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Raging Biblio-holism

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

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house of journos

The House of Journalists

May 14, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: The House of Journalists – a house, in London, converted into a sort of halfway-home/asylum for persecuted writers, fleeing repressive countries and regimes.  But the writers are, to some, less important than their stories and the prestige those stories bring – and the House’s ‘leader’ will stop at nothing to ensure that the House survives any potential storms… The Review: The realities of political oppression are widespread and widely documented.  At no other time in history has it […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Advance Review, Farrar, Fiction, Literature, London, Politics, Straus and Giroux, The House of Journalists, Tim Finch

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familiar

Familiar

May 4, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: While driving back from a yearly pilgrimage to her dead son’s grave, everything changes for Elisa Brown.  Literally: her clothes are different, her car is different, and the timeline of her life is different – but she still has the memories of this other life.  As she tries to find her way in this alternate universe, she begins to question whether or not the old life was real at all. The Review: John Warner, a few years ago, proclaimed […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Familiar, Fiction, Indiespensable, J. Robert Lennon, Literature

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Charles Dickens

Dickens 2012

April 20, 2013 by Drew

(ed. note – this is a much belated post… by nearly four whole months and at least two whole books.  promise to be better about it next year and so on.) DICKENS 2012 editions: Penguin Clothbound Hardcover A Tale of Two Cities – 3.5 out of 5, 1/12-1/22 Hard Times – 4 out of 5, 4/9-4/13 Great Expectations – 4 out of 5, 7/13-7/22 Oliver Twist – 3.5 out of 5, 9/17-9/25 Bleak House – 4.5 out of 5, 11/22-12/8 […]

Categories: Features, The Ten Year Catch-Up • Tags: charles dickens, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Dickens 2012, Fiction, Literature, The Ten Year Catch-Up, Year One

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the silent history

The Silent History

April 19, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Around the year 2011, children begin to be born without the ability for language.  Over the next 30 years, humanity struggles to come to terms with its silent brethren: some reject them, others seek to be like them, and several seek to cure them.  Told over the course of short interview-based installments, the oral history of the silent pandemic is a groundbreaking event in the history of the novel. The Review: So I am (if you haven’t […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: App, Eli Horowitz, Epistolary, Fiction, Field Reporters, Field Reports, iPhone, Kevin Moffett, Literature, Matthew Derby, Sci-Fi, The Silent History, YYYHHHQQQ

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final destination

The City of Your Final Destination

April 14, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Omar Razaghi would like to write an authorized biography of little-known Latin American novelist Jules Gund.  In fact, his career somewhat depends on it.  But when he goes to Uruguay to seek authorization from the executors of Gund’s estate – his brother, his wife, and his mistress – he runs into a spot of trouble convincing them.  But the trip ends up being about more than the book – it’s about Omar’s life itself. The Review: A […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Fiction, Literature, Peter Cameron, The City of Your Final Destination

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building stories

Building Stories

April 4, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: A building in Chicago, a young woman who lost part of her leg, a bickering couple, and an industrious bee are just some of the major players in a panoramic story of life – the lives most people lead, of quiet desperation. The Review: So it took me a while to get to this book.  Partially because, yes, the price tag is a bit intimidating – but it’s also worth it, in the end.  I was lucky enough to score […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Book in a Box, Building Stories, Chris Ware, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Literature, The Tournament of Books 2013

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emma

Emma

April 3, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Emma Woodhouse, a young lady of intelligence and means, decides that she is good at matchmaking.  This, of course, leads to a series of unfortunate attempts at matching up other people – and she can’t even see the man right in front of her!  A comedy of manners that ends with a bunch of weddings. The Review: So I think my initial nervousness about Austen stems mostly from the fact that Pride and Prejudice is, for better or […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Austen 2013, Emma, Fiction, Jane Austen, Literature

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look at me

Look at Me

March 18, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: After a terrible car accident, model Charlotte Swenson returns to her life unrecognizable – where she’d once been instantly noticed.  As she begins to pick up the pieces and discover this brave new world, her path intersects with several other people trying to define their own brave new worlds: her niece, coming into her sexuality as a high school girl; a private detective searching for a mysterious man; Michael West, a shadowy math teacher; Moose, Charlotte’s hometown […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Fiction, Jennifer Egan, Literature, Look at Me

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van booy

The Illusion of Separateness

March 12, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: A series of connected vignettes, telling the story of several interconnected lives from World War II to the present – but the connections are unknown, cosmic in their perfection and their quiet beauty. The Review: For such a slender volume, this book is heavy with beauty.  It’s basically 200 pages and is over before you know it – but the whole thing feels so rich, like a branch hanging with not only fruit but dew and sunbeams. To […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Advance Review, Fiction, HarperCollins, Historical Fiction, Literature, Simon Van Booy, The Illusion of Separateness

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nos4a2

NOS4A2

March 9, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Victoria McQueen is eight years old when she first discovers “The Shorter Way” – an old rickety bridge that, when she crosses it on her bike, can take her instantly to wherever she needs to be.  Several years later, when she crosses paths with Charlie Manx – a vampiric maniac who kidnaps children to a place called Christmasland – she barely escapes with her life.  Now, in the present, Manx is back and gunning for Vic’s own […]

Categories: Fiction, Horror, Literature • Tags: Advance Review, Fiction, Horror, Joe Hill, Literature, NOS4A2, NOS4R2, William Morrow

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