Swing Time is a long read from Zadie Smith, about who we are and who we were and who we will be. The story is told out of linear time, and involves many flashbacks and continuing changes in the more recent past, building towards the final act, which also opens the book. It’s a little confusing, but it’s interesting to see how the narrator looks back over her own life and how her feelings change about her own reminiscing. There’s a feeling that her character […]
A Book That Rubs in What We’ve Lost
Like many people, I’m sure, I set out to find some of Carrie Fisher’s writing after hearing of her passing, and crying a lot over various tumblr posts about the fierce, proud, witty, wonderful woman we’d just lost. It was surprisingly easy to get my hands on a copy of Wishful Drinking, Fisher’s short, sharp memoir that’s largely just a collection of anecdotes about her remarkable and exciting life, and I devoured it in a matter of hours. It definitely did not help with the […]
Culinary Catnip (for me, anyway)
I’m a complete sucker for food-related books, especially biographies and memoirs. If you have a recipe collection with a few essays woven in? I’m in heaven. The Apprentice was a stand-out in this regard, since it had food, biography, and France, so I was completely unable to resist its many many charms. More uncontrollable gushing can be found here! Sidebar: searching for an amazon link for this book mostly got me links to a certain reality TV series, and now my delightful high from this […]
Paper Girls, Vol. 2
Where on earth does Brian K Vaughan get his ideas? He’s so inventive, creating fascinating worlds with tonnes of lore just lurking beneath the surface. Everything I’ve read of his provokes far more questions than it answers, and I love it. Paper Girls weaves a thrilling mystery, and I’m glad I waited for the volume instead of picking it up issue by issue, but I’m still anxious to read more! I can’t get into the details of Volume Two without spoiling part of Volume One, […]