The basic plot of this novel is memorable, but I reread it to see if there are significant details that I’d forgotten since I read the book way back in high school. What I didn’t remember is the apocalyptic suggestion: that the boys’ plane crashed at around the time when cold-war tensions were escalating and […]
Review: “Lord of the Flies” Read More »
Related Post: Writing the post about how The Drowning People contributed to my development in reading reminded me to put this novel on my list of books to reread this month. I’m glad I reread it. What I initially remembered was how the gothic elements gave the novel an air of timelessness and oppressiveness. What I didn’t
Review: “The Drowning People” Read More »
Seven Books That Demystify Human Behavior I firmly believe that reading fiction teaches us a lot about being human. Here freelance writer Chelsea Leu suggests books, both fiction and nonfiction, that can increase our understanding of people. Make it awkward! “Rather than being a cringey personal failing, awkwardness is a collective rupture – and a
Related Post: I’ve been blogging about books since the late 1990s. During that time I’ve thought a lot about why I blog but not so much about how—or rather, how I approach reviewing a book. I’ve put off writing this post for quite a while as I looked back over past reviews I’ve written, especially
How I Review Novels Read More »
When Emily Dickinson Mailed It In “The supposed recluse constantly sent letters to friends, family, and lovers. What do they show us?” Kamran Javadizadeh looks at The Letters of Emily Dickinson, “a new, definitive edition that collects, reorders, and freshly annotates every surviving letter that Dickinson sent (or drafted) to someone else, along with the
This month’s starting book is After Story by Larissa Behrendt. I haven’t read it, although it sounds like a book I would appreciate. Here’s the description from Goodreads: When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother Della on a tour of England’s most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together
6 Degrees of Separation Read More »
For the past few years I’ve set aside September as a month for rereading works that I’ve continued to think about since I first read them. I don’t remember exactly when I started doing this or even why, but knowing that it will eventually come up gives me comfort all year. And once I started
September Is Rereading Month Read More »
Neuromancer: the birth of an SF classic “Author William Gibson and his editor, Malcolm Edwards, recall how a seminal SF work came to publication” Neuromancer came out just as I was seriously making the transition from academic reading to popular reading. I’d read almost no science fiction at the time and was curious to try
7 Books That Show Storytelling Has Consequences London writer Tody Lloyd explains that in is novel Fervor, the protagonist “aims to write and publish an account of her father-in-law’s experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto and Treblinka without his consent.” Despite the fact that no one in her family wants her to do this, she proceeds
Literary Links: Life Stories in Literature Read More »
