This book is awesome and beautiful, and I super love it. My full review over on my blog.
Nothing so Wholesome as Life on the Farm.
Wow! I have to give this book 5 stars. Proulx’s writing was amazing and engaging, despite the story being about as bleak as possible. Any romantic notions one might have had about rural Vermont living are pretty much ripped to shreds by this story. It follows multiple characters across 40+ years, watching the lives and farm of the Blood family unfold (or implode, depending upon how you look at it.) The oldest son is forced to leave home under circumstances that are never really explained- […]
Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel Would Rate It Two Meth Teeth out of Five
Normally, I don’t break my one cardinal rule of reading – never ever ever get something from the Barnes and Noble bargain bin. But my eyes saw the magical words “Edgar Award” and I decided Edgar Award surely could trump the stench of bad bargain books. I was so so wrong. I stopped reading and went into “shut up and take my money” mode right after Edgar Award, so I didn’t notice the few qualifiers that came with Edgar Award – namely, “from the Edgar Award […]
And now my scalp itches…
First: some background. Two years ago, I reviewed American Psycho for Cannonball Read 5, and had the immense fortune of seeing that review published on Pajiba. Yay! In the comments section, someone suggested that I needed to read Blood Meridian, to get some perspective on the physical revulsion that American Psycho had filled me with. This year, I decided to see for myself. No kidding. I decided the best way to review this book would be to share my real-time Goodreads status updates, because that […]
Historical fiction that bites, whimpers, howls, and won’t let go
This is my first Cannonball read and I can’t believe I picked a book–sort of at random, I admit–that I love this much. It’s a story of the Northwest frontier at the turn of the twentieth century so lumberjacks, railroad laborers, miscreants, drunks, and a few coyotes and wolves are par for the course. But there’s also a (maybe real/maybe an apparition) wolf-girl and a sort of carnival side-show version of a wolf-boy. In a book that’s just 125 pages long. I’ve never read anything by Denis Johnson […]
The anarchist’s wet dream!
Forty-third book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. How would you like a ball busting, head chopping, tank driving bitchy diva who has serious fun while doing it all? Bring it on, I hear you say? Well, that and a lot, lot more than that is what Tank girl is all about. Tank Girl is an outlaw living in the Australian Outback who hangs out with her boyfriend, a mutant Kangaroo; her best friend, a junkie Aborigine; a stuffed toy Koala bear who hasn’t come […]