vel veeter

Edward Albee Plays

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

The Zoo Story by Edward Albee

June 11, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – The classic play from Edward Albee, which is one of the most intense two hours you can spend in a theater. It begins with the middle-aged couple of George and Marth coming home from a faculty party late at night, drunk, and bantering/bickering. As they start sorting through the evening in that way couples do, we learn that a few key things have happened. One, Martha made a very funny joke that became increasingly less funny the more times […]

Neil Simon Plays

The Odd Couple by Neil Simon

Chapter Two by Neil Simon

The Prisoner of Second Ave by Neil Simon

Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon

Biloxi Blues by Neil Simon

Broadway Bound by Neil Simon

California Suite by Neil Simon

Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon

Plaza Suite by Neil Simon

June 11, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Chapter Two – The title here refers to “Chapter Two” of a life. Our main characters are a widower and a divorcee who get set up on a date by mutual friends. He’s very much still in mourning, but has emerged in some ways from his grief and she is looking for real love after a disastrous marriage. They begin by talking on the phone, and there’s some brilliantly and falsely disastrous miscommunication that allows them to talk and learn about each other. He meant […]

Longs and Shorts

The Big Book of Reel Murders by Ed. Otto Penzler

My Head! My Head! by Robert Graves

The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

The Twits by Roald Dahl

Heart by Jade Anouka

Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny

The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes

The Green Knight by Iris Murdoch

The Ophelia Network by Mur Lafferty

Deep Hole by Don Winslow

Legal Immigrant by Alan Cumming

Our Town by Thornton Wilder

The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder

The Cube by Adam Rapp

Endgame by Samuel Beckett

Pale Sister by Colm Toibin

Enemies, A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer

June 8, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The Big Book of Reel Murders – Edited by Otto Penzler – 4/5 The concept of this collection is still mostly pulpy stories (though with some other older stories and more contemporary stories not really pulpy) that were made into films. It should really be called “Reel Crimes” as not every story involves a murder, but the concept mostly works. It ends up being a little frayed throughout as apparently it’s just much easier to get some rights to stories than others, so like the […]

The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

June 2, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

I first read this in grad school when I had the flu and had a high fever. It really is as great and weird as I thought then. If you haven’t read Don Quixote, you’re not too late. It’s a bit of slog, but never difficult, especially in this particular edition with the 2003 translation. I haven’t looked at the Tobias Smollett translation from 1755, but I imagine that one’s a little rough these days. The introduction tells us that when the novel was first […]

History of the Ancient World

History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer

June 1, 2022 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a broad spectrum history of the world from a few thousand years BCE through the fall of the Roman Empire in first few centuries of the CE. Because it covers so much ground, it’s important to discuss some of the methods and approaches. Bauer explains that her focus is covering not only what is known for sure, but also what is spread through oral histories, myths, and other early sources. In part this is because otherwise the history would be primarily severely limited […]

Life of Pi

Life of Pi by Yann Martell

May 31, 2022 by vel veeter 1 Comment

I am rereading this book for the first time in a long time, having first read it in college for fun. It’s still a very engaging novel that plays around with some fun ideas and also with the structure and truth in fiction. I am thinking of using it for an AP Literature class this fall, and I was thrilled to read the author’s introduction, which functions like the first chapter of a Vonnegut or Nabokov book. We quickly realize that the author in this […]

esmemoria
on The Joke’s On You
Practically every sentence is a joke omg, I recently finished a book like this. Hated it.
esmemoria
on Eat the Rich
and the recognition that love isn’t going to cure trauma This is a perspective that is unusual to find. Sounds...
Malin
on Eat the Rich
I usually avoid all hints of horror, but have been assured by so many people that this book is something...
Malin
on I did not come all this way to live a smaller life
I'm reading this now. I hated reading the digital NetGalley copy so much on my phone that I waited until...
Allen
on Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman
So accurate in its description of Mrs. Blossom’s unbelievable and annoying naïveté, that I thought perhaps I wrote the review....

About vel veeter