Annie’s Baby: The Diary of Anonymous
Synopsis: Go Ask Alice, only with teen pregnancy.
Tag Archives: 20th Century
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Synopsis: A little girl becomes possessed by an ancient, evil spirit. Review: Here is a solid case of the adaptation transcending the source material. As a book, The Exorcist just doesn’t have the same air of menace and terror created by William Friedkin’s movie adaptation. Blatty gives readers passages describing black masses, and doesn’t shy away from the more salacious events during Regan’s possession, but these are just gross-outs. They don’t conjure prickling at the back of my neck, or made me afraid to turn…
The Ordinary Princess by MM Kaye
Synopsis: A princess is gifted by her fairy godmother to be ordinary—and who ever heard of a princess with mouse brown hair and freckles?
Stiffed by Susan Faludi
Synopsis: An essay-driven look at various crises facing American men.
Glittering Images by Susan Howatch
Synopsis: When the Archbishop of Canterbury sends a canon to uncover evidence of sexual misconduct in the home of one of his bishops, a mare’s nest of scandal erupts and the canon must face hard truths about the hypocrisies in his life.
The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine
Synopsis: An elderly woman’s recollections of a love that ended in tragedy shed new light on a married woman’s illicit affair. Review: Wordpress keeps eating this review, and I don’t have the energy to write it a third time. Suffice it to say that it’s very good, with great characters, wonderful postwar detail, and a riveting story. Meanwhile, check out Sheila for a nice post about Margaret Atwood.
Gallowglass by Barbara Vine
Synopsis: A suicidal teen is rescued by a charismatic drifter with designs on a woman he calls “The Princess.” Review: Gallowglass has not been my favorite Vine (the alter ego of crime writer Ruth Rendell), but subpar Vine is still head and shoulders above most of what’s out there in the mystery genre. Where Vine succeeds best in this book is in depicting Joe’s thralldom to Sandor, the man who rescued him from jumping front of a train. An orphan raised by loveless foster parents,…
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Synopsis: A young mage-in-training with unprecedented powers performs a forbidden spell and looses a shadow from another realm that intends to destroy him. Review: The writing in A Wizard of Earthsea is beautiful, and the world is wholly original. However, this books gets a little too fantasy-ey for me. It’s got a lot of Magic, and not that that much adventure. It’s much more about the ideas than it is about character development–which is fine. It’s just not what I prefer.
Aspects of the Novel by EM Forster
Synopsis: A collection of lectures given by EM Forster at Trinity College in Cambridge in 1927, touching on all aspects of the novel from story and people to what Forster calls “fantasy” and “prophecy.” Review: A delicious gem of a book. Forster’s prose is gorgeous, and I want to read every book he mentions that I haven’t already. I will be ruminating on what I’ve read in here for quite some time, and this is a book I will revisit many times. Rather than try…
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
Synopsis: We live in the Age of Show Business. Postman’s book is a history of discourse that presents the case for the preeminence of the written word over visual media, and outlines the ills inherent in a visually-driven society. Review: I was somewhat familiar with Postman’s general ideas, having been friends with one of his protegees for many years. However, this is the first time I have read him for myself, which is a shame because I have an advanced degree in cinema studies. My…