I love the concept of Joyce Carol Oates. I mean first of all the name! What a splendid name, intricate, commanding with a rhythm like a poem. Joyce Carol Oates cannot be anything other than a writer. And she churns out novels like she’s a novel factory turning sausages into full-blown novels over and over, doesn’t matter what genre, Joyce makes the sausage! But I didn’t like little bird of heaven. In fact it is my first DNF – something I did not anticipate after […]
Bowman’s in Space (Alternate title: So many pizza gifs, so little time)
Perhaps it is a credit to my stupidity, perhaps a flaw in the genre that I was willing to read 145 pages of foreign world and odd references before I noticed that 3001 is actually the 4th book in the series (maybe the word “final” could have been a clue there, hmm? No?). Perhaps it is Arthur C. Clarkes brilliance that it didn’t matter at all. This book is a delight. “Do you believe in ghosts, Dim?” “Certainly not: but like every sensible man, I’m […]
And you’re stuck to this corner like a streetlight…
Esperanza Cordero lives on Mango street in a house that is not her house. The real house is out there waiting for her and it has beautiful windows and white polished bannisters. But for now Esperanza lives in this house, on Mango Street. I’m not sure what to say about this book. It does not lend itself to direct proclamations. Oh this is a tale of coming of age! Oh this is how [insert riveting plotpoint where the main character battles dragons]! Rather the main […]
If you like descriptions of cleaning and sorting wires…this one’s for you! Including some [NSFW] gif’ing
“The world divides between those who can watch television knowing there’s an isolated jigsaw fragment lying on the floor and those who can’t.” There is a pile of stuff at the bottom of the stairs (which I mean, how can you NOT pick up a book with such an awesome name!? Turns out picking it up was easy. Reading it was the hard part. But I digress). This pile at the bottom of the stairs is not a happy pile, it is a pile left […]