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A young woman's workplace is the size of the world. She fills increasingly bizarre placements …
A strange but enjoyable allegory of a woman seemingly destined to forever be a temp worker, taking on not just the jobs, but also the lives of those she is filling in for.
Lena has always lived in the jungle with Mother. There they look after a holiday …
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a 2022 novel by Gabrielle Zevin. Amazon named it …
I had lots of fun reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, like a great video game with an engaging story, but there were just a few, crucial moments in the book that left me unsatisfied.
One of it's central theme, about the eternal cycle of life giving us chances to start, fail, and start again, maybe to succeed this time, like someone playing a video game, is fun, and the parallels with players on a stage (hence the quote from Shakespeare as the title) and another layer of reflection on the other theme, the role games can play in our lives.
I liked the characters but sometimes found them inauthentic, acting in ways to make a point or progress the plot, and not necessarily true to who I thought they were. Ultimately, some key moments in the narrative fell flat, jarring me into disbelief, and breaking the spell. Still a …
I had lots of fun reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, like a great video game with an engaging story, but there were just a few, crucial moments in the book that left me unsatisfied.
One of it's central theme, about the eternal cycle of life giving us chances to start, fail, and start again, maybe to succeed this time, like someone playing a video game, is fun, and the parallels with players on a stage (hence the quote from Shakespeare as the title) and another layer of reflection on the other theme, the role games can play in our lives.
I liked the characters but sometimes found them inauthentic, acting in ways to make a point or progress the plot, and not necessarily true to who I thought they were. Ultimately, some key moments in the narrative fell flat, jarring me into disbelief, and breaking the spell. Still a good read, but missed a bit of it's lofty, and noble, target.
Earth * Air * Water * Fire
These elements have sustained the peaceful people of …
How do you change the world? How do you break cycles of bitterness, revenge, and violence that drag all involved down into despair and misery, even when it temporary masquerades as "justice"?
Those questions are at the heart of this fantasy novel full of vibrant, fully realized queer characters. Each character brings their own history and personal struggles to those questions, with Marks' deft storytelling weaving them into a coherent and touching narrative.
Will definitely be reading the rest of this series asap.
On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles …
Part history of a calamitous fire, part true crime investigation, with sprinkles of snapshots into the life of current public library workers and those of the past.
I enjoyed this book, though not really for what it was supposed to be. I feel like the investigation into the cause of the fire fizzled out quickly, a sort of non-story with no satisfying conclusion.
But the snapshots of the lives of previous and current library staff was absolutely delightful. Some real strong characters in the libraries history who really shine in this book.
Overall, interesting and enjoyable.
A god will return When the earth and sky converge Under the black sun
In the holy city of Tova, …
"Born from the obsessive and highly idiosyncratic mind of a cult figure of the Japanese …
Speculative fiction short stories by a mid-20th century feminist Japanese performance artist and writer…what’s not to like? Well, the writing, that’s what. I found myself consistently interested in the ideas but bored by the actual writing. Characters were hollow vehicles for ideas and plot and I just could not get into it.
Cursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. Blurring …
Loved this collection of dark and strange stories. I was often uncomfortable and audibly cringing while reading these stories as she does not shy away from body-horror, but nonetheless felt compelled to keep reading. Characters are seeking meaning and a sense off humanity through bizarre and often grotesque circumstances, which brought me deeper into each story even as I recoiled.
The stories are at their most powerful when she turns up the psychological disorientation through slowly revealed details, in stories you have to ( and want to) read several times to make sense of.
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Exquisitely crafted tale that starts as dozens of smoldering embers that find enough oxygen to become a full on conflagration that burn to the nearly infinite possibilities of motherhood into the reader’s heart. I loved almost everything about this book, except Mrs Richardson, whose almost villainous role felt at time overly moralistic and flat. Highly recommend!
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After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex (a Tea Monk of some renown) …
Another sweet and generous tale, so full of heart and the doubts that can fill one. I found myself moved to think about the world differently and literally reconsidered my career choices at one point while reading. The way the author teases out ideas about identity and self-perception really landed for me.
On a less positive note, this book got me trouble when I laughed out loud in bed and woke up my wife who had just nodded off. Thanks Becky!
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; …
This book found me at just the right time and I loved it and really want more
Japan's most highly regarded novelist now vaults into the first ranks of international fiction writers …
Weird and brilliant, the book constantly tempts you into decoding it’s meaning, and then immediately pulls the rug out from under your mind-feet.
I also felt like I needed a giant white board to track the seemingly endless inter-connections, parallels, and metaphors, but I’m not sure a large enough white board exists, and even if it did I’d probably just end up with a giant mess of ideas rendered less beautiful than the novel itself. All that said, his writing about female sexuality is weird and deeply uncomfortable.
In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by …
A fun tale of gritty librarians, sympathetic demons, rogue angels, and books that, not-figuratively, come alive. Started a little slow, and narrative was a bit uneven at points, but it really picked up half way through and I’m pretty sure I need to read the rest of the series.
A book about design websites not as products or services, but as places. Interesting ideas but very little in the way of examples of sites that do it well.