“What did I get from Simon? An education – the thing my parents always wanted me to have.” Simon was an older man who seduced Lynn Barber when she was sixteen, introduced her to a lot of very unsavory characters and scenes, and ultimately screwed her over mightily. She tells that story, along with details about her childhood, in the opening chapter of her memoir: An Education. It was fascinating — what Simon told her and showed her about a world she’d never encountered; how wholly […]
Deliverance by James Dickey
“That’s all anybody has got. It depends on how strong your fantasy is, and whether you really — really — in your own mind, fit into your own fantasy, whether you measure up to what you’ve fantasized. I don’t know what yours is, but I’ll bet you don’t come up to it.” Wow. Not what I expected at all, but I ended up really liking it. I’ve never seen the movie; all I’ve heard is scary hillbillies and dueling banjos. I think I was expecting a […]
Paper Towns by John Green
“What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.” Second best John Green book so far, and one of the best books I’ve read this year. Considering that it’s only April, John Green has forced me to set my standards high. That rocks. Like in many of his other novels, Paper Towns is about a boy (Quentin Jacobsen) who loves a girl (Margo Roth Spiegelman–what a name). What I LOVED about this one, is that as the book goes on, Quentin realizes […]
They Eat Puppies, Don’t They? by Christopher Buckley
Another Christoper Buckley satirical novel. In this one, Washington lobbyist, spin doctor and all-around sleazy dude “Bird” McIntyre has been tasked with creating anti-Chinese sentiment in order to increase the defense budget and therefore benefit a weapons manufacturer. To do this, he teams up with a Angel Templeton, who has a sharp brain, long legs and no morals. Together, they create a rumor that the Chinese have poisoned the Dalai lama, and everything goes to hell from there. Like most (all?) of Buckley’s novels, the characters are basically […]