In Books:

Are You My Mother?, By Alison Bechdel: I actually finished this book a while back, but I've been grappling with it ever since I read it. It's not an easy book, yet I read it fairly quickly, over about three or so days. I remember my initial gut reaction having to do with my resolution to NEVER ask any child of mine under the age of ( Read more... )

In Books:

Paris My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate), by Amy Thomas: This book made me SO HUNGRY, hungry for pastry, and more specifically, hungry to go to all the places that Thomas ably and happily describes ( Read more... )

In Books:

The Other Family & The Best of Friends, by Joanna Trollope: Trollope continues to impress me with her skill at handling multiple characters and their points of view, as well as her nonjudgmental authorial tone (although some her characters happily judge away, for better or for worse.) These books are master classes in dialogue and quick ( Read more... )

I've read two books lately that were bursting with amazing ideas and great language, but both of which fell strangely flat about two thirds of the way through. I'm hard pressed to understand why: in both cases, I was highly invested in both the plot and the characters; there was some top notch writing in each as well. But Zoo City (by Lauren ( Read more... )

100 Pop Culture Things: Midnight Hour Encores, by Bruce Brooks


( Read more... )

From the comic book haul of the past week:

Rachel Rising, Issue 6, Words/Pictures by Terry Moore: OK, Mr. Moore. I'm officially grossed out; I have no idea what's going on with your story; and it doesn't look like I'll get much in the way of explanation or closure anytime soon. I'm all for conquering my zombie phobia, but this series isn't going ( Read more... )

In the books department:

Thanks to
( Read more... )

There have been very few books that I've simply not been able to finish. I've even lasted for months on just one book. But once or twice, there have been books that I simply stopped reading, not out of active dislike but rather because I completely forgot about them. For example, I was reasonably entertained by Life of Pi, and was about halfway ( Read more... )

About ten or so years ago, I had a revelation about how I read and my depression. Simply put, if I don't want to read, it's a sure sign I'm depressed. Generally, the feelings that are a signal for this problem aren't little things like, "oh, I don't have time for this right now" upon looking at a book. Instead, it's the vague feeling of dread ( Read more... )

When I was a kid, I read differently than I do now. I loved narratives with immediacy; I didn't care for lengthy background and details (at least, I didn't think I did.) The best reading experiences that come to my mind were the ones I had during the summer, or on long car trips when there was nothing else to do but read, and no one was about to ( Read more... )