Category: Books
Good Bones
Thoughts on pledging to be better, and giving up on the idea that people are basically good, which was kind of a lousy idea anyway.
The Word Is Murder, or, Write What You Know
Anthony Horowitz’s detective story “The Word Is Murder” is a page-turner, in both directions
Two Things I Love About Piranesi
Entry for the 7th day of the 10th month in the year everything was relentlessly awful
Ten Little Influencers
Thoughts about The Guest List by Lucy Foley, my constantly-changing opinions about snobbery, and the value of, well, trash
Paper Exhalation
A double book report for two tangentially-related books: Paper by Mark Kurlansky, and Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Museum of the Weird
Reading Rolly Crump’s book convinced me I’ve been wrong about Disney’s tension between originality and familiarity.
Magpie Murders
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is a murder mystery nested within a murder mystery nested within a defense of murder mysteries as a literary genre
10% Chance of Soft Rains
Reading The Martian Chronicles in 2019 feels wonderfully transgressive and optimistic, and is the best example of Ray Bradbury’s genius that I’ve read so far.
One Thing I Love About “Stories of Your Life and Others”
I think Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang is a work of genius that dispels my assumptions about science fiction vs science fantasy
Roughage: A Novel
A somewhat interesting question arises from an uninteresting debate: can books be both cinematic and literary? How much can we expect to get from a work of art, if artists deliver everything to us in an easily digestible manner?
Eerie Tales of the House of Mystery
Today on Late to the Party Theater: Chuck discovers that Locke & Key is a terrific horror comic that calls back to the “classics” without feeling like a self-conscious reinterpretation.
When I Was a Child, I Made Fun of Childish Things
Getting defensive over a sneering op-ed about what Adults should be reading
