Although I started the summer with some moderate ambitions, things haven’t quite worked out the way I had planned. In my racing, I did fairly well early in the season, but I haven’t finished a race in over a month now. Because of some sort of as yet undiagnosed problem, I’ve been feeling sick and [...]
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Summer Update
Posted in Books on August 2, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Profoundly Ambivalent: The Secret History
Posted in Books on June 16, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The back cover of my copy of The Likeness compares French’s novel to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, so when I realized that Dorothy had a copy (in hardcover, no less), I pulled it off the shelves and found myself immersed in one of the most odd, ambivalent, happy, and annoyed reading states ever. I [...]
Damned Spot
Posted in Books on June 11, 2009 | 4 Comments »
A while back I was chatting with a friend on Facebook when she recommended Ron Rash’s newest novel, Serena. I immediately opened a new tab, found the book online, and ordered it (yes, I am such a technical kind of guy). Although it arrived quickly, I had to set it aside until after classes and [...]
Operation Mirror
Posted in Books on June 10, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Last year I read Tana French’s debut novel, In the Woods, upon the recommendation of a friend. I liked it quite a lot, and found it to be a good, tautly written, psychologically complex murder mystery. It combined the exacting detail of the police procedural with some dark hints of the uncanny, all presented with [...]
The Afterlife
Posted in Books on January 27, 2009 | 6 Comments »
The first semester of college was a disaster. Dorms were auctioned off in a lottery, and my number was so high, there was no hope I would get one, so I lived in a seedy motel for the first two weeks of classes. I finally found an apartment in the basement of an old Victorian [...]
Yes, I Bought More Books. So Sue Me.
Posted in Books, travel on January 18, 2009 | 3 Comments »
It has been very cold around here lately. Yesterday I saw the lowest reading I have ever seen on my front porch thermometer: -0.6F. If you’re in Minnesota, that’s not very cold, but I’m a transplanted Californian living in New England, so that’s plenty cold. The larger problem for me is [...]
The Woods Are Scary, Dark, and Deep
Posted in Books on January 10, 2009 | 8 Comments »
Two things about Tana French’s masterful debut novel, In the Woods, bother me, and the main reason for the bother is because I can’t decide if these things are weaknesses or strengths. I’m leaning heavily toward strengths, though, which says a lot about why this novel works so well. The first bother is [...]
Home Again
Posted in Books on December 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
We returned today from visiting Dorothy’s parents in the frozen wasteland of western New York. Actually, it was not all that frozen, though there was a lot of snow, and it may have been even warmer up there today than it is down here in southern Connecticut. The drive was mind-numbingly long, with [...]
Buy This Book
Posted in Books on November 10, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Go here and buy three or four copies.
More Naked Book Lust
Posted in Books, travel on October 27, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Yesterday we again met the Suitcases of Courage and the Sprinters della Casa for an excursion. Last week it was sheep and this week it was Edith Wharton. When Mrs SoC saw Dorothy reading an Edith Wharton book at one of the races this past summer, she mentioned that she was very interested in seeing [...]
