About stories of all kinds
In The Protestant Ethic, Max Weber opposes the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism and relates the rise of the capitalist economy to the Calvinist belief in the moral value of hard work and the fulfillment of one’s worldly duties. My Review I came into this not knowing any of the dialogue around Weber's philosophy, or… Continue reading A Tangled Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism
Book blurb for City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is… Continue reading City of Dark Magic: Book Review
The "I can't find a blurb because everybody already knows or doesn't care what this book is about" solution: An Encyclopedia Britannica entry on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy War and Peace, historical novel by Leo Tolstoy, originally published as Voyna i mir in 1865–69. This panoramic study of early 19th-century Russian society, noted for its mastery of realistic… Continue reading It Got Involved: War and Peace Review
Blurb for Return of the Thief by Megan Whelan Turner The thrilling, twenty-years-in-the-making, conclusion to the New York Times–bestselling Queen’s Thief series, by Megan Whalen Turner. This beloved and award-winning series began with the acclaimed novel The Thief. It and four more stand-alone volumes bring to life a world of epics, myths, and legends, and… Continue reading The Long-Awaited Return of the Thief: Book Review
Blurb for A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz Before Jane Austen, William Deresiewicz was a very different young man. A sullen and arrogant graduate student, he never thought Austen would have anything to offer him. Then he read Emma—and everything changed. In this unique and lyrical book, Deresiewicz weaves the misadventures of Austen’s characters with… Continue reading Truth Universally Acknowledged: A Jane Austen Education Review
My sister read this book before I did, and from what she told me I was expecting fluff with a blush of adventure: more or less what it promises in the first chapter, in which the mood is set for “ye olden tale of romance.” I wasn’t expecting to be quite so gutted by existential… Continue reading La Mouette: Review of Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
This book is a whole mood... There was something just off and dream-like about the whole scenario that attempting to describe much of the experience would be really difficult to do without constantly likening or comparing it to something more tangible.
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
Reading this book just made me want to read the first one again... This is portal fantasy and fractured fairy tales and an original fantasy world and parallel universes and alternate history all rolled into one.
A dying motel with a custom built tower, a night-walking sister who is obsessed with Hitchcock, and a grandmother who tells stories of monsters combine to create a setting ripe for horrors of all kinds.
Fictitiously Yours 