So this is the week I thank all of you, my fellow Cannonballers, for having such fabulous taste in books. Without all of you, I definitely would not have found some of my favorite books of the year so far! This review requires thanking yesknopemaybe for reviewing the incredible Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Gracias. So this is the mostly autobiographical story of Ms. Woodson told from birth till probably ten to eleven. What makes it so special is that it’s told in free […]
I Guess That’s Why They Call It Dope
Jonathan Lethem has become the Avril Lavigne of hipster fiction. This book is a confusing pastiche of disparate elements that take place in a New York that’s slightly askew from our world. I do this in my own fiction — BUY MY BOOK — but the delineation is confusing. It sort of peters out around 1985. So Marlon Brando did Apocalypse Now, but then he also did The Gnuppet Movie with Florian Ib, before making a mob movie where he haranged the director as a puppeteer. […]
The Begending of the Endginning
I thought I quit you, Terry Goodkind. But he created cheap DLC, a tacked on extra adventure for his mammoth sprawling Ayn Randian fantasy realm. Richard has to fight off a new evil, because his grandfather did something bad many years ago and pissed off an evil monk and now A Song of Ice and Fire is happening. I love reading the Goodreads reviews for Goodkind, because it’s either five star praise or one star, “Why the fuck am I still reading this shit?” I […]
Lotta Miles on the Road Still To Go
I cut my teeth on Stephen King. But I started late eighties, so I missed his start. I can never remember which of his books I have read and I haven’t. And while familiar with Christine — the killer car who comes to life to smite a nerdy teen’s enemies — I never actually delved into it. It’s fascinating in conjunction with King’s prediliction for killer autos, especially when considering his old man’s perspective in From a Buick 8.