New year, new list of things to help me avoid book decision paralysis.
(Good luck with that.)
Planning the pages: 2024 edition
Category: Consumption
2023 consumption: a look at some stuff I liked
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”Quick reviews before the year (and the world?) ends
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”Review chunks
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”Book review: The Lottery and Other Stories
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”Book review: The Guesthouse at the Sign of the Teetering Globe
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”Book review: Shutting Out the Sun
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”Book review: Gibbons and Dubliners
Gibbons, or One Bloody Thing After Another by James Morrison.
My rating: four stars
There’s a bit of trepidation I feel in reviewing this one, as its author, a noted issuer of lamentations about terrible publishing design choices, is someone I know. (Inasmuch as sending him the occasional book and interacting on the sewer/binfire that is Twitter (amongst other places in the search for a replacement for said sewer/binfire) can be adequately called “knowing”.)
James was kind enough to send me a copy of the work (available now through Orbis Tertius Press!) as part of a by-mail book swap.
Continue reading “Book review: Gibbons and Dubliners”Book reviews: Plows and Cactus Boots
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (tr. Antonia Lloyd-Jones).
My rating: five stars
I really don’t want to say too much about this book. Because I feel that to say too much would rob you of the absolute fucking joy of reading it for the first time yourself.
(Yes, it’s that good.)
Continue reading “Book reviews: Plows and Cactus Boots”Book review: Crossing the Line
Crossing the Line: The Inside Story of Murder, Lies and a Fallen Hero by Nick McKenzie.
My rating: four stars
I’m not going to lie: I’m reading this for different reasons (and have probably enjoyed it in a different way) than the usual reader. I’m digging in because at heart, while it ostensibly speaks to the murderous fuckwittery of one man, emblematic of a section of Australia’s elite forces, it also addresses the power that journalism can have, despite obstacles – legal, cultural and military – that might get in the way.
Continue reading “Book review: Crossing the Line”Perhaps it was us who were the fools for publishing without certainty of victory in a defamation court.
Masters always had a calm response to my second-guessing. ‘Was it in the public interest? Did Australians have a right to know? And was it true?’
The answer to all these questions was, yes, whether we could prove it in court or not.
Yeah nah. 