A new faculty member faces his demons
Category Archives: reading
A Monster Calls (if only!)
My book club read A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. I understand that this book has been made into a movie. Pro tip: if you want me to remain totally ignorant about something, just make it into a movie. Anyway, I … Continue reading
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Acts and Omissions by Catherine Fox
If Susan Howatch and Miss Read wrote a book together, it would probably be like this. Take the sorts of problems Howatch’s clergy face, and the same level of Close inside baseball, and cross it with short-chapter English countryside cozy, … Continue reading
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A Philistine Reads About Art
I’ve read too many fantasy books about artists recently and it has left me with a tendency to slam things down on the table and shout ‘Bullshit!’ at intervals, which was not a good way to begin mandatory inservice at … Continue reading
Ghost Drum by Susan Price
I would say it’s rare for me to read the first in a series and then go immediately and buy the rest of the series, but it’s not. However, that won’t keep me from saying good things about Ghost Drum! … Continue reading
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Night Calls by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
Because I missed the sale, Cat Kimbriel was kind enough to send me a free copy of Night Calls with no strings attached – but since I devoured it in a day and enjoyed every minute, it deserves a review! I … Continue reading
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The Secret Life of Flies by Erica McAlister
Before there were robotics nerds or computer nerds or science-fiction nerds there were natural history nerds, and this book is for them. It’s that modern rarity, a popular science book that might have been written in 1940; the most advanced … Continue reading
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Escaping from YA
The Atlantic has an article up today about why so many adults read YA literature. It has a whole big section fighting back against the idea that YA is escapist literature. I can’t imagine how anybody would think YA is escapist … Continue reading
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Credible Fiction
I read a book this week that lacked credibility. It wasn’t a non-fiction book, so those criteria of credibility didn’t apply. It was a novel about a well-defined phenomenon – the decline of the Jesuit order after Vatican II – … Continue reading
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Review: Too Like The Lightning by Ada Palmer
How can you go wrong with a book that has been officially permitted by six governmental agencies, certified nonproselytory, and has a page full of detailed trigger warnings for sex, violence, discussion of religion, and opinions likely to cause offense? … Continue reading
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Sin is a Puppy That Follows You Home – a modern Hausa novel
I just read what’s supposed to be the first book translated from the Hausa into English: Sin is a Puppy That Follows You Home by Balaraba Ramat Yakubu. CORRECTION: Carmen McCain, author of the articles I linked to below, tells … Continue reading
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