book review
-
POSSIBLE SPOILERS! I worried that my ignorance of Arthurian lore would make it difficult to read Kieron Gillen’s Once and Future* series. Happily, this wasn’t the case. While I’m sure familiarity would make the story even more enjoyable because I’d pick up on nuances specific to the mythology, through Duncan, Gillen’s museum curator hero, I…
-
Hye-young Pyun’s City of Ash and Red is a more impactful book after a worldwide pandemic lockdown. We all experienced firsthand the frustration and tribulation Pyun’s nameless protagonist endured as he attempted to begin his new life in Country C during an epidemic. Not that the examiner’s choice of words was particularly difficult, but the…
-
Published 22 years ago, before 9/11, before Madoff, before Black Lives, before the pandemic, the January 6 White terrorist attack on the Capitol, and a lot of other things that drain my psyche, Jane Goodall’s Reason to Hope is the book I needed right now. While I don’t know if I am any more or…
-
What I liked most about Hye-young Pyun’s City of Ash and Red were her observations on the language barrier between her protagonist and his citizens of Country C. Her nameless protagonist has come to Country C for work. He only has an elementary grasp of the language so as Hye-young puts it “he could only…
-
After her story,“Stargazing,” I read all of ND Chan’s poetry to the tune of Oasis’ “Wonderwall.” “Stargazing” is my favorite story in her collection of flash fiction and poetry, Saved as Draft: Stories of Self-Discovery Through Letters & Notes. Set during her morning commute through New York City’s Grand Central Station, a trip to the…
-
I needed something to take the weight of Arrival off my mind. Daryl Gregory’s Spoonbenders was a very effective and enjoyable salve. It’s Daryl’s clever observations about life and the poesy he wraps it in that makes Spoonbenders such potent medicine. When we are introduced to Teddy Telemachus, he is cruising for women in the…
