August 2011
23 posts
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A Review: The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
Historical novels with a dash of the fantastic can be terrifically entertaining, giving us valuable history lessons alonside a gentle reminder to open our minds to possibility. While transformative potions that turn the consumers into birds, as in The Apothecary, are not likely historical oversights, part of thrill of fiction is its ability to coax new ideas from our often hibernating...
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“While math was like a magnificent imaginary building for Tengo, literature was a...”
– Haruki Murakami, an excerpt from 1Q84
Read the full excerpt (9 pages!) on The New Yorker’s website.
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Editor & Author: Mitzi Angel and Paul Murray →
It’s Paul Murray day here on Books Matter! Please read and savor this interview between Murray and his Faber & Faber editor, Mitzi Angel. They discuss Proust (!), Skippy Dies, comedic writing, and Murray’s next novel.
One of my favorite bits:
Murray: The truth is funny. The abject truth of being a human. That’s what all of those really foundational novels—Don Quixote, Tristram...
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A Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Ready Player One, a dystopian fiction set in 2044 and Ernest Cline’s first novel, is quickly becoming known for this memorable one-word review, from author John Scalzi: “Nerdgasm.” Cline pushes our nerdgasm to its limits, stuffing the narrative full of every 1980s reference readers may know and then some more. Lucky for us, Cline’s novel consists of more than nerdy references; it is also a...
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Readin' in the Rain
The last week in New York has been rather wet. You may have heard that the city received record rainfall on Sunday. While cars were drowning, I was inside, reading. What better way to spend a dreary Sunday?
When choosing a rainy day read, consider two things. One: the book should be completely engrossing, enough to make you forget the miserable weather that’s stolen one of your summer days....
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“Yet I can’t help but remember that reading — both the careful selection of books...”
– Steve Himmer, “Making Room for Readers”
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Epic Journeys: Fantasy Makes a Comeback, SF... →
I grew up reading fantasy, living in Piers Anthony’s Xanth world. Then, I went to college and studied Literature. Fantasy? Getouttahere. It was like dating someone you’re embarrassed of—only proper in dark restaurants or your dorm room. I was too busy reading Bakhtin and Nabokov; Borges was closest I got to fantasy.
Now, with college several years behind me and fading fast, I am just...
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A Review: Stories for Nighttime and Some for the...
Some people may argue that all stories have been told. Aesop, Herodotus, Geoffrey Chaucer, the Brothers Grimm, One Thousand and One Nights, Geoffrey of Monmouth, years of oral tradition and lost authors—some may argue that we have left behind such creation and that today’s tales stand no chance against time. Our folk tales and fairy tales and campfire tales are pretty much set, it’s true. But in...
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“A duck fell in love with a rock.”
– Ben Loory, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
My new favorite first line from a story. Read this book! (My review coming soon.)
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A Review: Lamb by Bonnie Nadzam
Reading Bonnie Nadzam’s Lamb, I thought about the terror of watching a car crash or, often, the news on the TV. I read her novel with a knotted stomach, waiting for something horrifying and absolutely fascinated by its possibility.
The title, Lamb, refers to David Lamb, a terrifically egotistic 54-year-old who has just lost his father and is divorcing his wife. One day, after his father’s...
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GAUDILOQUENT
Each year, hundreds of words are dropped from the English language.
Old words, wise words, hard-working words. Today, 90% of our communication uses only 7,000 words.
Help spread WORDS by adopting one today. Save The Words helps you to choose an adoptable and neglected word; in exchange, you simply pledge to use it as often as possible.
I adopted gaudiloquent: (adj) to speak joyfully or of...
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Man of a Hundred Thousand Books →
Don Stewart is the neat, smooth proprietor of a rather unkempt and chaotic bookstore, where leisurely browsing is addictive and almost mandatory.
Yes, I am jealous.
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A Review: Luminarium by Alex Shakar
Alex Shakar’s second novel, Luminarium, presents this predicament: how can spirituality and technology coexist or, even, work together as the world presses forward, leaving yesterday’s coding and yesterday’s faith far behind? In Shakar’s post-9/11 New York—the novel takes place around the fifth anniversary—this quandary looms even more prevalent as the city and his...
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"At the Zoo" by Caitlin Horrocks →
She grinds her teeth when her father speaks. Her whole life he has been telling these stories, and there was once a time she believed them. As a child she gave show-and-tell presentations on birds that turned out not to exist, on fictive countries whose names were sexual innuendo she was too young to understand. She was marked down, taken aside by concerned teachers. She still winces at those old...
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A Review: Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman
Matthew Norman is hilarious. If you need some convincing or have no idea who Matthew Norman is, please read his debut novel, Domestic Violets, immediately.
Despite the witty title, the plot of Domestic Violets does not ring of comedy. Thomas Violet’s first grim disclosure reveals that he and his wife have been suffering through some trouble in the bedroom. Or, in Tom’s words, more...
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Death & Authors: The 12 Weirdest Stories
1. Tennessee Williams choked to death on a bottle cap. In 1983, Williams was found dead with an eyedrops bottle cap blocking his larynx. An empty bottle of wine and several kinds of medications were also found, and their consumption was thought to have restrained his gag reflex.
2. Sir Francis Bacon died of pneumonia after stuffing a chicken with snow. In 1626, Bacon wanted to do a meat...
