About stories of all kinds
“[T]he besetting sin of a philanthropist, it appears to me, is apt to be a moral obliquity. His sense of honor ceases to be the sense of other honorable men. At some point of his course...he is tempted to palter with the right, and can scarcely forbear persuading himself that the importance of his public… Continue reading “The importance of his public ends”
Well, I'm back with a Tuesday (barely) book review after getting creative with my schedule for two weeks. I finished several books in the interval though, which I'm going to try and get reviews out for. First up, a book I began last October and have been intermittently slogging away at since: A Most Mysterious… Continue reading The Liar’s Recommendation: A Most Mysterious Case and Other Works
The pop culture image of Count Dracula, vampire poster-boy, ranges from creepy to campy, spooky to sparkly, demonic hell beast to hot monster boyfriend. Apparently, part of this is due to Bram Stoker’s family, or his “estate,” somehow losing the American rights to the story and characters way back in the early twentieth century. Everyone… Continue reading Stalking Us As We Sleep: Books Inspired by Dracula
Wamba the Fool is pretty much my favourite character in Ivanhoe. He just gets to put everyone else and their idiocy on blast with complete immunity himself.
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher MorleyMy rating: 4 of 5 starsI really loved this book on first read—the atmospheric bookshop, the eccentric proprietor, the silly love-story, and the espionage plot shoe-horned in throughout. What’s not to like? Recently when I was skimming through it in search of a quotation, I got caught on so many… Continue reading Judging Spies by Their Covers: The Haunted Bookshop Review
Therefore, if we built splendid castles... and pictured beautiful scenes, among the fervid coals of the hearth round which we were clustering, and if all went to rack with the crumbling embers, and have never since arisen out of the ashes, let us take to ourselves no shame. In my own behalf, I rejoice that… Continue reading ‘Let us take to ourselves no shame’
“[W]e... care not what you set up, so you pull merrily down what stands in our way... for it is our profession to turn the world upside down, and we live ever the blithest life when the downer side is uppermost.”The Monastery by Sir Walter Scott The Monastery by Sir Walter Scott Some days the… Continue reading “To turn the world upside down”
Besides, you are bound to bear yourself as agreeably as you can toward those whom nature or chance or your own choice has made the companions of your life. Utopia by Sir Thomas More The world’s still not utopian, and neither are the people within it perfect—including myself. Others put up with me as much… Continue reading ‘Nature or chance or your own choice’
Little is left to us but the air we breathe, and that appears to have been reserved with much hesitation. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott I won’t pretend to equate current pandemic restrictions with the condition of serfs under feudalism, but the sentiment is surprisingly relevant nonetheless. Here’s to the (slow) lifting of the embargo… Continue reading ‘The air we breathe’
It’s fall. Yikes. I’m not even halfway through my 100 book recommendations. I was intending to have this list finished up this year. Not that you should read them in a year. I think we’ve established that’s a bad idea. Trust me. But how long does it take to just crank out a suggestion list?… Continue reading 10 Short Stories and Collections: 100 Books to Read #5
Fictitiously Yours 