February 2011
28 posts
HTML GIANT - Get Me Up Close to the Lives of... →
This is so, so good.
January 2011
33 posts
4 tags
The Fates Will Find Their Way
The Fates Will Find Their Way, by Hannah Pittard (TFWTW for short) was a dreamy, pretty novel set in the recent past. Reminiscent of The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides, Pittard wrote in an emtional “we” the lives of a group of young friends. One of them goes missing, a young girl, and the rest of them, a bunch of rowdy, hormonal boys, think about her and wonder what happened...
The Philosophical Novel - NYT →
“Both disciplines seek to ask big questions, to locate and describe deeper truths, to shape some kind of order from the muddle of the world. But are they competitors — the imaginative intellect pitted against the logical mind — or teammates, tackling the same problems from different angles?”
Pippi Longstocking as the archetype for Lizbeth... →
I freaking love The Millions.
WORD: Classics book club begins! →
wordbrooklyn:
By popular demand we have begun another book club, this one exclusively devoted to the classics. And out of a sense of masochism, we have decided to start the classics book club by reading nothing but classic Russian novels for a year. Won’t you join us?
More information available here, and…
Definitely doing The Master and the Margarita, maybe Fathers and Sons! I am so...
1 tag
Nabokov Theory on Butterfly Evolution Is... →
Reading Ada by Vladimir Nabokov is how I learned the word “lepidoptery” which I think is a very cool word!
4 tags
A SHORE THING, or, Snooki's book
Why aren’t you going to read A Shore Thing? I don’t believe in guilty pleasures, but even I felt embarrassed reading Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi’s book in public. Firstly, the cover is jarringly colorful, with her pouf prominently displayed. A full body photo of her graces the back cover, and she’s wearing those jewel encrusted sunglasses that make me wince—- “Why does she wear those?...
Pynchon's Vineland in the Shadow of Gravity's... →
I love seeing someone give Vineland credit. I loved Vineland and Against the Day — and Gravity’s Rainbow is on my “to read” list. My “too read soon” list. Though I actually wasn’t enamored with The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon is still one of my favorite writers.
HOW TO READ THE INTERNET →
I want to write a bigger article on this.
Mysterious "Poe Toaster" misses the anniversary of... →
They fear he’s “Nevermore…”
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A Town Protests by Borrowing Library Books →
I love how this protest was proposed “as a joke” then got serious.
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Gary Shteyngart Interview →
This is the first interview I’ve read in which Shteyngart is likeable (to me). I love to hear authors talking about who they’re reading, their reading habits, and their “to read” list.
From the interview:
RB: You mentioned some books that you admire—do you read a lot of fiction? GS: Oh my god yes—Josh Ferris, Jhumpa Lahiri— RB: Another immigrant— GS: Wells Tower....
3 tags
Never Let Me Go
You can’t ever forget a book that made you cry on the subway.
Never Let Me Go was quiet. It was slow, contemplative, and consisted of recounting memories. Memories that the main character, Kath, has had time to think about over and over. She’s methodical and careful, and addresses the reader directly- she wants us to listen to her, to believe her. There is an element of pleading in...
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”
– Virginia Woolf (via tjonie)
A Room of One’s Own changed my life.
4 tags
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie seemed to define tongue in cheek. It was mischievous and rowdy- full of crowded voices, leaps in time, and exciting and unpredictable characters.
Funny books are precious. I think writing humor is really hard, and Muriel Spark was apparently a subtle comic genius- her writing is darkly funny, and realistic in a way I have yet to read. When I’ve read other...
Michael Chabon on the Huckleberry Finn DEBACLE. →
SO lucid and perfect.
“Ten is probably fairly close to the number of times that I have said “nigger” in my life, never once without some kind of ironizing or sterilizing quotation marks of tone fitted carefully around it, and, somewhat humiliatingly given the choice made by Professor Gribben of Auburn, which I heartily and firmly, piling on, condemn for its cowardice,...
4 tags
Pnin
Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov, gave me one of the most outwardly positive reading reading experiences of my life- meaning I smiled most of the time I was reading it. I continuously caught myself smiling in the reflection of train windows, at strangers, and at home. I was constantly, almost laughably, admiring of Nabokov’s prose throughout the whole book.
I enjoyed the mingling of languages,...
2010- Publishers tell us "the ones that got away" →
I would be so sad to be the under-bidder on an amazing novel.
3 tags
MAN OF MYSTERY - Why do people love Steig... →
Salon- Be A Better Reader in 2011 →
Reading challenges!
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“Presently all were asleep again. It was a pity nobody saw the display in the...”
– Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin
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““Strange!” said Pnin. “The vicissitudes of celebrity! In...”
– Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin
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For Tolstoy and Russia, Still No Happy Ending →
How appropriately… “Russian lit” of the situation…
“Lenin loved Tolstoy’s “pent-up hatred.” He anointed him “the mirror of the Russian Revolution,” ignoring his pacifism and belief in God. As the 50th anniversary of his death approached, the Central Committee of the Communist Party began preparing two years in advance, so a monument would be ready for unveiling.
For...
2 tags
7 Books . com →
A new site designed to be used as a “book playlist” creator.
What do you think? I’m not sure if I would use this, but I really like the idea and the design…
The Daily Beast's Most Anticipated Books for 2011 →
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MY TOP TEN BOOKS (I read) OF 2010
C - Thomas McCarthy
Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson
The Tin Drum - Gunther Grass
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barberry
The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing - Darina Al-Joundi, translated by Mohammed Kacimi
Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker
The Book of Laughter and...
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The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing
I read The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing a while ago. I was deeply affected by it, and I wish I had written about it right after I read it- my review would be much better and more detailed and immediate. This book made me feel crazy, stressed out, and pitiful. This book is a memoir of Darina Al-Joundi’s troubled, war-ridden, rebellious life and I think everyone should read it.
You...