From August 2012. * Much, much more satisfied than I was the last time, as a poor underdeveloped teenager. The Eden stuff tickled me to death (tree of knowledge! Snake offering life instead of damnation! Oh Lemony, you humanist you). And I had some vague memory that something weird happens with Count Olaf’s character, but … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: January 2015
Book review: One Saved to the Sea, by Catt Kingsgrave
I have no recollection of how this book ended up on my Kindle wish list, so I have to assume it was God. I believe in a benevolent God. One who sneaks paranormal lesbian erotica into my reading list. This was a nice read. Regrettably, I don’t read as much lesbian fiction as I’d like to … Continue reading
Resurrected book review: The Carnivorous Carnival, by Lemony Snicket
From June 2012. 1. I did not have good memories of this book. It was the one, as I recall, that broke my suspension of disbelief, and struck my fourteen-year-old self as being entirely too absurd, beyond the limits of reality. What particularly offended me was the bloodthirstiness of the crowd at the climax, how … Continue reading
Resurrected book review: The Hostile Hospital, by Lemony Snicket
From June 2012. * I vaguely recalled The Hostile Hospital as my favorite, and while I haven’t finished re-evaluating the whole series, that turned out to be about right. This is the book where I want to give Violet the Dean Winchester Protective Sibling Award, and where I find the midpoint climax and suspense (the chase scene … Continue reading
Resurrected book review: A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket (books 1-4)
From May 2012. Can’t wait for the Netflix series! 1. I’m contemplating the whole series, attempting to look deeper for underlying messages and issues I would have missed in junior high and early high school. There’s quite a lot. First, I’ve been analyzing them more closely as children’s literature and what set them apart and made them so … Continue reading
Query: Is there a market for wish-fulfillment fiction of people screwing with Christian fundies?
Just asking for a friend. (Because I am my own friend.) I grew up entrenched in the Southern Baptist, evangelical, fundamentalist environment, though through my teenage years I realized just how fucked-up a lot of their stances are, especially on social issues. I used to daydream a lot about being a witch from the Harry Potter … Continue reading
Resurrected book review: The Snow Empress, by Laura Joh Rowland
From spring 2013. 1. This is a highly interesting study of a book. I think the actual mystery/detective work is a bit simplistic (not that I have any idea yet who the culprit is), but just as a study of — okay, the author appears to be Japanese, but certainly a modern-era woman writing about … Continue reading
Resurrected book review: The Boy With the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, by Mathias Malzieu
Or: A Really, Really Lame Version of Iron Man Like Iron Man, in that the protagonist has a prosthetic assisting his heart to keep him alive, but kinda steampunk and in Scotland in the later part of the 19th century But no suit, no brilliance or superpowers or wealth No particular skills at all, actually … Continue reading
Resurrected book review: Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
From 2013. 1. I found out what book I’m listening to (as it was gifted on burned CDs with handwritten labels by a coworker). It’s one of those recent bestsellers (as of 2012) that was on the POTUS’ summer reading list. Ooooooh. I rarely read those kinds of books. But yeah, it definitely feels weighty … Continue reading
Book review: The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling)
I can’t believe I didn’t realize, when I wrote my review of the first Cormoran Strike book, that the second one was already out. I would have jumped on that so fast. Fortunately, once I learned of its existence, I found the audiobook available at my library with, shockingly, no queue. So even though I purchased … Continue reading
