Okay, I'm going to go off book, literally, to discuss the two biggest pieces of mass media that came out this weekend: Avengers: Endgame and episode three of the final Game of Thrones season, "The Long Night." It may be a little rough but I'm putting it out there anyway. Both the wrap-up of phase … Continue reading Going Off Book: Avengers and Game of Thrones
Month: April 2019
Unreliable
It's easy to fall of a cliff when talking about "unreliable narrators," those character perspectives who a reader realizes at some point cannot be entirely trusted. Once you head down this path, it becomes very easy to start seeing every narrator as unreliable. David Copperfield? Was he born? Ishmael? Total charlatan! And what is "truth" … Continue reading Unreliable
History and its Aftershocks: There There by Tommy Orange
In There There Tommy Orange uses individual human vignettes to represent the way that history reverberates into the present. The aftershocks of settler colonialism tear through the lives of indigenous people today, even those living in urban environments far from traditional geographies and ways of life. Orange's novel depicts a specifically Native American experience, yet … Continue reading History and its Aftershocks: There There by Tommy Orange
Why and Why Now?
Listening to: Tea shop radio. Drinking: Gingery chai latte. I cannot really remember a time before I couldn't read, although I do remember sounding out my first word—"l-u-n-c-h"—on the first day of first grade. And so for as long as I can remember, I have been in love with books, with stories, with learning about … Continue reading Why and Why Now?
Palimpsest
I learned the word only a year or two ago. In Kate Atkinson's Life After Life, the life-rebooting protagonist Ursula Todd tells her psycho-therapist that time is not circular but, rather, "It's like a ... palimpsest." To which the doctor replies, "Oh dear, that sounds very vexing." Looking the word up, I discovered that a … Continue reading Palimpsest
Paris and Patti Smith’s ‘Devotion’
Listening to, Patti Smith, Horses. Drinking, chai green tea with honey Recently a dear friend gave me Patti Smith's newest memoir, Devotion, as a birthday gift. This friend and I have a shared love affair with Smith's recent spate of memoirs, from Just Kids to M Train. At one point in Devotion, Smith is in … Continue reading Paris and Patti Smith’s ‘Devotion’
Dogs, Coffee, & Books 