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If only this had been my introduction to Russian literature when I was a teenager! A man's nose goes on a walkabout and shenanigans ensue. While his predicament was hilarious, what I liked most were the variety of insults the barber's wife throws at him when he suggests she leave the nose in the corner of their house:
You dried-up crust! You only know how to drag your razor over the strop, but soon you won't be able to do your duties at all, you trull, you blackguard! That I should have to answer for you to the police? . . . Ah, you muck-worm, you stupid stump! Out with it! Out! Take it wherever you like! So that I never hear of it again!Amazing.
"So I did what I do best: I said some cruel and stupid things, and I pushed away someone who was trying to stay close to me.
Aside from reading minds, that's my other superpower."
Do you enjoy action movie cliches including, but not limited to, explosions, car chases, gunfights and a literal drone strike? How about Manpain, Level Four? What about main characters who don't know how not to think with their dicks? This is the book for you!
I did like most of it. Some tropes exist because they are, in fact, quite enjoyable, but when you put them all in the same book, it gets tiresome. I also don't think that the overall concept (emotional manipulation of people into mobs) will be able to overcome how dated it will become thanks to the scattered references of how it came to be (Facebook, Snapchat, reddit, 4chan, et. al). Still, I like the idea of a telepathic CIA agent-turned-mercenary and that's what kept me reading. John's interaction with Zhang, a peer from the Chinese government programs, made the second half of the book worth continuing. Because they are both telepathic, they are just black holes of thoughts to one another. Their musing on how incredibly frustrating it must be for regular people to interact, since we are only able to figure out other people's motivations and intentions through what they say, body language and facial expression, was the most amusing part.
However, I cannot tell you how little I cared about the villain in this novel - an overly smart, isolated boy with a not-so-great childhood grows up to be a smug asshole of a man with money and power because of his aforementioned intelligence and lack of morals.
Aside from reading minds, that's my other superpower."
Do you enjoy action movie cliches including, but not limited to, explosions, car chases, gunfights and a literal drone strike? How about Manpain, Level Four? What about main characters who don't know how not to think with their dicks? This is the book for you!
I did like most of it. Some tropes exist because they are, in fact, quite enjoyable, but when you put them all in the same book, it gets tiresome. I also don't think that the overall concept (emotional manipulation of people into mobs) will be able to overcome how dated it will become thanks to the scattered references of how it came to be (Facebook, Snapchat, reddit, 4chan, et. al). Still, I like the idea of a telepathic CIA agent-turned-mercenary and that's what kept me reading. John's interaction with Zhang, a peer from the Chinese government programs, made the second half of the book worth continuing. Because they are both telepathic, they are just black holes of thoughts to one another. Their musing on how incredibly frustrating it must be for regular people to interact, since we are only able to figure out other people's motivations and intentions through what they say, body language and facial expression, was the most amusing part.
However, I cannot tell you how little I cared about the villain in this novel - an overly smart, isolated boy with a not-so-great childhood grows up to be a smug asshole of a man with money and power because of his aforementioned intelligence and lack of morals.
"Why do you fear the eternal oblivion of death, [Epicurus] wonders, if you don't look back with horror at the eternal oblivion before you were born - which, as far as you were concerned, was just as eternal, and just as much an oblivion."In addition to vibing with my own point of view, The Antidote pointed me in the direction of several classics authors I would like to read more of, so overall a rousing success for the self-help genre.
Given her views on diversity in literature and my inability to separate art from artist, Rosoff is a hard no from me.
Chosen for Book Riot's 2018 Read Harder challenge, a romance novel by or about a person of color. I'm not a reader of traditionally published romance by any means, but I didn't want to read about a character of color written by a white author, therefore An Extraordinary Union was chosen somewhat blindly from a list. But man, what a fortuitous choice on my part! I really enjoyed this.
Ellen Burns, or Elle, is a free black woman working as a spy during the beginnings of the American Civil War. She is employed by the Loyal League, an organization that swears to four L's: "Loyalty, Legacy, Life, and Lincoln". She is blessed, or cursed, with an eidetic memory, which she uses to record verbatim conversations she overhears, as well as passing along cyphers and battle schematics. While undercover as a mute slave at a secessionist Senator's home, she comes in contact with Malcolm, a Pinkerton agent who is also undercover as a Rebel soldier. Their attraction is immediate and intense and he spends the entire book trying to get her attention while maintaining their respective personas.
Malcolm, desperately: I love you!
Elle, annoyed: I am busy.
