About stories of all kinds
As much as I’m treating this as a title “trend,” having found a clustering of similarly titled works throughout the last couple decades or so, it is by no means an exclusively modern phenomenon. The titling of classic works frequently followed a similar formula—for instance, the full title of the Dickens novel commonly called Nicholas… Continue reading Titles on Trend: Another Seven or Eight (or Nine) Books of Lives and Deaths and Full Names
The House of Mirth is a multi-faceted, in-depth novelization of the difficulty of unmarried young women without a fortune who are nevertheless members of a certain upper-class social circle, and the lengths they must go to maintain their position...
Among the mélange of random diatribes [in Ulysses]... I came across this character of the student Lynch who reminded me... of a different Lynch...
After not completing the last spin on time, due to feeling a bit behind and swamped with books, I'm actually in a place where I'm feeling ready for the next one. (We're overlooking the fact that I'm still behind on reviews.) So here goes! I took all of the titles I have left (minus one… Continue reading Classics Club Spin #34
Recently, I recognized a pattern of thought and behaviour in myself: I am long past mentally finished with a position or situation in life by the time I actually change it. I'm currently in that mental space of being prepared to be somewhere else, while still showing up where I'm currently committed to. I can… Continue reading ‘Absent from everything most densely real’
A philosophic aside If something is not untrue, is that the same as saying it is true? Let me provide a parallel example: if someone is not wrong, does that mean they are right? I'm fairly confident anyone with the slightest degree of ability to grasp nuance of language would instinctively, if not confidently, say… Continue reading Taking the Temperature of a Society: Fahrenheit 451 Review
Blurb for Extraordinary Canadians: Glenn Gould by Mark Kingwell Glenn Gould, one of the twentieth century’s most renowned classical musicians, was also known as an eccentric genius—solitary, headstrong, a hypochondriac virtuoso. Abandoning stage performances in 1964, Gould concentrated instead on mastering various media: recordings, radio, television, and print. His sudden death at age fifty stunned… Continue reading Playing a Game of Twenty-One: Glenn Gould Biography Review
Lately, I have not been feeling A-OK. I have not even been feeling just "OK," nevermind the "A" part. "Fine" as a back-up term is usually fittingly nondescript and noncommital but even it has not been able to save me this week. Also, I ran out of coffee on Monday. Not saying I was suffering… Continue reading The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week: Blog (and Life) Update
This review is on a book called The Green Years. Today is Earth Day. Call it serendipity and on with the review. Blurb for The Green Years by A.J. Cronin The Green Years is a 1944 novel by A. J. Cronin which traces the formative years of an Irish orphan, Robert Shannon, who is sent… Continue reading Bildungsromanesque: The Green Years Review
Blurb for The History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooke Set in Quebec City immediately after Wolfe's conquest, this charming love story depicts in intimate detail the life of that city's early English inhabitants. It is a comedy of manners played against a backdrop of the rugged scenery of the New World, a world in… Continue reading I Am Writing This Letter: The History of Emily Montague Review
Fictitiously Yours 