Category Archives: Non-typewriter

Initial final reaction to The Instructions by Adam Levin: or, that really certainly was one way to start the year

Posted by Darby on Sunday, January 16th, 2011 at 5:32 pm.

As if there could be such a thing as an initial final reaction to a book I’ve been reacting to steadily for the last two straight weeks: the dust has barely settled on the cover of my copy of The Instructions by Adam Levin and I know there’s conversation set to happen at some point [...]

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But okay, no, for serious: Stoner by John Williams

Posted by Darby on Thursday, August 19th, 2010 at 7:37 pm.

But okay, no, for serious: Stoner, by John Williams, is a great book, and is one of the best reading experiences I’ve had this year, or even in the last several years. In part because of context: I was working on my next book review when I read this one, and I’d read that book [...]

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First up: Stoner by John Williams

Posted by Darby on Thursday, August 19th, 2010 at 12:08 am.

Stoner by John Williams is a great book. Please consider this a heartfelt, enthusiastic recommendation; please consider reading the book.

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Books I’ve read this year; or, the blog-post equivalent of eating the entire friggin bag of chips

Posted by Darby on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 11:58 pm.

Books! I’ve read a few this year. So far. I’m not expecting much in the way of surprise between now and the end of the year, though–seems like it’s all sort of mapped out. Like, there’s this guy, you may have heard of him, Jonathan Franzen? Yeah, he’s got a new novel coming out in [...]

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  • Reviews Elsewhere

    In little to no particular order.

    • The American Girl and The Glitter Scene by Monika Fagerholm
    • "Monika Fagerholm creates a dark, dramatic, and lyrical world, often insular, full of change and loss.... I fell in love with this world and these books; they are, for me, a fresh reminder of what story itself is about.." Reviewed at The Collagist.
    • Some Things That Meant the World to Me by Joshua Mohr
    • "Joshua Mohr’s debut novel...is where Michael Gondry would go if he went down a few too many miles of bad desert road." Reviewed at The Collagist.
    • Drowning Tucson by Aaron Michael Morales
    • "Fill your book with blatant, modern-day classic, critical thematic concerns and a reviewer ought to have no problem calling them out in an easily digested bullet-point format.... Except, this book hurt. And trying to find a way to talk about that without merely repeating over and over again that this book hurt presents a far greater challenge." Reviewed at The Collagist.
    • Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
    • "Let me be completely transparent: with Lethem’s work, I approach it with expectations. I expect spice. In this case, I found the book flavorless and cold." Reviewed at Identity Theory.
    • Ray of the Star by Laird Hunt
    • "Consider the f-bomb: you can trace the trajectory of the story’s heart by the elegant deployment of that dexterous cuss word across the pages of...Laird Hunt’s latest (arguably best, unarguably most emotionally engaging) novel." Reviewed at Identity Theory.
    • What Is All This? by Stephen Dixon
    • This review includes footnotes. Reviewed at The Quarterly Conversation.
    • The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich
    • "It is a slippery novel. It will never lay still and compromising in your hands, but the harder you hold on to it, the harder it is to hold. In confounding, it rewards: to borrow a line from the book, 'It’s only a problem if you make it one.' Reviewed at The Collagist.