We’ve got a treat for you today. For the first time in the storied history of the Gazette, MLB has agreed to appear “in her own words,” in the form of the following book report. The reason is simple. The Hachette Book Group sent me an unsolicited copy of the subject book for review purposes.… Continue reading Book Review: “Vanishing Point”
Category: Reading & Writing
Book Review: “Seeing”
I finished José Saramago’s Seeing yesterday. This novel, which was published in Portuguese in 2004 but released in an English translation this year, is the follow-up to Blindness, which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. The events in Seeing occur four years following the epidemic of blindness that swept the population of the unidentified… Continue reading Book Review: “Seeing”
Book Review: “Blindness”
I started reading José Saramago’s Blindness around 9:00 p.m. on Friday and finished it about an hour ago (it’s Sunday, about 3:30 p.m.). 326 pages in less than 48 hours. That’s not exactly a speed-reading record, but it should be taken as an indication of the mesmerizing quality of this novel about what happens when… Continue reading Book Review: “Blindness”
Book Review: “Plainsong”
One of the biggest surprises last Christmas actually arrived a few days afterward, when an unexpected A-to-Z logo’d box arrived in my mailbox, small and mysterious and completely without context. Surely I’d remember if I had ordered something from Amazon…? Inside was a slim volume accompanied by a gift receipt. The volume was Plainsong by… Continue reading Book Review: “Plainsong”
Book Review: “A Reader’s Manifesto”
The subtitle to B.R. Myers’s A Reader’s Manifesto is An Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose. This slim (89 pages) volume is indeed an attack, and it apparently struck its intended targets. After one lukewarm attempt at self-publishing the original manuscript under the title of Gorgons in the Pool, it was picked… Continue reading Book Review: “A Reader’s Manifesto”
Book Review: “Consider the Lobster”
I think there are two basic reasons why people read a collection of unrelated non-fiction essays.1 The first is that they believe that the topics of the essays in general are interesting, if not interrelated. The second is that they enjoy the writing of the author, regardless of the topic. I suspect that not infrequently… Continue reading Book Review: “Consider the Lobster”
Book Review: “The Devil’s Highway”
In May, 2001 25 men and one boy set out across the Sonoran Desert, determined to cross into southern Arizona, between Yuma and Nogales, from their native Mexico. Crossing into the US was easy; finding their way to civilization was deadly. Fourteen of them perished in the attempt. Luis Alberto Urrea reconstructs the details of… Continue reading Book Review: “The Devil’s Highway”
Book Review: “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”
Note: This is my fourth attempt at this post, as I try to find the right approach to the topic. I’ve never been comfortable playing the role of a “critical critic,” especially when dealing with so personal an issue as faith. Even now, I’m not sure how this will turn out, but as Ms. Lamott… Continue reading Book Review: “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith”
Consuming Treeware
Do you find that you’re reading less nowadays? I know I don’t read like I once did; I do less serious reading than I used to. I read constantly but it’s bits and pieces: technical documentation; web-based articles and news items, mostly related to my work; headlines on WSJ.com and CNNSI.com; and, more often, blogs… Continue reading Consuming Treeware