I don’t think I can reach the 250 word quota for this review. Just go read this book. It’s hilarious. No book is safe, no character left unscathed. Ortberg’s ability to hone in on the character’s personality and then twist it into the 21st century is ridiculously brilliant and packs a punch that shades between laughing out loud and the irresistible urge to shout “BURN!” to the character on the page. My two all-time favorite sections are her rip on the American Girl series and […]
The Sins of the Father…
Set in rural 1960s Mississippi, Father and Son spans a week in a small town after one of their own, Glen Davis, returns from three years in the state penitentiary for running over and killing a young boy while driving drunk. Glen is angry, furious, and the reader senses immediately that this is not a man who has learned his lesson. He’s hard-edged, cold and disconnected, and there is no redeeming quality in him. Glen returns to an elderly father intent on drinking himself to […]
The Greatest Generation
When All the World Was Young came to me via JB, and I think know why. It’s exactly the kind of book he likes – kind of a meandering, character-driven novel that doesn’t really have a story, per se, but is more about the human experience. This is the third installment from Ferrol Sams in a loose trilogy, although it’s not necessary to have read the first two (Run with the Horseman and The Whisper of the River). Porter Longstreet Osborne, Jr. is the first […]
Road Trip!
What better way to end the school year but with humor…and I mean dirty humor! Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales as a frame tale (he got the idea from the Decameron and thought it was cool, the rest was history!). He sets up the frame by telling us about this large group of pilgrims who are travelling from London (Southwark) to the shrine of Thomas a Becket. Chaucer spends a lot of time in the Prologue of the tales describing the different characters both […]
A Serious Play About Trivial Matters
Most days I wish that I could create my own hybrid Algonquin Round Table and use my razor sharp wit to amuse my (fake/dead writer) friends. While I wish I was a good person all the time, I’m actually “best” when scathing…it’s a blessing and a curse. As I’ve grown up, I think I’ve tucked away most of these tendencies but I still think about my perfect round table. My line up shifts here and there over the years but always at the table are […]
Like no road I ever want to travel…
I’ve never read Cormac McCarthy, even though he’s on all the Must Read lists. And I’ve never seen No Country For Old Men, despite the fact that I would probably watch Javier Bardeem watch paint dry. It seemed very Western to me, and Westerns aren’t really my thing, The Road isn’t really my thing either – let’s not forget I’m the same girl who read Beautiful Bastard, not once, but twice – but sometimes you have to read smart books, and McCarthy is definitely on […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- Next Page »