I’ll be honest, ghost stories are not my thing. Every once in a while, I’ll give one a try, and for the most part (major exception for Lost Boy, Lost Girl by Peter Straub, one of my favorites), they leave me wanting. Anna Dressed in Blood was the October pick for my book club, and is not a book I would normally choose to read. And I didn’t love it. I really don’t have much to say, so let me just hit a couple of […]
Looks like M. Night Shyamalan has some competition
There was a lot of talk about We Were Liars a few months back (see popcultureboy’s review from earlier this year), and about the surprise ending. The buzz on the book was huge, and the tagline in the publicity for it said, “and if anybody asks you how it ends, just LIE.” This piqued my interest. And so I went into it cautiously, hoping that the “twist” didn’t detract from the storytelling. Thankfully, it didn’t. We Were Liars is about a girl named Cady (short for Cadence), […]
Marketing Genius or Load of Rich Creamery Butter?
Have you ever been talking with a group of friends and the subject of marketing comes up? Inevitably, at least one person will make the claim that marketing “doesn’t work” on him. I suppose this claim goes along with having a great sense of humor and impeccable taste as the most common delusions of the human species. I’ve just never understood why people make it a point of pride to claim that they are impervious to marketing efforts, as if that makes a person smarter […]
Unluck of the Irish
Edna O’Brien’s Country Girls Trilogy was originally released as three separate novels: The Country Girls (1960), The Lonely Girl (1962) and Girls in Their Married Bliss (1964). This collected edition from 1986 includes an Epilogue as well, rounding out the story of two Irish girls who grow up, fall in and out of love, and get involved in bad relationships in the 1950s/early 1960s. O’Brien’s writing is a delight to read. She mixes humor with sadness and tragedy. Caithleen Brady (Kate) and Bridget Brennan (Baba) […]