The 'Jean Thompson' Tag Archive

Below you'll find all my writing tagged with the word Jean Thompson. The posts are listed in chronological order. Click the post title to read more.

July 27th, 2010

My favorite books of the past 10 years

So yeah, I Will Dare is going to be 10 on Saturday. To mark this momentous occasion I’m going to be making random Top 10 lists that may or may not have anything to do with the past 10 years. Today’s list, Favorite Books. It’s a little known fact that I’ve been keeping a list [...]

October 2nd, 2009

The Hold Steady Effect

When I first discovered The Hold Steady it was love at first listen. They were like nothing I’d ever heard before. I fell hard and fast and there was no looking back. But, sadly, as is often the case of for fickle young girls, the love grew tired. As The Hold Steady and I fell [...]

August 24th, 2009

Retraction: I don’t have a cold & other shocking revelations

I don’t have a cold. It was, apparently, a false alarm. Whatever I’m allergic to that blooms/blows around in August is the kind of thing that makes my glands swell up and makes it hard to swallow. Then the next day it settles into my brain cavity and makes me sneeze. I know, I know, [...]

September 6th, 2008

Something like prayer but that wouldn’t embarrass anyone

Jean Thompson’s short stories are so beautiful that it frustrates me that she’s not more revered. At least she’s not revered in the short-story centric circles I run in. It’s a damn, damn shame. I first heard of Thompson from, of all people, David Sedaris. He mentioned how much he loved her work at a [...]

January 1st, 2008

Wrapped up in books 2007, Part I

One of the resolutions I made last night was to read more books and watch less TV. I only managed to read a paltry 47 books last year. Pathetic. So this year I’m giving myself what I call the Largehearted Boy Reading Challenge, 52 books in 52 weeks. Go me! Before I start my challenge [...]

August 28th, 2007

Tired of waiting for the point

Months ago, or maybe even years, the Vodo and I had a conversation about books. It went something like this: Vodo: I only read short stories. Me: WHAT? Vodo: It’s what I write. I just feel like each one has so much I can learn from. Me: You’re a whack-job loony, novels are the bomb. [...]

July 11th, 2007

The girl you come to when you wanted to wreck things

Earlier this week, I was chatting with my FFJ about how surprised and impressed I was by Jean Thompson’s short story collection Throw Like a Girl. FFJ was amazed that after all the reading I’ve done that I can still be surprised and impressed with a book, especially when you consider the amount of bullshit [...]

June 27th, 2007

A few of my favorite things: a crush list for early summer

Bananas, the fruit. I can’t get enough of them and whenever I eat them I think of the main character in The Hotel New Hampshire whose name I cannot remember who eats bananas and runs all the damn time because he wants to be a good wrestler. He does this because the grandpa tells him [...]