Tag Archives: reading

Smart people books aren’t just for smart people, or shouldn’t be, at least

Posted by Darby on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 at 6:17 pm.

“Something to keep in mind when you start reading, Gaddis considered this [The Recognitions] a comic novel. Don’t forget to laugh amidst all that erudition and fancy language.” – link Which: yes. Standard disclaimers and apologies aside about infrequent posting, etc etc etc, yadda yadda yadda, full time job, school, recent discovery that I’ve likely [...]

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Y2K11: So It Begins

Posted by Darby on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 12:03 pm.

Hey! 2010. That happened. It did. And now it’s done. I forgive it for being done! It had to happen eventually. And on this last day of my winter vacation, the day devoted to drinking a strong pot of coffee before nervously spending the rest of the day crying myself to sleep in anticipation of [...]

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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.