As someone who spends most of her time reading (and writing) literary fiction, I have a hard time writing about graphic novels. I am unsure of what metrics to use to measure their success or failure, and spend a lot of time trying to determine what those might. Just when I get myself worked up [...]
Posts Tagged: 52 Books in 2008
4
Jan 09
All About Lulu
All About Lulu is so good that I am willing to forgive its author, Jonathan Evison, for being a little coy with the reader. This is saying a lot. Next to adverbs and Chuck Klosterman, coyness is my biggest literary pet peeve. But what Lulu lacks in upfrontness she sure makes up for in humor, [...]
21
Dec 08
The 10 Best Books I read in 2008
1. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken:This was the best book I read all year. No hemming, no hawing, no second guessing — the best. McCracken’s memoir about giving birth to a stillborn child and all that follows is heartbreaking, darkly funny, and something everyone on the planet should [...]
14
Dec 08
The 7 worst books I read in 2008 reviewed in 10 words or less
Today Largehearted Boy keeps peppering his Twitter with links to newspapers publishing their best books of 2008 lists. I am making my own list and currently checking it twice. However, while making the list I noticed that I read a lot of shitty, shitty books this year.
Because I always want to help the gentle [...]
29
Nov 08
The Gargoyle makes me sound like a stoner
Andrew Davidson’s debut novel The Gargoyle, is the kind of book that gives me nextbookaphobia.
This is a condition marked by great fear of starting a new book because there is no way that it can possibly live up to the last book you read, because that last book was really fucking good. I’ve experienced this [...]
15
Nov 08
Just because it’s got vampires doesn’t mean it’s not sexist bullshit
Read Christa’s review
Yowza! I was surprised by the rage Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight brought out of me. This was one of the most sexist novels I can ever remember reading, and I grew up on a steady diet of Sweet Valley High and VC Andrews.
This poorly-written dreck made me so annoyed and angry that I have [...]
8
Nov 08
The Wordy Shipmates
I often like to call Sarah Vowell the Gen X Doris Kearns Goodwin or Stephen Ambrose. She’s a historian for our time, and unlike the Goodwin and Ambrose books I had to study in college, Vowell generally writes really witty and engaging books about our country.
Vowell is insightful and skeptical and above all else, [...]
1
Nov 08
The best book I’ve read all year
I’ve been trying to write about Elizabeth McCracken’s memoir An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination for three weeks. I’ve read it twice and I’m still having a hard time finding the words. I do want to make this statement: This is unequivocally the best book I’ve read so far this year. This [...]
31
Oct 08
Confessions to Philip Roth
Forgive me Philip Roth, for I have sinned. First of all, I’m confessing as though I was that kind of Catholic and according to that weird guy at Barnes & Noble you’re an atheist. So I guess that’s kind of weird.
Anyway, Mr. Roth, my sin is that of doubt. I doubted you. Oh you of [...]
24
Oct 08
Dear Everybody
Dear Authors,
Listen to me. If you were smart you would write interesting Largehearted Boy Book Notes essays about your book and include good music. I cannot count how many books I have read because of the author’s Book Notes essay. Wait. I will count a few just so you know how many I’m talking [...]
18
Oct 08
What was lost
I feel a little bad about What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn. Here O’Flynn wrote this great novel and I had to go wreck it all by reading Elizabeth McCracken’s memoir and having my mind blown. Now all I want to do is talk about the McCracken book only I can’t yet find the words.
In [...]
11
Oct 08
The Alcoholic
The best thing about Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel’s graphic novel The Alcoholic is it engages you fast and reads quickly. This way, by the time you get to the truly disappointing ending you’ve only invested about an hour of your time.
I picked up The Alcoholic because I thought it was a graphic memoir. [...]
26
Sep 08
When you are engulfed with an overwhelming sense of apathy
I was a late comer to the David Sedaris party. While everyone I knew was going on and on about how funny he was, I was busy reading dark and depressing, serious “literature” or, you know, liner notes of CDs. But long about 2004 (September 06, 2004 to be exact), I picked up Naked [...]
22
Sep 08
Trying to save you from the vapidness of Downtown Owl
In a Pop Matters interview Chuck Klosterman says, “It was harder to write fiction, but maybe that was only because I’d never done it before. I can’t remember if writing Fargo Rock City was hard or easy.”
The fact that he’s never written fiction before is painfully, achingly, stupefyingly, annoyingly obvious. First, there is the problem [...]
20
Sep 08
Personal Days lacks the personal
If you’ve had the “pleasure” of reading Joshua Ferris’ novel Then We Came to the End you can probably skip Ed Park’s Personal Days. The two books are so similar in tone and plot (right down to each book having a character writing a story about the office they work in) that you would think [...]
