Fifty-first book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. This book is not for the faint-hearted. It isn’t for those who can’t stand gore and animal cruelty and the death of children. But in its own way, this is one of the best books I have ever read. This is the story of Frank, a 16 year old living with his Father on an island. His brother, Eric, has just escaped from a mental asylum and for the major part of the book, Frank is […]
Drama and lessons from the school of life.
Forty-fourth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. Yet again I turn to a play by Oscar Wilde and yet again I come away entirely delighted by the experience! Every one of his works has his distinct imprint of acerbic satire and astute observations. While his characters are from the late 20th Century, his observations of the human condition are timeless. And while he is wickedly sarcastic, he almost always manages to convince you that in the end, people are essentially good at heart. […]
“More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read.”
I promised myself that if I finished my full cannonball ahead of schedule that I would get at least one classic that I had not read off my TBR list. That brings us to The Importance of Being Earnest, which I was reminded was on my list by Aamil The Camel’s lovely review. The best part of reading this play, which I’m sure many of you read in high school although I did not, is that it is still laugh out loud funny nearly 120 […]
Strong Start, Weak Finish
If not for the humor in the exposition of her epistolary novel, I’d have never read, much less bought Maria Semple’s bestseller, Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2012). A satire of the Seattle-based super rich and privileged, I found myself not liking many of the characters because they typified so many of my stereotypes of the super rich: delusional, entitled, competitive, paranoid, and money/power/status obsessed. Despite my less than positive review, the novel is well-written and stylistically inventive. For these reasons, it gets three rather than two stars. Read […]