Skip to main content
Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Happy Birthday, Kathryn!

Happy..... okay, that's it.

Yesterday, returning to work several hours after my shift, I bought I boatload of books for blogreader Jenny B and a few for myself as well. I'd been staring at this book for about a year wondering how long it would take for me to buy and read it. Well, let me tell you: it took about a year.

M. T. Anderson is the brilliant author of the Octavian Nothing volumes, of which I am a remarkably big fan (though I confess I wish they weren't quite so long. how do you get teens to pick up tomes that ginormous? they have to really, really trust you...). Feed seeming nothing like my dear Octavian, I have known I would need to read this since I first clapped eyes on it. That, and my store of dystopian futuristic fiction is rather thin. I have yet to read (and this is another confession) Brave New World or 1984 - despite the fact that the first was assigned to me twice in my master's program.

Anyway, so starts the summer of book blogging. (I only just now in this very moment decided that it would be a summer of book blogging, so don't judge me too harshly if nothing comes of it). I haven't really reviewed any books since the fall, due to... um... ... I have no idea. Not reading anything good? That seems unlikely. Huh. I had every intention of reviewing Shannon Hale's newest novel The Actor and the Housewife, but I like her too much to say what I really think on the world wide web. I have high hopes for her next Bayern book, out in a few months, so we can just ignore all my arrogant opinions about her adult fiction.

If I don't post a good review of Feed in the next week or so, someone kick me. Not that it needs a review - it's been out for a good long while. But that's not the point. See you.

Comments

  1. We can go read on the beach together next week. I'll drag you out there to convalesce with me, it'll be fun!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Convalesce? What's the matter, old man?

    ReplyDelete
  3. appendix, gone, two weeks of leave. shall we say awesome?!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Can someone please explain why my Quicktime isn't working? Anyone with prophetic awareness of my little Atlas, none so old but recently behaving so?
because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
I just finished Shiver , by Maggie Stiefvater, the other day. From the first few chapters, I had every reason to expect this book to rival the other dark-teen-romance novels recently released (you know which ones I mean). And in a way, it did. There was nothing obnoxious about this book. The characters were mostly believable and endearing. The story was subtle and simple. Maybe a little too simple. At times, maybe a little too subtle. The best chapters were the ones from Sam's point of view, when he's a wolf. That doesn't take up a whole lot of the story, unfortunately. I mean, it would seriously hamper the progression of the plot if he was a wolf for much more of the time, but the writing was still at its best then. Perhaps because it seemed that the poetic, lyrical passages were justified. I like Rilke just fine, and I know plenty of people who compose song lyrics in their heads, but Sam as a human was just maybe a little too emo for me. It could just be that I'm almo...