Michael Chabon | Raging Biblio-holism

Moonglow

January 23, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: A young man named Michael Chabon sits with his grandfather in the weeks before his death, hearing stories about his life. He takes these stories, in turn, and creates a narrative out of them – but, as he expresses at the beginning, the reader might do well to question how much is true and how much is fiction… The Review: The trickery begins before you’ve even started reading the book. Open it, flip page by page – […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Autofiction, Biography, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Indiespensable, Literature, Memoir, Metafiction, Michael Chabon, Moonglow, Non-Fiction, Reviews, Space, The Tournament of Books 2017

The Final Solution

September 2, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: An old man, once a famous detective, has retired to keeping bees in the English countryside. When a young mute German boy arrives in town – accompanied by an African gray parrot – the old man must once more apply his powers of deduction to determine what happened to the boy, what the parrot’s reciting strings of numbers could mean, and who might have interest in taking the bird for themselves… The Review: In an odd bit […]

Categories: Fiction, Mystery • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, England, Fiction, Germany, Michael Chabon, Mystery, review, Sherlock Holmes, The Final Solution, World War II

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

August 12, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s 1939 when Joe Kavalier arrives on the Brooklyn doorstep of his cousin Sammy Klayman, freshly escaped from Prague. The two dreamers cook up an idea for a comic book character – the Escapist – whose adventures will take them through the Second World War, bringing them adventures of their own along the way. The Review: This is one of those books that I’m a little ashamed to have only just gotten around to. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, BookClub, Books, Comic Books, Fiction, Kavalier & Clay, Literature, Michael Chabon, New York City, Pulitzer Prize, Reviews, Superheroes, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Escapist, World War II

Telegraph Avenue

July 24, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Set in late 2004, this is the story of a changing world and two men who have to finally decide to grow up. Nat & Archy run Brokeland Records, a vinyl shop on Telegraph Ave in Oakland, and they’re facing dire straits: a big-box competitor is moving in down the street, Archy’s pregnant wife just found out that he sort of cheated on her, Nat’s wife is trying to hold their midwife business together after a bumpy […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Fiction, Goodreads, Literature, Michael Chabon, Telegraph Avenue

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

May 27, 2010 by Drew

I’m sitting in my uncle’s apartment in New York City. I read most of this book on the train to NYC yesterday and in Union Square today. A book about Pittsburgh, the city my uncle (and my mother) grew up in and the city where a very important somebody hails from. A book about the first summer after college. Some of these connections were planned, some weren’t. I didn’t know I’d be here (in every sense of that term) when […]

Categories: Cannonball Read II, Fiction, Literary Challenges, Literature • Tags: Book #44, Cannonball Read II, Fiction, Literature, Michael Chabon, Olive Editions, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Michael Chabon

Moonglow

The Final Solution

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Telegraph Avenue

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh