Rainbow Rowell books are the written equivalent of a weighted blanket and cup of tea. The moment I open one, I feel immediately comfortable and content. There is something inherently warm about her writing so much so that even when the characters are in tough situations, I’m just happy to be there. Carry On, well, carries on this grand tradition and I am just tickled pink that she wrote it. I’ll probably reread Fangirl this year because it was my first and always favorite of her books […]
Sorely Lacking Keanu Reeves. One Star.
The year is 1897 and Bram Stoker is a bored businessmen who boosts his income by writing pulpy novels. The most famous of these, simply titled Dracula, was not an immediate hit, but would turn out to define Stoker’s legacy. This isn’t entirely undeserved, but outside of its snug historical pocket the novel doesn’t come across all that well. The story is well-known to nearly everyone, and I was quite surprised at how closely, at first, it follows the 1993 movie. And yet this film, […]
I wish for more
I picked up this 2017 collection of short stories because it featured contributions of several writers whose work I’ve reviewed before and liked, and the subject of djinn (or jinn or genies, whatever term you prefer) has been popping up on my radar quite a bit lately. The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories was a brilliant way for me to start CBR11 — immensely entertaining, sometimes provocative, and an entree to the works of writers new to me but whose work I will definitely be tracking down. The stories are a wonderful mix of styles and settings and shed light not only on the nature of the djinn but on human nature as well. The djinn, created by Allah from smokeless fire, are sometimes depicted as tricky and/or evil, but in some ways they are no different from humans.
Perhaps nothing is certain in this world, but at least we can believe in something.
Killing Commendatore (4 stars) There were parts of this book that brought me back to my favorite parts of 1Q84, but this book doesn’t equal that one in terms of quality, spirit, or impact. Which doesn’t make this a bad book – by any measure – but I don’t think it’s amongst Murakami’s greatest works. The protagonist of this book is unnamed. He’s an artist who’s fallen into portrait painting to make a living. His wife abruptly tells him that she wants a divorce, and […]