My interest in this book came from two sources: this New York Times review (Pieces for the Left Hand is on my reading list as well), and the fact that J. Robert Lennon was one of BigRed’s college writing instructors. He read Castle a couple months ago; I hope he’ll comment. Read more »
This week I finished up Black Flies, and then moved on to Renegade by Richard Wolffe. I love watching Richard Wolffe on MSNBC; his commentary is usually very insightful. That’s why I was particularly disappointed by Renegade. Mr. Wolffe’s writing seemed unnatural, with sentence fragments and repetition of the word “renegade” that felt forced. The campaign was presented disjointedly, without chronological or any other logical order of events. Perhaps Mr. Wolffe hasn’t figure out how to escape his journalist roots; I felt as though I’d read a greatest hits of newspaper election coverage.
Black Flies was excellent – highly recommended. A former paramedic in Harlem, Burke isn’t the strongest writer in an academic sense. But he writes with an incredibly strong voice, stronger than many novelists who may be considered to be technically “better” writers. Though categorized as a novel, Burke writes so graphically, drawing (I assume) from his own experiences, that I had to keep reminding myself it was fiction. An outstanding book, but not for the faint of heart.
I feel badly for Mark Sanford. His e-mails seem to show genuine emotion, love, and internal conflict over a difficult situation in which many adults find themselves. Though I would never condone adultery, I believe it is a mistake to paint one-time offenders who enter into a second loving relationship with the same brush we use to paint womanizing repeat cheaters. I tend to think that although cheating is always a result of poor choices, much of the world exists in a vast gray area where outside objective judgments are difficult – if not impossible. Read more »
Let me preface this by saying that I’m only halfway through, but I strongly recommend Lewis Robinson’s Water Dogs, especially as a summer/beach read. I’ve seen it reviewed a couple different places, so you may have already heard off it. At any rate, Water Dogs is a quick read – not taxing but not fluff, either. Of particular interest is that it takes place during winter in Maine, so it has a psychological cooling effect you may enjoy if you’re getting record high temperatures as we are. Following State by State, I would say that Robinson accurately captures Maine – or, given my zero actual minutes spent in Maine, my concept thereof. Give it a try! (And if you do, let me know what you think!)
Given that nearly every possible premise for a reality television show has been produced already, I’m surprised that the genre hasn’t dipped into the world of politics yet. The initial reaction to such a show would probably be one of disgust. There would be editorials written about how the program showed the decay of the political process, proving that the presidential vote had become nothing better than a popularity contest.
But once it started airing, I bet “Presidential Idol” be a smash hit. The winner would likely get tons of free publicity by way of the media, and with successful management, they’d have a real shot at the presidency.
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My biscuits this morning failed. I’ll try again within the week. For now, here’s a little fun, then I’m off to study all day. Wish me luck tomorrow morning! Read more »
Warning: this post officially qualifies as a rant.
I’ve been a Bank of America customer since sometime in 2005, I think. I’ve hated them for approximately as long, which I believe is a common phenomenon. I opened an account with them because otherwise they insisted on charging me $5 to cash my paycheck – which was drawn on them! So I guess I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Read more »
More than once while reading State by State, I’d turn to Brian and say, “Let’s move to _______.” Brian’s response was almost always, “Ok. [pause] You know how cold it gets there, right?” While it is unlikely that I will have the opportunity to live in every state, that is the response I had hoped this book would evoke in me. For the most part, it did not let me down. Read more »
I have several pictures that I’ve been meaning to post. I finally installed an ad block, which made Picnik run faster, so I don’t have to use Photoshop. Read more »
