written a piece of fiction less than a million words long in his […]
This book is mostly about sex and farts. In all their austere nobility, Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz have plumbed the depths of American Indian fart jokes and bawdy fireside tales and have compiled them into an easily accessible form, so all the world’s people who can read English good can partake of true American […]
I’ve never read anything by Octavia Butler, but some list or other recommended her, and Kindred was checked out of the library, so I picked up the Lilith’s Brood trilogy omnibus, in which Dawn is the first book. I figured I’d test her out, and if I liked Dawn, I’d be probably enjoy Kindred as […]
Thursday, January 29, 2009
While I didn’t particularly like Shane Claiborne’s writing style, or the flimsy support for some of his arguments, The Irrisistible Revolution attacks an important and glaringly large problem with the church in America: our self-absorption. Throughout the book, there is an aftertaste of biblical thought, though some of the actual content wasn’t quite solid. Especially […]
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
In my resolve to read more mainstream canon, I had forgotten how great a writer Roger Zelazny is. This must never happen again. He writes a beautiful blend of science and fantasy, and sometimes plays them off each other, which appeals to me very much since I’m fascinated by that balance between measurable knowledge and […]
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Enjoy this poem. I’ve excerpted the last few lines, which particularly resonate with me: If ever we accede to enlightenment, He thought, it is in one compassionate moment When what separated them from me vanishes And a shower of drops from a bunch of lilacs Pours on my face, and hers, and his, at the […]
This book is pop feel-good schlock, I had thought for a while. And I am way too indie to read a book so many people have enjoyed. To be fair, the masses and best seller lists are often wrong; it’s pretty hit and miss. But then a friend of mine recommended it to me. Strongly […]
Saturday, November 29, 2008
I heard or read someone recommend the Gormenghast novels at some point, but I don’t remember who it was, or if they were trustworthy. Based on that flimsy and possibly imaginary endorsement, I picked up the omnibus at the library. It’s not supposed to be a trilogy, but Mervyn Peake died before he could write […]
Friday, November 28, 2008
Due to Soviet censorship, Mikhail Bulgakov never saw his masterpiece, The Master and Margarita, published. In 1967, twenty years after he was safely dead, it was published in a trimmed version with the omitted sections published underground, through grassroots copiers (samizdat) in what sounds like an early politically motivated sneakernet. The devil, who is called […]
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Jane Yolen is a deft writer, and in Briar Rose, she punches me in the guts. Repeatedly. Then the face, then back to the guts. I remember picking it out at the library, thinking, Oh yes, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. How nice. Surely it’s not actually about Nazis. But it is. The events of […]