Recently, someone has come in to my life who was diagnosed with Asperger’s a few years ago. At his urging to “read a little about it”, I picked up Look Me In the Eye at the public library. (Side note: I am shocked at how little there is out there about this condition.) John Elder Robison is the brother of Augusten Burroughs (Running with Scissors, Dry), and while I vaguely remember Robison from Burroughs’ memoirs, he reminds the reader that he and his brother had “different parents”, and […]
I really missed out, not reading this as a youth.
A wise person knows to expect thoughtful, imaginative, lyrical fantasy from Ursula K. Le Guin, and in A Wizard of Earthsea, she does not disappoint. Goodreads summary: “Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth. Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death’s threshold to restore the […]
Appropriately, I’m of two minds about this book…
…If it were fiction, it would read as cheesy and unrealistic. But because it’s autobiographical, it’s a fascinating, albeit difficult read. About twenty years ago, Cameron West had a job, a wife, and a young son. His life was relatively normal. But stresses built up and he began to doubt his reality. Some phone calls to family members led him to believe he had been molested as a child. As West sought to understand his past, he began displaying bizarre symptoms. West hit a stroke […]
I never, ever, ever, ever, want to climb a big mountain.
This book was fantastic. I love Jon Krakauer’s clean and sophisticated writing style. I could stop there, but this would be a pretty boring review. It is, however, pretty much all you need to know. The events upon which this book was based are probably already well known to anyone who might be interested in this topic. In spring of 1996 a bunch of people tried to reach the summit of Everest, and a bunch of people died. The author was in that party of […]