Born To Run is really The Essential Bruce Springsteen, by His Hand and in His Voice (even if it isn’t, and it probably is; even if – and because – it could use a stronger editor.) What a book – a tour de force rock ‘n’ roll memoir/deconstruction. Here’s the rock star who decided he WOULDN’T die before he got old, because he sorta liked living.
Books
Actors Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan explore depths far beyond Gabaldon’s Harlequin characterizations…an erotic and intensely romantic crowd-pleaser.
I’m amazed, humbled, and grateful that you’ve found Moss Island and read what comes out of my head. Thank you. Here’s to the year ahead, and a glance behind at my favorite things in 2015.
Wecker’s debut novel is set in New York City, 1899. She spins a yarn about a golem, a clay creature brought to life by a Hebrew mystic, and a jinni, a creature made of fire. Both supernatural creatures find themselves hiding among poor immigrants in turn-of-the-century New York, an ambience rendered affectionately by Wecker. The novel unspools like a fable, gradually accumulating moral force as Wecker’s plot threads gather together in a complex design.
Franzen is depressed about a culture that lives and dies by the memebite, but he’s not changing his approach. I think the problem is that he’s so perceptive about what people think, we read his books and assume he knows us. When his characters behave poorly, we take it personally – why would the author do that to us?
If Harper Lee didn’t want to publish this novel, and is now in a state where she can’t object, does the audience have a right to it?
Sure, Game of Thrones, we get it. Everybody dies. Maybe that chick is going to come back with her dragons and win the game. Maybe not. But here’s what you haven’t yet answered, and probably can’t: What does it matter?
Lee Siegel’s most recent book is called Are You Serious? How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly. I doubt any irony was intended when the New York Times published his essay Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans last Sunday. Those NOT asking “are you serious” can only be others who have or might want to default. Deeply silly, this guy.
1) State of the Island
2) Why College Should Not Be Free
3) Irish Marriage
4) Sarah and the Bullies
5) An Imaginary Conversation
6) Signal to Noise
7) The Girl on the Train
8) The Girl With All the Gifts
9) Green Eggs and Ham
10) Mothers
The Girl on the Train is selling like gangbusters, and has been optioned as a movie. It reads like a movie treatment already, without any joy of language. And it may yet become a good movie – I’d like to see three creative actresses develop these characters beyond what Hawkins could.
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