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Final Thoughts on Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North (by Jill)
So. The Narrow Road to the Deep North won the Man Booker Prize in 2014. After finishing it I understand why. It’s a big novel, but it is also a small one. It has a cast of thousands (not … Continue reading
A Review of John Renehan’s The Valley (by Bethany)
One of the few good things to come out of the long, ambiguously-defined war of the last thirteen years is a small but notable selection of good fiction. The first round of September 11-themed fiction was as strident and shrill … Continue reading
Final Thoughts on Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant (by Bethany)
This review considers all aspects of this novel, including its ending. Please do not read this review if you want to avoid “spoilers.” I closed my thoughts on the first half of this novel with a series of questions, and … Continue reading
Progress Report on Richard Flanagan’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North (by Jill)
I’m getting a late start tonight, so I’m going to keep this short. Flanagan won the Man Booker Prize in 2014 for this novel, and I hadn’t heard of it till the Longlist came out. 2014 was the first year … Continue reading
French Women Don’t Read Self-Help Books: Introducing a Mini-Marathon
I’ve had some job interviews in my life lately, bringing with them the attendant excitement and stress (and also the attendant stress eating and insomnia). I’m enjoying The Buried Giant (and will finish it tomorrow, I promise!), but when I … Continue reading
Thoughts on the First Half of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant (by Bethany)
This novel is about that time in the sixth century A.D. when the whole world got Alzheimer’s. I’ll explain: this novel opens at an underground warren somewhere in the geographical region we would call the British Isles. The warren is … Continue reading
Thoughts on Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (by Bethany)
This novel is set in Australia in the summer of 1900. At its outset, the students and staff members of Appleyard College are preparing for a picnic, and one gets the sense that this picnic is the most exciting break … Continue reading
Why can’t every weekend be as reading productive as this weekend? Final thoughts on The Giver and The Road Home (by Jill)
I finished two whole books this weekend! I never do that. I’m not sure if it was these books in particular that pushed me on, or my desire to have some stuff to … Continue reading
A Review of Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (by Bethany)
This book was everywhere for a while. I know that I resisted its pull for a long time before I bought a copy. I was intrigued, but this was maybe 10-12 years ago and I knew myself to be very … Continue reading
Progress Report on Lois Lowry’s The Giver (by Jill)
I’m reading this book for a few reasons: first, my friend Lauren recommended I read The Giver and its sequels; second, I got a new Kindle Paperwhite as an early birthday gift and I wanted to read a book … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 