A curmudgeon writes.
Well, another five books have come and gone, so it’s time for my thoughts on the same. They run the gamut from experimental fiction to weird memoir and scientific history to gothic fantasy, so you can’t accuse me of being particularly genre-monogamous in the last little while, if that’s even a thing.
Anyway, let’s see what I read. Or heard. Or both.
Continue reading “Book reviews: sharks, serendipity, ‘splosions, snapshots and spooks”This five-books-then-review idea seems to be working pretty well. Pressure’s off and I’ve a little more time to gather my thoughts. Will I still write too much? Probably. Will you read all of it? I’ve no idea.
But join me, won’t you? For a coffee break-sized meditation on books that, for some reason, seemed to concern mass destruction and mass production, along with some nice tunes.
Continue reading “Book reviews: nukes, noise, nature… and hot dogs”In an attempt to get the year off to a snappy start, I decided to begin this reading trip with some lighter works rather than launching into frog eating from Day One. (The frog, in this case, is Finnegans Wake and so there is a lot of Kermit-chomping action to go.)
Anyway, I knocked over five books in roughly as many days, which was a pleasant change from some of the, uh, involved tomes of last year. What were they? I’m glad you asked.
Continue reading “Book review: Crowley and the Café”New year, new list of things to help me avoid book decision paralysis.
(Good luck with that.)
Once more, dear friends, it’s time for me to remark that time has really flown this year, and that it seems as if I had only written last year’s one of these a couple of days ago.
Yep, 2023 went fast. It’s been a good year in a lot of ways, and absolutely atrocious in many others. The world continues to go to shit, and so I continue in my mission of providing distraction to those who enjoy it (thankfully, a treasured few do) through writing up what I consumed this year, culturally speaking. If this isn’t you, then punch out now. I’m not sure if this one’s going to be as long as previous editions, but let’s give it a whirl, shall we?
Previous versions are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here if you need an introduction.
Continue reading “2023 consumption: a look at some stuff I liked”So it’s the end of the year and I’m convinced that I won’t read any more books in 2023. Sad, but it has to be called at some point I guess.
Anyway, let’s get this final-review-of-the-year show on the road.
Continue reading “Quick reviews before the year (and the world?) ends”Once again, it’s been a while since I wrote. Call it life. Call it work deadlines. Call it the second round of COVID-19 I’ve had this year. Regardless, slackness ensurs and so now I’m going to try to make up for it not by humbly begging your indulgence, but by putting together a bunch – a decet? – of book reviews that may be of interest.
I hope so, anyway.
Continue reading “Review chunks”
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson.
My rating: five stars
A short review for a short book: read it.
Look, I should probably do a bit more than that.
This is the first collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson that I’d read, and from what I gather it’s the only one I really need to. (That’s not to say that I won’t, just that this seems to be the prevailing sentiment.)
Continue reading “Book review: The Lottery and Other Stories”
The Guesthouse at the Sign of the Teetering Globe by Franziska zu Reventlow and James J. Conway (tr).
My rating: four stars
Franziska zu Reventlow isn’t anyone I’d heard of before, but she certainly had a life. Born into German nobility, she believed the abolition of marriage (and embrace of sexual freedom) were key to women becoming equal to men. She was known for kicking on in Munich’s Schwabing entertainment district, for hanging out with Rilke, and for philosophical jousting with an intellectual circle brought together by appreciation of Ibsen and for freaking out the squares.
(And, later, their embrace of, er, antisemitism.)
She also was a translator, and wrote stories. Several of them are collected in Rixdorf’s presentation of The Guesthouse at the Sign of the Teetering Globe, which originally appeared in 1917.
Continue reading “Book review: The Guesthouse at the Sign of the Teetering Globe”
Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Generated its Own Lost Generation by Michael Zielenziger.
My rating: three stars
Japan is a country that’s had a Bit Of A Time. At the end of WWII is was bombed into atomic submission (twice) by the nation that would become the defacto dictator of political structure and positions of power, it experienced unprecedented growth and became one of the richest countries in the world.
Then, of course, there was a bubble and everything went tits-up. Security was no longer assured. Birth rates fell. Productivity fell through the floor. Entrenched ways of working started to inhibit growth, rather than spur it to nation-envying heights. And millions of adults locked themselves away from the world in voluntary seclusion, becoming hikikomori, individuals choosing to withdraw from the world entirely, often placing burdens on the familial unit.
Continue reading “Book review: Shutting Out the Sun”
Yeah nah. 