Author: sbhowell
-
I’m 24! Things I Learned This Year
Since it’s been a year since I started this blog (and a year since my last birthday!), I’m going to write a quick blog post of things that happened this year and stuff I learned from it. This year my main goal was to find a job. It didn’t go so well, for reasons that are…
-
The Dragon and the Needle by Hugh Franks
When I read the email from the marketing assistant about The Dragon and the Needle, the plot sounded intriguing – a mysterious disease called ENDS (Extraordinary Natural Death Syndrome) is killing high-profile people around the world, seemingly by old age, and a British doctor and an American acupuncturist team up to find the causes and…
-
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita is both sensual and challenging, shocking and learned. Its content is lewd but moving and its style is high but not above blunt jokes. It’s hard for me to put how I feel about it into words, but I’ll do my best. Lolita is the story of a literary, effeminate pedophile who captures a…
-
“When Did You See Her Last?”
Welcome to Stain’d-by-the-Sea, where all the children are sharp, all the adults are foolish, and all the people are peculiar. My brother suggested I read “When Did You See Her Last?” while I was visiting family in Milwaukee. Since I haven’t read anything by Daniel Handler (alias Lemony Snicket) since the Unfortunate Events series, I…
-
Washington Irving’s “Banquet” Approach to Criticism
Handling criticism, especially in this age when you can post something online and can be criticized by anyone in the world, is a challenge. A lot of people advocate listening to critic’s complaints to learn how to improve your work, but Washington Irving is humorously, false-apologetically opposed to that line of thought. His kiss-off to…
-
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
You’ve probably heard Jonathan Safran Foer’s name before. His book Everything is Illuminated was a huge hit and the book I’m reviewing in this post, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, was made into a movie in 2011. The writing in this book is pretty good and the protagonist is lovable, but it doesn’t quite live…
-
Wraeththu: The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit
Wraeththu was one of my favorite books in high school so I decided to revisit it for nostalgia’s sake, and to examine what it is about the book that attracts me so much. After reading it again and reading others’ reviews of it, I realize it’s a little problematic and the plot is sketchy, but I…
-
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer isn’t really about close reading, and it’s not really about learning to write better. It’s mostly about giving budding writers recommendations for books to read that exemplify good writing skills, and bringing some forgotten works back to the attention of general readers of literature.
-
Aleph by Paolo Coelho
Aleph is a novel, which the author calls non-fiction, of his spiritual and physical journey across the entirety of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Coelho allegedly travels through time, has out-of-body experiences, and becomes the love-object of a girl about forty years his junior. My response to this book, in three words, is: “Yeah fucking right.” You…