Whenever you take a fiction workshop you are guaranteed that at some point someone will say about some story, “This isn’t the title.” Oftentimes, I want to punch that person in the neck because I…
Posts tagged 2009 Books
The year of magical thinking, not so magical
I picked up The Year of Magical Thinking because in his answers to the 6 questions we always ask, Bill Tuomala said he would take Joan Didion out to Jax. Plus, I vaguely remembered hearing…
When Hank gets to the point he’s really cooking
Hank Meyerson is that friend who takes a really, really long time to tell a story. Sure once you reach the end where the awesome is you’ve kind of forgiven him for taking the slow,…
Superman comics make me cry
Superman is the Rodney Dangerfield of superheroes. He gets no respect. People claim he’s boring because he has all the powers. It’s the one chink in his invincibility. But people are wrong, and All-Star Superman…
This is probably my favorite novel so far this year
The first twenty-six pages of Nicole Helget’s The Turtle Catcher are so intense that you will find yourself gasping for air while reading them, having become so engrossed you forget to breathe. The book opens…
The big suck
Oof. I only balked a little when my Rock and Roll Bookclub picked Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. I thought, “hey, this is a genre-defining book, it can’t be too bad.” It can be too…