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Reading the End Posts

Review: Brown, Richard Rodriguez

I happened across Brown at the library, and I checked it out because Richard Rodriguez mentioned James Baldwin as an influence. Oh, Richard Rodriguez. You know the way to my heart. When one has picked up a book on account of its having been influenced by someone one loves and admires, it is best not to think about it too much. Think about it too much, and Rodriguez inevitably comes off the worst, as would almost any essayist if you stacked him up next to Baldwin. At times, Rodriguez is beautifully evocative. Some passages are gorgeous: “Her eyes are needles,…

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Emma Readalong part three

The third volume of Emma is best understood as the volume in which all the terrible people are terribling everything up, and even the nice people aren’t at their radiant best. The particular nightmare of volume three is the dreaded Mrs. Elton. State Senator Scumbag Elton’s new wife is unburdened by social graces and makes everyone monumentally uncomfortable in a hundred small ways: overfamiliarity with people she barely knows (Emma is annoyed with her for calling Mr. Knightley “Knightley”, and Frank notices with evident irritation that she calls Jane Fairfax “Jane”); talking about her lofty place in the social structure…

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Review: Cut to the Quick, Kate Ross

The beginning: Inexplicably invited to an acquaintance’s family home for two weeks, Julian Kestrel finds himself caught in an angry, awkward mess of family feuding. The situation only gets worse from there, as Julian comes back to his room one day to find a dead girl lying on his bed. The end (skip this section if you don’t want the spoilers): Ah, there’s a last-minute tacked-on secret to be revealed. Glorious. I love it when an author does that. You thought you were done with all the mysteries, but no, there is another one to be had! Barbara Vine does…

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Crux, Ramez Naam

tl;dr: Crux (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) is some really, really excellent science fiction. You should be aware that it is the second in a series. The beginning: Isn’t this a veritable cornucopia of characters for me to remember all at once. Damn. The gist of all this appears to be that there is a mental enhancement program called Nexus with some serious implications for human evolution. Its ?creators? ?adapters? are on the run from the law (in fact, on the run from the law + a whole bunch of bounty hunters). They are also trying frantically to stop…

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The Necromancer’s House, Christopher Buehlman

Who among you recommended Those across the River to me? Anyone a fan of that book? I checked it out months ago, couldn’t get into it, and returned it unread to the library with a mental asterisk to return to it someday. I haven’t yet, but I did read The Necromancer’s House (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), the newest book by that same author, and I thought it was great. This is lucky because historically when I’ve read a different book than the recommended one by the recommending person, it hasn’t turned out well for me. The beginning: A…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.16a: Special Valentine’s Day Podcast!

Two podcasts in one week! How did you ever get so lucky?? This is just a quick one, in honor of Valentine’s Day: Whiskey Jenny and I talk about some of our favorite love story couples, and then we play a fairly unromantic (but fun!) game about ROMANTIC RIVALS. Can’t tell you how embarrassed I am about the Chatterley thing. Whatever. I know other stuff. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 16a Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes…

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Reading the End Bookcast, Ep.16: World War II in Books; Half-Blood Blues; and German or British?

The demographically similar Jennys return to talk about World War II in literary imagination! We review Esi Edugyan’s Half Blood Blues (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), and we finish up by playing a game of Randon’s invention in which we must guess whether movie villains are German or British. You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 16 Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very…

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Wilkie in Winter, Epoch the Second: MARIAN

MARIAN. The second epoch of The Woman in White is the Marian Halcombe Show. Not coincidentally, the second epoch of The Woman in White is by far the best of the epochs. It begins shortly after Laura’s marriage to Sir Percival Glyde, when Marian is waiting to welcome her sister to their new home at Sir Percival’s estate, Blackwater. Even before Laura and Sir Percival come back from their awkward honeymoon, it is clear that there is nefariousness afoot. When Laura does get home, she refuses to talk about how Sir Percival has been acting because marital confidence, I guess?…

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Emma Readalong! Part Two: Frank Churchill is the worst

Ah, Frank Churchill. If I were forced to voice an area of dissatisfaction with Clueless (which, why would I ever be?), it would be that some of the characters in Emma who delight me with their dreadfulness are not adequately represented in Clueless. So much of Emma’s character in the books is informed by her trying to avoid being bored. She’s not as attentive to the Bates ladies as she ought to be because of how DAMN BORING they are: “Thank you. You are very kind. Yes, next week. Every body is so surprized; and every body says the same…

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Stuff to worry about #4: Starfish

Ha, ha, you thought you had escaped from the Stuff to Worry About series. Silly readers. I worry about so many things that I had to self-edit so you wouldn’t be getting Stuff to Worry About posts all the time. There is a plague on starfish. You may read about it here. Basically, starfish are dying of this wasting disease where their arms fall off, and because I don’t want to be the only one having these nightmares, I am going to add that sometimes in the course of this disease their arms fall off and crawl away.  Scientists are…

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