“Wow.” That was me when my husband, seeing me turn the last page of Levels of Life and close the book, asked me “How was it?” I didn’t elaborate very much except to say, “You really need to read this,” with the added disclaimer, “but you might find it distressing.” How to describe Levels of Life? The book is divided into three parts: essentially, three essays that spin from the book’s premise, “You put together two things that have not been put together before. And […]
Fun Quick Read
I see another Cannonballer reviewed this just today, so I’ll make it pretty brief. I’ve been in the middle of a few books for the past month – the fifth book in A Song of Ice and Fire (it is over 1,000 pages and I’m only 100 pages in), The Great Influenza (only halfway through), and a new YA steampunk book. But I just couldn’t get into any of them. So I decided to find a quick, fun read to kick-start my summer reading and […]
Who would have thought?
I went to school with Ben Montgomery. We weren’t friends as he was popular and I was a punk rock snob. Through the power of social media, we’ve become friendly almost 20 years later. He’s also become quite the writer, and I would have never have guessed he had it in him. Just like I imagine people would have never guessed a 67-year-old woman could hike 2000+ miles with barely more than the clothes on her back.
What *Don’t* I Know You From?
So badkittyuno called me out for being a lazy reviewer by getting her Judy Greer review up before me. Most Pajiba readers know Judy Greer, probably from her role as Kitty Sanchez on Arrested Development (which I’ve seen, in full, twice in the last twelve months alone) and her voice over work on Archer (which both my husband and I love). However, Ms Greer loitered around in chick flicks during my formative years so I also remember her as “the friend” in 27 Dresses, 13 […]
Manmohan Singh: The man who rode the tiger
Twenty-fourth book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. I loved this book! Of course, a lot of people might want to disagree; calling this book biased, controversial, flagrant, irrelevant, pompous, simplistic or even plain stupid. Yet, they will have to agree that this is a charming tale about a reticent man. A man who accidentally became the leader of the world’s largest democracy and somehow proved himself worthy of that accident. And we would never be able to know about his secret life within […]
For younger and older and not necessarily poets
“The future stands still, dear Mr. Kappus, but we move in infinite space” Franz Xaver Kappus was a young man dreaming of becoming a poet in the early 1903. A great admirer of the already accomplished poet R.M. Rilke, he wrote a letter asking for advice on how to become a poet. This book is 10 letters out of 6 years of correspondence. We read only Rilke’s answers to Mr. Kappus, but the answers are so universal and thorough that we do not need the […]