Where do I even begin to describe a book like 1Q84? This was my first Murakami novel, and though I felt, at times, that certain minutiae for which he is apparently infamous (food preparation, repetitive dialogue and re-iteration of expository detail) contributed unnecessary padding to the 1157 pages, overall I found myself quite swept away in the lyricism of the writing and the surreal but precise detail in observing the world of 1Q84. The central characters are Tengo, a cram school (assuming this is an […]
The Dig is a brutal book – both physically and emotionally. It’s also a constantly gripping and involving story that will stay with you long after you put the pages down. At its heart, the story centres around two very different people, and how they react to the land and animals around them. One is a farmer named Daniel, recently mourning the loss of his wife and struggling to maintain the farm by himself, and the other is a vicious badger-baiter and all-round vacuum of […]
I’m so glad that these vampires don’t sparkle.
Holly Black is an author who
“We’re all dead, son. Some of us are just a little further along than others.”
For my fourth cannonball read review, I decided to read some Young Adult fiction. YA is the ultimate mind escape for me, and a really good one can be an effective mini brain vacation. A lot of buzz was generated by Rick Yancey’s novel The 5th Wave, and I decided to jump on the reading bandwagon. Now, while my greatest fear is some sort of zombie/alien/vampire attack that forces civilization to live in caves again, I can’t help but enjoy any post-apocalyptic books. And teen romance […]
The Princess and the Terrorist– I mean, “Outlaw”
So here’s a confession: I used to have an all-encompassing crush on Drew Barrymore, so I have done things like listen to the director’s commentary on lots of her movies, including 50 First Dates, which consists of her and director Peter Segal being pretty adorable together as they talk about their (problematic, but that’s another story) movie. It’s times like this, I think, that Drew’s endearing, new-agey, hippie dorkiness is very apparent, and she does things like talk adoringly about every single person involved with the […]
Everyday Miracles: Bloodletting and Other Miraculous Cures
Vincent Lam