When I first read this novel shortly after its publication in 2005, I found it entertaining and well-written. It felt slow in places but the presence of gritty emotion held my interest. Tragedy, regret, and bitterness were the notes of… Read More ›
As a high school teacher, I have complete control over my small classroom library. Among the hand-me-downs, library leftovers and nobody-teaches-me-anymore books are carefully placed titles for reluctant readers. These are the books students who never read come back to… Read More ›
Once in awhile I’ll come across a book that stirs mixed feelings in me. Not in terms of whether it is a good story or not, but in the range of emotions it creates in me. Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country brought up… Read More ›
I don’t like to write reviews that are less than positive, unless I can talk about something important where it isn’t really the book, itself, that has failed, but some other aspect of society where we are failing and the… Read More ›
Following the release of his novella, Elevation, Stephen King shared with readers his dismay that his intended audience would never read it.
Tom Disch is one of my favorite authors; I find his writing to be powerful and insightful, unrelenting but sensitive. His work is often infuriating and disturbing, but worth the effort to engage it. The first work of his that… Read More ›
The art of the epistle has been lost on this generation. Stolen by tweets and status updates and selfies, it’s as though no one knows how to write a long letter when a short phone call is always better and… Read More ›
Language and plot in Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf are locked in a mighty struggle of structure and meaning versus intensity and immediacy. From the beginning this struggle manifests in the stories Tracker, the main character, relates to his apparent captor… Read More ›
As a high school teacher, I have complete control over my small classroom library. Among the hand-me-downs, library leftovers and nobody-teaches-me-anymore books are carefully placed titles for reluctant readers. These are the books students who never read come back to… Read More ›