"If you can't be pretty, you might as well cause trouble" – Florence King
Posted in books, Recommendations, Things I like & Things I don't like on Jun 18th, 2012
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen My rating: 3 of 5 stars I recently read an annotated version of Mansfield park, and while the book was fascinating from a historical and informational perspective, I found the story and writing itself rather heavy-handed. I believe that of Austen’s novels, this one has aged the least gracefully. Fanny […]
Posted in books, grumbles gripes and pointless bitching, Recommendations, Things I like & Things I don't like on Jan 1st, 2012
So, I’ll give you the good news first. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox would have had a hard time being any better. When I finished it, I wanted to start reading it all over again from the beginning and enjoy it once more. It was a letdown that it ended. It was the sort […]
Posted in books, Recommendations on Dec 11th, 2009
This time of year, I always get in the mood to re-read Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows. A pleasant story about the adventures of a group of sociable woodland animals (and especially their triumphs over the hostilities of winter weather) goes over a treat when the dags are getting shorter and colder. I […]
Posted in books, grumbles gripes and pointless bitching, Oh, for fuck's sake on Dec 7th, 2009
I started writing this review (such as it is) before I finished reading the book, but most of the original objections stand. I did finally slog my way through to the conclusion, and while the protagonist (for want of a a better word) does become somewhat less detestable and hateful, the story doesn’t improve significantly. […]
Posted in books on Sep 23rd, 2009
If you want my opinion (and if you don’t why are you reading my blog?!) I think that Sinclair Lewis is probably the most insightful author ever to come out of the USA. Probably four years ago or so, I read my first Lewis book, “Babbitt” on the strength of the prudish, boorish, racist Upson […]
Posted in books on Jun 24th, 2009
Sometimes I go to the library, and every book I pick up is a total home-run! My most recent library expedition was such a winner. First things first, I snagged a couple of Jean Shepherd‘s collections of short stories, In God We Trust (all others pay cash) and Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories (and […]
Posted in books, Recommendations on May 6th, 2009
I just finished reading the last of Terry Moore’s Strangers In Paradise series and I am going to be recommending it to everyone I can, because it was just that good. I’m going to link the Wikipedia synopsis of the series which gives you an idea of what the stories are about, though it completely […]
I’ve been reading other people’s blogs in DC and Japan, especially, talking about cherry blossom viewing. It is that time of the year! Here in KC, we have a lot of trees blooming…mostly crabapple, redbud, and Bradford pear. I don’t know that there are any cherry trees to speak of, but there are plenty of […]
When I was a kid, one of my favorite fonts of knowledge was my school’s shelf of the World Book Encyclopedia (1969 Edition). As I was a kid in the ’80s, the encyclopedias were obviously pretty out-of-date, but there was sufficient content that wasn’t really going to have changed significantly in the 20-ish years between […]
Posted in books, grumbles gripes and pointless bitching on Mar 17th, 2009
This past library run was a real strike-out so far. I’d picked up My Lush Life by Douglas McEwan, ’cause I’d heard it was kind of like Patrick Dennis’s stuff, and I love, love, love me some Auntie Mame. It was, however, a tedious faux-biography that wore thinner and thinner as I read on. By […]