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Reading the End Posts

Review: The Observations, Jane Harris

Published 5 Feb 2012 by Gin Jenny

Y’all have heard me bitch about the New York Public Library in the past, and I will probably bitch about it in the future. Here’s the big thing about the New York Public Library, and I will preface this by saying that I am well aware these are problems created by a larger system and a greater number of patrons, rather than some sort of inherent crappiness on the part of the NYPL. I KNOW THAT. The big thing about the New York Public Library that makes me not love it is that I cannot get a large number of…

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Watership Down, Richard Adams

Published 2 Feb 2012 by Gin Jenny

Sometimes I do a quick search through my blog archives and find that I have somehow, in four years (four years!!), not reviewed a book that I love more than I love eating cheese fries while watching The Good Wife (in this case, more even than I would love eating cheese fries while watching Kalinda plan and execute a cold-blooded takedown of Dana). Watership Down is one such book. It is also an example of the phenomenon that a late conversion can make you more of a fanatic about something than if you loved it all along. My mother told…

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Review: The Egyptologist, Arthur Phillips

Published 30 Jan 2012 by Gin Jenny

I’m worried that I’m maybe losing my ability to love new books. You know that phenomenon where if you buy a something, you’re more likely to consider that something worth the money than if you just test it out in a store? I’m worried that the reverse thing to that is happening: that my desire to pare down my library to meet space requirements is keeping me from loving new books the way they deserve to be loved. The last book I truly loved, like the last book where I thought, Damn, this book has to keep happening, was in…

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Review: The Lambs of London, Peter Carkroyd

Published 22 Jan 2012 by Gin Jenny

Five bitchy remarks in response to The Lambs of London: 1. I cannot keep Peter Carey and Peter Ackroyd straight in my head. Both of them write books that sound like I would love them, and then I never love them. So I am doing like Mother Jaguar. I graciously wave my tail, and I shall call it Peter Carkroyd. And I shall leave it alone. 2. Can’t not mention this when talking about Peter Carkroyd because it is horrifying. Peter Carkroyd is also notable for writing the book Oscar and Lucinda, which was made into a movie starring Cate…

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From Doon with Death, Ruth Rendell

Published 20 Jan 2012 by Gin Jenny

I kind of get a kick out of reading books that have Shocking Content (for their time), but because of the way society has evolved, the content that was shocking before is no longer shocking and indeed has become sort of — you know. Sort of wincey, and you feel bad for the author because it’s not her fault that the plot device she employed has become an awkward, lazy trope that a writer now would catch all kinds of flack for employing. And you know the author who did it when it was Shocking was a product of her…

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Gypsy Gypsy, Rumer Godden

Published 17 Jan 2012 by Gin Jenny

Okay, I’m going to ruin the whole plot of this book for your sake to save you from reading it yourself and possibly judging Rumer Godden based on this book which you should not, she is actually wonderful. She just is not wonderful here. Gypsy Gypsy is about this girl called Henrietta who lives with her mean aunt Barbe. Yes, the lady’s name is Barbe, and she’s very sarcastic to everybody. It is a trifle on the nose, and I’d like to make some excuse for Rumer Godden like she was only 33 when this book was published, but you…

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Review: A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood

Published 15 Jan 2012 by Gin Jenny

I am so bad at reading books promptly. Care sent me a copy of A Single Man, like, ten thousand years ago. Okay, not ten thousand. Only two. But still! Two years ago! That’s ridiculous! I’m sorry, Care. You were so kind to send me this book and I took two years to read it, like a jerk. A Single Man is about a British literature professor called George, who recently lost his partner, Jim. George is lonely and isolated, his primary source of company a British woman called Charlotte whose husband left her for another woman. He thinks a…

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The Unwritten again. The people oughta know.

Published 7 Jan 2012 by Gin Jenny

I don’t love reading or reviewing graphic novels series when they are in progress. I only started reading Fables after the, whatever, the eleventh? volume came out, which — while that wasn’t the end of the series — was the volume that finished up the storylines that had been set up from the beginning. The climactic battle had happened, and the eleventh (or twelfth?) volume dealt with the aftermath, and that was it. I read Sandman long after it was finished. As you know, I like reading the end. It’s much harder to read the end of a graphic novel…

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Giving up

Published 5 Jan 2012 by Gin Jenny

Okay, I can’t do it, I’ve read too many books and not reviewed them and then I can’t remember anything about them. So whatever. I’m doing little bitty ones here. I’m declaring bloggy bankruptcy and giving myself a clean slate. Have to. Here are a series of cranky little reviewlets. Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi Liked it a lot! I went to see Helen Oyeyemi talk at McNally Jackson, and she said that writing Mr. Fox was just fun, that she was just enjoying every minute of writing it. It shows when you’re reading the book. Mr. Fox plays with ideas…

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