First, a confession. I can count on my right hand the number of books in my lifetime I haven’t finished. As a rule, I finish all books I start (even if it takes years). You never know when they will turn around on you. This used to be one of the few. I was in my last year of grad school at the time, and only got about 80% of the way through before our class discussion, and just . . . never got around […]
This fire left me feeling tepid
I don’t normally take advice from the interwebs, but when I took a short “what should you read next quiz” that was posted to the CBR book chat page, the resulting recommendation intrigued me. Home Fire was described as a retelling of Antigone set in modern-day London. I haven’t read any Greek tragedy since high school, so I thought this could make an interesting study, to compare the classic with the modern. I have to confess, Greek tragedies were never my thing. I ate up all manner […]
Charleth Dickenth thtarring Daffy Duck
I was really looking forward to reading Hard Times when I pulled it off the shelf. I’m a Dickens fan. A Tale of Two Cities is one of my all-time favorites, and Bleak House is right up there, too. And I have to say this was the most Dickensian novel that Dickens ever Dickensed. Unfortunately, that’s not a good thing. It lacked a lot of my favorite things about Dickens. There wasn’t much of a mystery. There weren’t many great lines. And there weren’t any […]
It’s gross you guys.
Lolita is a narrative that permeates pop culture, in advertisements, references and romanticizing of things that are not okay. This narrative probably originates from the 1997 film adaptation starring Jeremy Irons: When I was a teenager this novel was a way to live out my own sexuality and confused feelings about adults around me. These adults were mostly male teachers making Humbert Humbert the perfect stand-in. However engaging with this story as an adult is a bit different. It’s gross you guys. Lolita is […]