14
Feb
2010
American Rust by Philipp Meyer
This is one of those novels that comes along in life and just makes you gush. I told my boss about it. I told my mom about it. I finished the book and turned to my husband and said, you need to read this.
31
Jan
2010
Nibble & Kuhn by David Schmahmann
Either David Schmahmann is a master of subtle characterization, or he’s kind of a jerk, and this just seeped out into his characters naturally.
3
Dec
2009
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
Oh books that have no real ending, why do you exist? Is it just to taunt and frustrate me? Did you, Saul Bellow, predict that I would read this, writing it as you did 30 years before my birth, and leave a stupid, jaded ending to what otherwise might have been just an O.K. novella?
7
Nov
2009
Possible Futures by Jude Treder-Wolff
The subtitle to to this book is “Creative Thinking for the Speed of Life”. So, I was O.K., when the first few chapters talked about how desensitized we are by media, that we are bombarded with ads all day long. That was just set up, right?
2
Nov
2009
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner
This is going to be one of those posts where I mostly just quote from the book. James Finn Garner, takes classic fairy tales, and makes them satirically politically correct. While occasionally that can be offensive (odd, that), it’s all in good fun.
13
Oct
2009
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
This is an epic, character-driven, beautifully-written, philosophical, sad, political, morally-ambiguous, expertly-foreshadowed, thematic,hard to get immersed in, dramatic, ironic, difficult, sweeping book.
6
Oct
2009
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Somehow, in my years of schooling, I never read this book. So whatever I say here comes from the notes my Aunt scribbled in the margins 30+ years ago, wikipedia, and my own daunting brain. Therefore, my analysis may be questionable. Just sayin’.
29
Sep
2009
The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad
I have mixed feelings about this book. Mixed feelings about the way it was written and its content.
28
Sep
2009
Strange But True America by John Hafnor
Here are some of the things I learned reading this book: Read the rest of this entry »
21
Sep
2009
Poland by James Michener
In European History and Western Civilization classes, at least in the U.S., you pretty much study England, France, a little bit of Germany, some Italy, possibly some Russia, and maybe a bit of the Spanish and Vikings. I’m half Polish (on my Mom’s side), and have always been annoyed with this. So it was with great relish that I read Michener’s epic, Poland.
