Humor | Raging Biblio-holism

The Mark and the Void

December 7, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Claude is an analyst at an Irish bank just after the financial crash when he meets an author, Paul Murray. Paul maybe wants to write a book about Claude – but he’s got a strange way of doing it, and slowly these two men are pulled into a narrative that is, perhaps, being created as we read it… The Review: It’s hard to make financial writing flashy or sexy. There are your pop-science type books, like The Big […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Banking, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Humor, Ireland, Literature, Metafiction, Paul Murray, review, Reviews, Satire, The Mark and the Void

“Mistakes Were Made”: Bookburners S02E03

July 7, 2016 by Drew

Bookburners S02E03: Mistakes Were Made by Brian Francis Slattery 7.6.16 4 out of 5 When We Last Left Our Heroes…: Braving the wild and surreal landscape of Team Four’s offices, the team recovered an instruction manual of sorts for the Orb. Asanti and Frances decide to investigate it further. Case of the Week: A series of increasingly strange events at a conference – that just happens to be the annual Thaumaturgical Symposium. How It Went: The episode drops us straight into the middle of an argument […]

Categories: Features, Recaps • Tags: Bookburners, Bookburners S02E03, Brian Francis Slattery, Fantasy, Features, Fiction, Horror, Humor, Mistakes Were Made, Recaps, S02E03, Serial, Serial Box, serial box publishing, Serial Fiction, serialbox, serialbox publishing

Romeo and/or Juliet

June 27, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Maybe you think you know the story of Romeo and Juliet… but do you really? Do you know about the part with the robot suits? Or the time that Juliet got super buff? What about a version where they don’t even die at all, not even a little? Write your own version(s) of the classic story with seriously thousands of possible outcomes! The Review: I missed the boat, somehow, on Ryan North’s delightful original choose-your-own-adventure (or, sorry, “chooseable-path […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: A Chooseable Path Adventure, Choose Your Own Adventure, Fiction, Humor, Literature, Riverhead Books, Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and/or Juliet, Ryan North, Shakespeare

Read Bottom Up

February 12, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Guy & girl meet. Tell their friends. Guy gets girl’s email, asks to meet up. Dating ensues. So does miscommunication, recommunication, sex, drinking, awkward conversations, and about six months worth of nearly every single person’s life at some point or other in the big city. The Review: The big selling point for this novel came last fall when it was revealed that Skye Chatham is in fact a nom de porn (first pet + street you grew up […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Dating, Fiction, Humor, Literature, Millennials, Neel Shah, New York City, Quirky, Read Bottom Up, Relationships, Reviews, Skye Chatham, Sloane Crosley

Oreo

February 10, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Christine Schwartz (nicknamed Oreo) is born in Philadelphia to a Jewish father and an African-American mother. Her father left when she was only a few years old and when she comes of age, her mother sends her off to find him, beginning a hilarious journey to New York armed with her wit, charm, and some bad-ass martial arts. The Review: Fran Ross is one of those authors who, without the attentions of a savvy publisher like New Directions, […]

Categories: Fiction, Humor, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Fran Ross, Humor, Literature, Mythology, New Directions, New York City, Oreo, Philadelphia, Reviews, Satire, The Tournament of Books 2016, Theseus

The Pickle Index

January 25, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Zloty Kornblatt, ringleader of a shoddy circus, has been arrested on charges of sedition. His band of mismatched performers set out to save his life before he’s executed, through a strange totalitarian state full of very briny treats… The Review: I’m relentlessly fascinated by apps and app-books. Although I don’t believe anything will ever take the place of a good ol’ paper copy, displayed on the shelf and easily snatchable to flip through, I do think that […]

Categories: Fiction, Humor, Literature • Tags: app books, Apps, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Eli Horowitz, Fiction, FSG Originals, Humor, Literature, Reviews, Russell Quinn, Satire, So Many Damn Books, Sudden Oak, The Pickle Index, YYYHHHQQQ

Dear Committee Members

January 15, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Jason Fitger, a creative writing professor at a second (or maybe third-)rate university in the Midwest, has reached a low point in his life. His writing career is kaput, his romantic exploits all too public, and he’s besieged by requests for letters of recommendation. So here, then, is the 2009-10 academic year (with a bit of 2010-11) as depicted through those letters that he must bring himself to write. The Review: Ah, the letter of recommendation. I have […]

Categories: Fiction, Humor, Literature • Tags: Academia, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Dear Committee Members, Fiction, Humor, Julie Schumacher, Literature, Reviews, WMFU novel

The Heart Goes Last

December 7, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Nick and Charmaine are a down-on-their-luck couple, living in their car in an America of the near future. When they’re offered the opportunity to join Consilience/Positron, a new planned community where you alternate between civilian and prison inmate every month, they leap at the chance for a new life – but is it all too good to be true? The Review: When I was in my early teens, my family went to Disney World and, during the […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Dystopia, Fiction, Humor, Literature, Margaret Atwood, Positron, Prison, Reviews, Satire, Sci-Fi, The Heart Goes Last

Iterating Grace

December 4, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: In summer 2015, privately printed copies of Iterating Grace appeared in the mailboxes of several prominent tech reporters, tech workers, and other assorted tech-related folks. Now, FSG has brought it to the masses – this strange, small tome of tweets-as-art and satirical poking at the Silicon Valley way of life. The Review: I love a good mystery, so this whole “who is Koons Crooks?” thing is exciting to me. Noah Krulwin, over at re/code, thinks that it’s all […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Anonymous, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, FSG, FSG Originals, Horror, Humor, Internet, Iterating Grace, Koons Crooks, Literature, Llamas, Mystery, Reviews, Satire, Silicon Valley, Tech, Technology, Twitter, vicuñas

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Humor