Hey friends! I’m over at Fangirl Nation today talking about why I read the end before I read the middle. Drop by and tell me what you think!
2 CommentsReading the End Posts
Nothing I want to say about Gone Girl can be said without spoilers, so on the off chance that anybody reading this post has been slower than me to read Gone Girl, and cares about spoilers, begone with you! (Instead of reading this post, you should go read Ana’s post about books where The Twist dominates conversations about the book. Not apropos of anything! Not being pointed! Just an interesting read!) Okay! If you didn’t want to be spoiled, I hope you have stopped reading! I am going to say spoilers now! Now I’m going to say them. Right now.…
25 Comments“Mines are hidden in cake tins and biscuit tins.” He showed us. The tins were bright and promising, with pictures of roses painted on their sides, or small children with rosy cheeks in old-fashioned winter clothes running behind snow-covered trees, or butter-soft shortbread with cherry-heart centers. “Would any of you open this tin?” A few of us raised our hands eagerly. “Children like you open the tins and get blown to pieces.” We greedy, stupid few quickly sat on our hands again. Damn this book is good. Alexandra Fuller writes about growing up as the daughter of…
21 CommentsWell, this is the best. Photographer Dinah Fried has excerpted descriptions of meals from a wonderful range of literature — everything from Bread and Jam for Frances to A Confederacy of Dunces — and recreated those meals in gorgeous, lush photographs. I recently acquired a work iPad and discovered that one of the best uses of an iPad is to look at beautiful things. I borrowed Fictitious Dishes as an ebook from my library and tediously spent several days forcing everyone near me to look at all the pretty pictures. And now it is your turn. Here’s the one from The…
29 CommentsThe final installment of a series is a trap. The writer is pursuing a set of goals which, though they are not fundamentally incompatible with each other, would probably not receive much encouragement from the OK Cupid algorithm to send each other a flirty message. The stakes have to be high but can’t be stakes the characters have already faced and overcome in previous books; the resolution has to be victory but can’t be too deus ex machina; and the characters have to end on a note that acknowledges everything they have been through but also feels conclusive and not…
23 CommentsOh wonderful Attica Locke! If only I had read The Cutting Season after Difficult Men rather than before! Attica Locke would have been a wonderful antidote to the maddening failure of representation. The protagonist of The Cutting Season (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), Caren Gray, has come back to work and live at the Louisiana plantation where her mother was a cook and her multi-great grandparents were slaves. She manages all of the plantation operations, from tours (complete with a rose-colored play about antebellum life at Belle Vie) to events — Belle Vie is a popular location for weddings…
17 CommentsSorry for the delay in posting this podcast! Randon and I have been very occupied with his impending marriage to my sister (woohoo!). For the same reason, we’ll be missing out the next podcast (the one that would have aired on 2 July) and returning with episode 25 on July 16th. In this one, we are joined by the always-lovely Julia to discuss authors we’ve given second chances to and authors we’ve completely given up on. We review Karen Russell’s novella Sleep Donation (alternate title: I Am Not Wasting My MacArthur Grant So Shut Up), and we play a game…
7 CommentsNote: I received a copy of Falling into the Fire from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. In her review of Falling into the Fire earlier this year, Victoria said “I begin to wonder whether there is an entry in the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) for readers like me, who find themselves fascinated by accounts of people struggling with the different illnesses it defines.” If there is, I surely have it, and I could not resist asking Penguin for a copy of this psychiatrist’s account of some of her most severely ill patients at…
5 CommentsThis passage right here? A group of Luck‘s writers, interns, and various others, predominantly young and female, were waiting for [showrunner David] Milch outside a darkened room. They resembled vestal virgins. Milch entered, arranged some cushions, and lowered himself to the floor. He assumed a position to accommodate his bad back: head propped up on one arm, one leg bent awkwardly to the knee so that the foot faced upward. It was not unlike an especially awkward male pimp pose. In front of Milch, at eye level, was a computer screen. At a desk to his right sat a…
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