Rated WRITING WITHOUT TEACHERS 5/10
Edited 47d ago
book
Rated Let the Great World Spin 10/10
This book is well worth the time, cover price, and its National Book Award. Circling around Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers, McCann weaves together the fragile connections between eleven New Yorkers. It is both a story of its time and a thoughtful 9/11 allegory in which grief, passion, and observance are at the root of every character.<br><br>I read a lot of great books this year, but only a few did I know I would love from the first page, more than one set in New York City. Maybe at times sulking naysayers like to disparage the “New York Novel,” claiming that it’s all been done before, but I don’t know how anyone could reasonably believe that. In the United States’ most populous city, how could you possibly think that every story has been told? When the world is filled with short story collections depicting the most microscopic of events in two-bar towns, how is the expanse of five boroughs and 8.4 million people “overrated?” How is it any less real?<br><br>If anything, Let The Great World Spin is an antidote to that kind of contrary thinking. Whether or not we know it consciously, we are all connected. We share the same air — spouses, subway riders, café frequenters, best friends, and drunks — and somewhere there is a common thread. For as big as the world is, sometimes it doesn’t take much bring us together.<br><br>(Full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/12/let-great-world-spin-by-colum-mccann.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Homie 10/10
<div>Love, lust, loneliness, and longing. Friendship, family, fear. All the good, hard, exultant stuff is here.</div>
Rated Doctor Who: The First Doctor Adventures, Volume 1 9/10
<div> I didn't know these new* First Doctor audios were so good, but I finally listened and really loved it. David Bradley is a great First Doctor, which I knew, but these two stories are also really solid, even though one is a straight up historical, which aren't always my favorite.<br><br><br>*2017 can still be new. Hush.</div>
Rated The Picture of Dorian Gray 8/10
I enjoyed this adaptation a lot. I must admit that I haven't read the original (though how can one not be familiar with the gist of the story, at this point in time?), but I always meant to read it, so I figured this was a way in. Worth it.
Rated Doctor Who: Inferno 6/10
Enjoyable enough to read with my son, but I think the TV episode version is a bit more brisk and to the point. And oh man does Terrance Dicks love his adverbs. I'm not an adverb hater, but wow... she said astonishedly (ha).
Rated The Book of Unknown Americans 10/10
<i>The Book of Unknown Americans</i> is not about immigrants’ relationship to white people. Ideally, this would not be unusual in a novel, but in a literary landscape that is still struggling with diversity, it’s refreshing to read her insightful take on the American Dream.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2014/06/review-the-book-of-unknown-americans-by-cristina-henriquez/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Wants to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Rated Doctor Who: Trail of the White Worm 6/10
Not a bad Part 1! It also reminded me of that bonkers Peter Capaldi movie, The Lair of the White Worm, which deals with the same creature. I'm not wild about the Doctor referring to Leela as "Savage" as a nickname, however "primitive" her origins. It's unnecessary.
Rated Alif the Unseen 10/10
Excellent. I enjoyed this tremendously. Get to this one.
Wants to read The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath
Rated And Then I Danced: Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality 6/10
Interesting history, pat on the back writing with only surface-level insight. In other words, standard fare for any Open Lens-published memoir. The book also could have done a better job acknowledging bi and trans activists that spurred the early Pride movements, as most go unmentioned here. That said, Mark Segal has certainly accomplished a lot, and one should admire his tenacity.
Rated Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler 10/10
<div>I greatly appreciated this look at Octavia E. Butler's life and career. Because it does dive into plot points and details of so many of her books, it's probably better for someone who is well-acquainted with her work. I have read just about everything of hers that's easily available, but never in a classroom (or even a bookclub) setting, so I enjoyed Susana M. Morris' analysis a lot. She really knows her stuff.<br><br>And I know Butler did not love <em>Survivor</em>, and thus never had it reprinted, but sorry, I hunted it down on Internet Archive anyway. I think it's the only novel of hers I haven't read, so my inner completist is curious about this offshoot of the Patternist series.</div>
Rated Women Talking 10/10
Excellent. Innovatively written. Highly recommend.
Rated The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl 6/10
Anyone who picked up this cookbook and expected a straightforward, recipes-only affair must not be all that familiar with the internet presence that is Pioneer Woman.<br><br>Each of her recipes have step-by-step photos documenting the process, which can be tremendously helpful for beginning cooks. Drummond takes all the photos herself, and it has been fun to watch the evolution of her photography reading her site over the years. She’s the first one to admit she’s no photography expert, but she’s no slouch either. Her photos use natural light well, and though not a professional “food stylist,” her dishes always look fantastic. If the success marker of a cookbook is making the reader hungry, then she’s done her job.<br><br>While I enjoyed her asides about daily life, I do wish that more of the material had not already been published on the blog. This is a small complaint, sure, but regular readers will not find a wealth of new material. However, the cookbook would make an excellent introduction for someone not familiar with her work — and it is only an introduction. At around 240 pages, she doesn’t offer an overflow of recipes, but the ones she does offer define her cooking style well.<br><br>The main reason why I wanted to buy the book was so I could have easy access to her recipes that I always mean to make, but never get around to printing. The Marlboro Man sandwich, pico de gallo, onion strings, pizza crust, and chicken fried steak — I hate to have to look things up on my laptop all the time. (This where the iPad users get all smug, but I’m a dino who is just not there yet, all right?)<br><br>(The full review for this book can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2011/03/pioneer-woman-cooks-by-ree-drummond.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated The Golem and the Jinni 8/10
Full review will be forthcoming, but it was the excellent epilogue that firmly pushed this book from 3 stars to 4.
Rated Doctor Who: Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code 7/10
<div>Nothing amazing, but it's pretty good, and Lisa Bowerman is a better Companion Chronicles narrator than some.</div>