Rated Torchwood: Fall to Earth 10/10
This was really great -- funny, dramatic, all the makings of a good Torchwood episode.
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Rated Torchwood: More Than This 8/10
A really solid "describe the essence of Torchwood" story, though it does not touch quiiiite as heavily on the emotional damage often present in the Torchwood stories. Gwen's stories have been among the best in this audio series.
Rated Torchwood: The Office Of Never Was 8/10
An enjoyable Ianto tale. Makes great use of silence.
Wants to read The Trick is to Keep Breathing
Rated The Unreal Life of Sergey Nabokov 8/10
Paul Russell is a lovely, immersive writer, and while the story was such that made me carry on reading at an anticipatory clip, occasionally I would stop and marvel at the skill of his sentences. Now, I don't know enough about Vladimir Nabokov's writing to know if Russell's style pays homage at all, but he is subtle about the way he presents everything. The over-the-top characters like Cocteau or the ballet enthusiasts feel natural – By that, I mean that at no point does the writing sound like, “Look at me! Look at me writing these characters oh-so-dramatically!” And given the unassuming, shy nature of Sergey, it makes sense that his narration would be that way as well. He reports what happens and how he felt, but he is not about to call any extra attention upon himself. To be paid attention means scrutiny, and scrutiny leads to judgment, and the times he has been judged, the results are rarely in his favor. Still, Sergey has an incredible mind attuned to beauty, and Russell's fictionalized version of him makes me wonder what writing this “other” Nabokov could have accomplished, had he lived longer and been encouraged to explore it.<br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/02/unreal-life-of-sergey-nabokov-by-paul.html">Glorified Love Letters.</a>)
Rated Weetzie Bat 8/10
Bits of this don't hold up, compared to my teenage love for this book, bit it's still an unusual fairytale. I could do without Weetzie's exotizing of other cultures, and since this novella is just the beginning, there's not a lot of firm plot to speak of, but this reminds me of a certain time and place. My nostalgia is forgiving. This book is a teenage fantasy, and it's a reminder of how far we can grow.
Rated Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail 10/10
This book is as amazing as everyone says that it is. There has been and likely will be a lot of hype surrounding this book, and the more contrary among you might want to resist the hype and not seek out <i>Wild</i>. Resist your contrary nature, just this once. The hype is well-deserved. Cheryl Strayed has written an outstanding book, one that is now easily counted among my favorites. Get thee to a bookstore or your library and soak it in. And then tell others to do the same.<br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/03/wild-from-lost-to-found-on-pacific.html">Glorified Love Letters.</a>)
Wants to read What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher
Rated Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear 6/10
<div>Too many similes for my taste, as though the author's anxieties included being unclear, saying the wrong thing. Her admissions of childhood exaggeration seems to inform adulthood catastrophe imagining, which makes sense in a book examining fear, even if I found some parts naive. There are also many good insights, and some of those similes are quite apt. This is more memoir than wolf study, which is preferable for me, but ymmv. Lots to like, but it wasn't love.</div>
Rated World Takes 6/10
(I'd give it 3.5 stars, were that an option, but...)<br><br>Grasping at little bits of happiness wherever they can be found, the characters in Timmy Waldron’s short stories inhabit the space between hope and hopelessness. World Takes is a satisfying, slim collection of tales that are familiar, yet also windows into an unknown universe.<br><br>Perhaps Waldron’s greatest strengths are his first sentences. Writing teachers and advice articles always talk about that “hook” one needs to draw in the reader. The hook should not be gimmicky, of course, but enough to make the reader not just want to continue, but feel required to do so.<br><br>Overall, amusing in a dark humor sort of way.<br><br>(Full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/09/world-takes-by-timmy-waldron.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>)
Full review at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-we-need-love-by-simon-van-booy.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.
Rated Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters 10/10
<div>This is an outstandingly good collection of essays on ("Big Mama") Willie Mae Thornton's life and career. I knew a little about her before reading, but not much, and some of that is because this is only the second biography written about her. Massively influential to early rock n roll, Thornton had a full blues career that spanned from the 1940s until her death in the 1980s. If one of the goals of the book is to make people want to investigate her music further, then consider it a success.</div>
Finished reading The Thursday Murder Club
Edited 34d ago