Colson Whitehead | Raging Biblio-holism

The Intuitionist

March 23, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: Lila Mae Watson is the first colored female elevator inspector in history – and she’s an Intuitionist, maybe the best they’ve ever had. But when a brand new elevator that she inspected goes into total freefall two weeks before the Elevator Guild elections, she must go on the run to prove her good name. What she discovers along the way might change everything… The Review: It is almost shocking to pick up a debut novel from an […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Colson Whitehead, Elevators, Fiction, Literature, review, Reviews, The Intuitionist

The Underground Railroad

November 14, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A slave woman named Cora runs away from the Georgia plantation where she is enslaved and finds that the Underground Railroad is, in fact, a literal railroad – and so begins a winding adventure towards freedom. The Review: This isn’t going to be so much a review as a musing. I just don’t know how I can write a traditional review of this book in light of the last week. See, I read this book in the days […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 5+, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Colson Whitehead, Fiction, History, Literature, review, Reviews, Slavery, The Tournament of Books 2017, The Underground Railroad

Sag Harbor

August 21, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s summer 1985 and Benji Cooper is headed to Sag Harbor for the summer. And what a summer it will be: time to hang with friends, make mistakes, and maybe get ready for sophomore year of high school… The Review: Ah, summertime. Wait, let me amend: ah, teenage summertime. That magical stretch of time between early June and Labor Day weekend when any and everything is possible and, if you’re lucky, you don’t have much to do beyond hanging […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Colson Whitehead, Coming of Age, Fiction, Literature, Reviews, Sag Harbor, Summer, vacation

The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death

March 7, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: In 2011, novelist/Twitterer/notable citizen of Anhedonia Colson Whitehead was staked to play in the World Series of Poker by Grantland. This is his story – a story of poker, of beef jerky, and of uproariously dry wit. (…I don’t think anyone actually dies in the course of the book.) The Review: Some might say I’m going about Colson Whitehead all wrong. I saw him speak before I read a word of his prose… and then I read his […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Advance Review, Beef Jerky, Book Reviews, Books, Colson Whitehead, Death, Journalism, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Poker, Reporting, Reviews, The Noble Hustle

Zone One

October 16, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: After the zombie apocalypse winds down, the survivors begin to regroup and reestablish some semblance of society. The first great task is the reclamation of Manhattan, from the bottom up. It begins in Zone One, extending from the tip of the island to Canal Street – and that’s where Mark Spitz (not his real name) works as a sweeper, moving through the abandoned buildings one by one to clear out any random remaining skels. He had always wanted […]

Categories: Fiction, Horror, Literature • Tags: A Visit to October Country, Colson Whitehead, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Zone One

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Colson Whitehead

The Intuitionist

The Underground Railroad

Sag Harbor

The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death

Zone One