Elle is a smart woman who knows her worth, but is also painfully aware of the danger she find herself in if she allowed herself to want him. Malcolm thinks he knows and can shield her from any harm, but she shows him time and again that he is still able to retreat into the safety of his White Male Space. The repercussions of his actions are tolerated, if not venerated; she has no such freedom. His self-recriminating awareness when these epiphanies hit him borders on unrealistic, but it's pretty obvious that in order to truly be a partner to Elle, he needs to be as hyperaware as she is about their very existence as an interracial couple and what it means to society and to one another.
The biggest stick for me, that really brought it down a half-star, was the sex scenes. On one hand, during their first time, Malcolm was emotionally conscious enough to feel her mood shift, and stopped. He knew that her consent at that point was nebulous! That is an amazing thing to see written in print, both from a female POV and because the power differential in their relationship as a white man and a black woman (at all, but especially during the American Civil War period) is so very vast.
On the other hand, wow, does it ever throw me off to see the word "penis" and "climax" during a sexy scene. That's just personal, though - maybe other people enjoy anatomical descriptions. Maybe I'm too used to fanfiction - there's a lot of "cock" thrown about. ;)
Overall, Elle is a boss ass lady - she is so smart and so brave and she cares so much for the potential of a country that would leave her to rot in a ditch. Them good ol' Southern boys could learn a thing or two from her about fucking patriotism, that's for sure. (Malcolm is okay too, I guess.)
Ellen Burns, or Elle, is a free black woman working as a spy during the beginnings of the American Civil War. She is employed by the Loyal League, an organization that swears to four L's: "Loyalty, Legacy, Life, and Lincoln". She is blessed, or cursed, with an eidetic memory, which she uses to record verbatim conversations she overhears, as well as passing along cyphers and battle schematics. While undercover as a mute slave at a secessionist Senator's home, she comes in contact with Malcolm, a Pinkerton agent who is also undercover as a Rebel soldier. Their attraction is immediate and intense and he spends the entire book trying to get her attention while maintaining their respective personas.
Malcolm, desperately: I love you!
Elle, annoyed: I am busy.
Elle is a smart woman who knows her worth, but is also painfully aware of the danger she find herself in if she allowed herself to want him. Malcolm thinks he knows and can shield her from any harm, but she shows him time and again that he is still able to retreat into the safety of his White Male Space. The repercussions of his actions are tolerated, if not venerated; she has no such freedom. His self-recriminating awareness when these epiphanies hit him borders on unrealistic, but it's pretty obvious that in order to truly be a partner to Elle, he needs to be as hyperaware as she is about their very existence as an interracial couple and what it means to society and to one another.
The biggest stick for me, that really brought it down a half-star, was the sex scenes. On one hand, during their first time, Malcolm was emotionally conscious enough to feel her mood shift, and stopped. He knew that her consent at that point was nebulous! That is an amazing thing to see written in print, both from a female POV and because the power differential in their relationship as a white man and a black woman (at all, but especially during the American Civil War period) is so very vast.
On the other hand, wow, does it ever throw me off to see the word "penis" and "climax" during a sexy scene. That's just personal, though - maybe other people enjoy anatomical descriptions. Maybe I'm too used to fanfiction - there's a lot of "cock" thrown about. ;)
Overall, Elle is a boss ass lady - she is so smart and so brave and she cares so much for the potential of a country that would leave her to rot in a ditch. Them good ol' Southern boys could learn a thing or two from her about fucking patriotism, that's for sure. (Malcolm is okay too, I guess.)
"Antigua is beautiful. Antigua is too beautiful.I love Kincaid's style and voice and anger.
[...]
It is as if, then, the beauty—the beauty of the sea, the land, the air, the trees, the market, the people, the sounds they make—were a prison, and as if everything and everybody inside it were locked in and everything and everybody that is not inside it were locked out."
Review to come.
A Book That Takes Its Time: An Unhurried Adventure in Creative Mindfulness
Astrid van der Hulst, Irene Smit
Finished reading the book, but I think the projects contained herein will take me the rest of 2018 to complete. I'll add photos as I finish them. :)
Way more hilarious than I anticipated, even given the concept of a former notorious yakuza settling down to be a house-husband for his career-minded wife. There's this:
But mostly it's this:
With some of this:
But mostly it's this:
With some of this:
"Displaced Persons," he said. "Well now. I declare. What do that mean?"Review to come.
"It means they ain't where they were born at and there's nowhere for them to go—like if you was run out of here and wouldn't nobody have you."
"It seem like they here, though," the old man said in a reflective voice. "If they here, they somewhere."