Synopsis:
A collection of short stories by a preeminent contributor to “The Twilight Zone.”
Review:
Button, Button is an uneven bit of business, purporting to highlight the very best of Richard Matheson’s “Uncanny Stories.” Some are good, one is spectacular, but others have not aged well.
First, the good:
“Button, Button” exhibits a flawless “Twilight Zone” concept and execution. [...]
Popularity: 27% [?]
Tags: American Literature
From Learning All the Time:
There are two diametrically opposite ways of opening to children the world of books. One was is to start them with the names and sounds of individual letters, then with small words, then with small groups of these words joined to make small sentences, then with small reading books, and [...]
Popularity: 17% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
A mother’s love is tested when she gives birth in 1943 to a daughter who is, in the lingua franca, is a “Mongolian Idiot.”
Review:
I picked up Jewel because I’m going to be participating in a writing workshop on Thursday led by Bret Lott. I figured I would read Jewel because it was the book [...]
Popularity: 19% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
Tigana is a country that has been obliterated by magic, down to its very name, yet a small group of rebels who remember decide to spark civil war to reclaim the honor of their homeland.
Review:
I wanted to love Tigana, I really did. Guy Gavriel Kay is a beautiful writer, excelling in exploring complex emotions [...]
Popularity: 32% [?]
Tags: Canadian Literature
Synopsis:
An aging rock star buys an old suit that brings with it a vengeful spirit with a personal vendetta.
Review:
Let’s just get it out of the way. Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. His debut novel, Heart-Shaped Box, is a work of horror. And not only is it damn good, it’s good enough [...]
Popularity: 28% [?]
Tags: On Reading
Synopsis:
A San Francisco lawyer finds herself magically spirited back to ancient Rome, where she ends up running a tavern and weathering a German invasion.
Review:
I’m reading Household Gods for an online book club, and the only reason I didn’t quit this book is because I really like the people in the book club. I am [...]
Popularity: 28% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
A retelling of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast.
Review:
I suppose it’s because of all the babysitting I’ve done, but I just couldn’t shake the image of Belle in her big yellow dress as I read Robin McKinley’s Beauty. But setting that aside, I would have loved this when I [...]
Popularity: 49% [?]
Tags: American Literature
Synopsis:
While working on a novel in Tunisia, a writer encounters his own heart of darkness.
Review:
I had written a truly brilliant review of Patricia Highsmith’s The Tremor of Forgery, but it got eaten. Fie! The salient points were:
Patricia Highsmith plays cat and mouse with the reader just like her most famous creation Tom Ripley [...]
Popularity: 42% [?]
Tags: British Literature
Synopsis:
A young woman discovers her destiny among a cadre of psychic dragons, and hatches a radical plan to save her planet from a deadly threat using time travel.
Review:
I wish I had discovered Pern when I was in high school. Dragonflight, one of Anne McCaffrey’s books set in the dragon-strewn world, is perfect YA sci [...]
Popularity: 43% [?]
Tags: On Reading
Synopsis:
A collection of short stories set mostly among Indian immigrants in the US.
Review:
Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake was one of my favorite reads of last year, so I decided I needed to check out her much-buzzed about collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies. It will surprise no one who has read these tales that [...]
Popularity: 45% [?]
Tags: American Literature
