24
Aug
2010
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
In Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s debut novel, Wench, Lizzie, Sweet, Reenie, and Mawu are all brought to the Tawawa resort in southern Ohio for the summer by their masters. Perkins-Valdez researched the real retreat where it was common for Southern gentlemen to bring their slave-mistresses. Of course, being in a free state has a certain lure, and for the first time, their eyes are open to real possibilities of living free. An edifying friendship forms, one that none of the women have ever been able to have with other slaves, due to their status as the master’s mistress.
15
Jul
2010
Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni
Azadeh Moaveni published this book slightly too early. It came out last year before the riots over the election in Iran. Thus I assume this sequel to Lipstick Jihad will become the second book in a trilogy.
2
Jun
2010
Adventures in Cartooning by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost
Dewey Decimal System! You have failed! This book is in the wrong section. Sure, it’s with the other books about cartoons and comics in the 740’s, but it should be with the YA section. The reading ages is 4-8 for crying out loud!
13
May
2010
Savor by Thich Nhat Hanh & Lilian Cheung
In Savor, Thich Nhat Hanh combines his wisdom with the expertise of the Harvard Director of Health Promotion and Communication, Dr. Lilian Chang. Together they write about the ailments of unhealthy living, such as obesity, that plague so many people.
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.
30
Sep
2009
Everything Sucks by Hannah Friedman
The grass isn’t greener on the otherside. But that never stops people from hopping the fence. Hannah Friedman grew up with a monkey for a sister. Literally. How cool is that? Apparently not so cool when you are known as “monkey girl” for ever and ever and step on monkey shit and are outdone by a creature that eats spaghetti with her toes.
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 »
30
Aug
2009
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
There’s a Facebook Group called Zadie Smith Snubbed My Short Story and I will Have My Revenge. The description is “…On that pretentious E.M. Forster plot-stealing whore.” Recent news reports that she is still freckly, wearing head scarves, and smugly in love with Nick Laird. Evidently this group is a joke, as the founder posts, “look you douche, its a joke alright, Zadie Smith never has and never will reject any of my (frankly hilarious) short stories. I find it odd and strange that six other people have joined this total non-event of a group, especially someone called Rusty Trombone.” You can check it out but I pretty much just included the funny bits here.
27
Apr
2009
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
For some reason, everyone loves Jane Austen, to the detriment of the Brontë sisters. To some extent this makes sense. Austen’s novels numerate more than all of the sisters’ works combined, and each sister really only has one classic. But, say we take Jane Eyre and compare it to any of Austen’s novels. The plot is far more intricate than Austen’s. Brontë might not focus on the banality of privileged life, but her satire and class criticism (and hypocrisy therein) can be just as biting.
