I’ve known Lulu Smith (not her real name) online for a few years now. Among other things we’ve bonded over our judgmental animal companions. She has feline office assistants, who find her lacking. My dog’s side eye has an international fan base. She has talked about her writing process for a couple of years, so I knew she had a book coming soon. When she offered a copy in exchange for an honest review, I jumped on the offer. I jumped, and then I froze, because what if I hated it?
“I am actively choosing to be a consumer of someone else’s tragedy. So like any responsible consumer, I try to be careful in the choices I make. I read only the best: writers who are dogged, insightful, and humane.”
I was floored by this book. I’m glad that I was able to sit and read it over the course of one day, to really sink into it and give it my full attention. Yesterday my region was hit by our fourth nor’easter of the month (seriously, I’m ready for second winter and March to find the exit) and since my job often makes us come into work in terrible weather conditions, and I live in a pretty inaccessible place, I spend most snow days […]
Good, Could’ve Been Great
About 130 pages into Among the Ten Thousand Things, the author, Julia Pierpont, starts a new section of her book with the title “That Year and Those That Followed.” In the following chapter Pierpont’s story jumps forward many years. Up to this point she had carefully unveiled her characters and plot. It was detailed and purposeful. And then, all of a sudden, it jumps forward years. And from that point forward I lost interest in the book. It’s as if she didn’t know what to say when […]
Black Spots on a Black Cat
Our lives are all made up of a series of episodes. Of adventures, of happenstance, of chance. What if you tried to capture it all, but a slanted version that you could leave behind in the written form? This book captures that goal and the madness of its attempt. It’s almost a little hard to believe that this is Kristopher Jansma’s first novel, but it becomes quickly apparent that he has been a writer for some time. There is a level of craftsmanship in the […]