Many of my beloved friends at my first book club are huge fans of Rob Bell. My friend C showed Everything is Spiritual at a Friday-night gathering related to our discussion of Flatland, and while I didn’t quite get the fuss, I had to admit that Bell made interesting connections I had never thought of. K chose What is The Bible?, Bell’s newest book, for her book club pick in June (we’re meeting in July to discuss two books, because scheduling conflicts), and I was […]
A masterful short story collection by the master of the short story
If you are or were an English major in college, then chances are that you have read a Flannery O’Connor short story, and double chances are that the short story in question was “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” arguably one of her finest (and I defend that argument, by the way). I’d also read “The River” and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” (seriously, nobody does titles better than Flannery), but I knew she had a whole collection. I requested it […]
A haunting novel set during and about WWII
Many years ago, during my English Department’s annual Yankee Book Swap, Irene Nèmirovsky’s Suite Française made the rounds as one of the popular books to swap for and steal. I did not end up bringing the book home, but I did write the title down and add it to my enormous To-Be-Read list. I found it at my library in hardcover years later on sale for $1. Of course, as what typically happens, I bought it and then never read it until now. I’m disappointed […]
A beautiful novel about a woman’s writing life
This was another Cannonball read gift from crystalclear, and I’m just now getting around to it. I’m winding down the “read books on my shelf” project slowly but surely, and I’ve been enjoying the process. I had heard of Moon Tiger while working on my doctoral comps, and I’ve been wanting to read it since then. I am sad that I did not read this during my Women’s Literature course, as I think it’s an excellent example of what makes women writers distinctive or even […]
An unusual science-fiction time travel novel.
My current research project deals with women in dystopian fiction (with some sci-fi crossover), and it’s been to my eternal shame that I’ve never read any Octavia E. Butler. Thankfully, crystalclear got me Kindred for the Cannonball exchange last Christmas, and I was more than eager to dig in. In February of 2016, I was on a conference panel with a professor who had read a paper on Kindred, which had piqued my interest in the first place. It was an intriguing historical time-travel novel, […]
A frustrating memoir that was billed to me as hilarious.
As I’ve alluded to before, I have a sibling with Asperger’s, formerly delineated separately from the autism spectrum. The idea of autism is not new to me, especially since the diagnosis of Asperger’s was relatively new when my brother was diagnosed. What I’m saying is, I’m familiar with this subject material. I was curious to see how David Finch would handle this memoir and illuminate his audience on his personal insights. As it turns out, the read was frustrating and often unfulfilling, but not for […]
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