The Handmaid’s Tale: a negative side of human adaptability

I finished this dystopian classic by Margaret Atwood and was both impressed and frustrated. I was impressed by how believable the story was. In the afterward the author talks about how she took great care to put nothing in the book that hadn't already happened somewhere in history, and no technology that didn't exist. She …

Book catch-up #3 The Unparalleled Borges

I read Labyrinths, a collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges, and I can't overestimate how amazing these stories were. I could probably write a post about every story, but I'll stick to a few standouts. The Library of Babel: A library that contains not only every book ever written, but every possible arrangement …

Book catch up #2, good ol Nabokov

Whenever I've read something boring or confusing, or just plain bad, I read some Nabokov as my next, cause it's guaranteed to be good. This time I read Pnin, and as always, it was beautiful, funny, and just lovely. Pnin is a Russian living in America, and teaching Russian at a college. He is absent …

Book catch up #1, Hemingway, Hawingway

I've been reading a lot of books and not posting about them! So here's the first of some 'what I've been reading' catch up posts: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway: I read For Whom the Bell Tolls a while back, and was underwhelmed, though parts of it did make me feel, and the end …

Sharp Objects blunted by twist ending

This post contains spoilers. If you haven't seen HBO's Sharp Objects, you're in for a treat, go watch it. Then come back and read.   Sharp Objects is a show you have to pay attention to. It's smart, and subtle, and you can miss entire plot points if you look away for even a few …