I am five reviews behind because I HATED this book & didn’t feel like putting the time into a review. So…does that count as a review? “I am best served in my life’s goals if I lay in the dark, brood, sleep, listen to classical music, spend time with my few friends, and chase women. That’s what I do. I chase women. I spend time with my few friends. I brood. I sleep. I earn money, and I work.” If you can read the excerpt […]
Just in case I needed another reason to dislike camping
Peggy Hillcoat is the daughter of a famous German concert pianist and an English survivalist, who despite the disapproval of his wife keeps stockpiling supplies in a shelter in their garden and preparing for the worst. Only eight years old, she doesn’t question what is happening when her father takes her away from their big house in London while her mother is away on tour. He takes her to the German countryside, to a delapitated cabin remote in the mountains, explaining that this is their […]
Who knew studying linguistics could be so dangerous?
Daniel Everett first began to live among the Pirahã people of the Amazon in 1977, when he and his family were sent on behalf of the Summer Institute of Linguistics to study the Pirahã’s language in order to translate the Bible and convert them to Christianity. He ended up learning not only their language, but gathered insights about their way of life that eventually led to his renunciation of Christianity and 20 years living among this primitive tribe. “They have no craving for truth as a transcendental reality. Indeed, […]
“Words are free, she tried to say, and she appropriated them; they were all hers.”
Like Margaret Atwood, I didn’t discover Isabel Allende until a few years ago, but once I did I immediately started searching for her books every time I hit Half Price Books. Eva Luna, one of her earlier novels (1987) wasn’t my favorite of hers, but still a great example of her beautiful way with words. This woman can create a backstory for a character better than just about anyone I can think of — her characters rarely seem to do anything as far as plot goes, but the […]