Okay, real-talk. This and Homegoing are my top two contenders for Best Book of 2016, with Sofia Samatar’s The Winged Histories and Jewell Parker Rhodes’ Towers Falling in a close second, with John Lewis’s last March volume rounding out the top five. 2016 has been a crappy year, but there have been some remarkable books. Let’s talk about what made this so extraordinary. I explain why in my full review.
Atwood’s writing is the elegance of despair
Damn. Look, we all love reading. And it’s probably also true that most of us want to, at some point, write a book, right? That’s not just me? Well, this book covers a lot of ground the ground that I had cleared for a book I’ve been playing around with. And though I’ll probably never write a book, that’s still disheartening. So this disappointment kind of hovers over this entire review, like a black cloud of self-doubt and broken dreams. Also, I approached this book […]
“Extreme good, extreme evil: the abilities required are similar.”
Oh Margaret Atwood. I wish I could quit you. Seriously. Your books are so damn disturbing. I think Handmaid’s Tale broke my wee brain as a preteen and I have distrusted male authority and religion ever since. This book deals with romantic relationships, female friendships, the other woman and the perceptions of evil. However, unlike many of Atwood’s books, it is not a work of science fiction. Three friends, who met in college gather monthly in mid 90s, maybe early 2000s Toronto for monthly luncheons. […]
A Worthy Tribute
I’m a huge fan of Ray Bradbury, but I actually found this in the process of hunting down a copy of Joe Hill’s By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain, which is included in this collection. Pretty much every story here is a winner, though, and definitely worth reading for Bradbury fans. Here’s a full list of everything included. I particularly enjoyed Lee Martin’s Cat on a Bad Couch, Jacqueline Mitchard’s Two Of A Kind, Charles Yu’s Earth: (A Gift Shop) and Julia Keller’s Hayleigh’s Dad. Overall, though, there aren’t any duds. And I really liked […]