Pictured: the two covers for the United States release of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. They’re quite obviously paying homage to two of my favorite series: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Firefly. Which basically sums up the book itself. If you like either of those series, you’ll like this. “That’s such an incredibly organic bias, the idea that your squishy physical existence is some sort of pinnacle that all programs aspire to.” So sometime in the far, far future, Earth has self-destructed and humans (the rich ones fled to Mars prior to […]
“It’s not the mistakes I made but how I responded to them”
I’ve spent a good amount of time with Todd, Viola and the people of New World over the last month or so. I’m sad to see the end of the series (presumably…is Ness writing a fourth?), but I’m even sadder that I didn’t particularly enjoy this third installment — certainly not as much as the first two. “A monster, I think, remembering what Ben told me once. War makes Monsters of Men.” In the third novel, the book focuses mostly on war: the Spackle vs. the […]
“I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.”
Jeannette Walls grew up with three siblings, an alcoholic father who drank every dime he made, and an artistic mother who made it very clear to her children that she blamed them for her lack of success. They often moved in the middle of the night — to flee the FBI, according to her father — and spent years in hard poverty. Throughout it all, Jeannette and her siblings banded together to care for each other, and drag each out of the messes that their […]
“There’s a difference between wanting to be looked at and wanting to be seen.”
I won this book through a giveaway on Goodreads. Prior to reading The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, I knew exactly two things about Amanda Palmer: she wrote & sang the hysterical song “Coin Operated Boy”, which a friend recommended to me years ago. And two, she’s married to (and recently procreated with), one of my favorite authors: Neil Gaiman. After reading this book, I feel like I know her much, much better — and really respect her […]