In the Distance is an interesting novel. And I say that, recognizing that I tell students never to call anything “interesting” (you can usually find a better descriptor). It’s by Hernan Diaz, and is the story a young boy named Hakan. He leaves his native Sweden for New York, is accidentally separated from his brother, …
Continue reading Hernan Diaz’s In the Distance = Frankenstein
“Slipstream” is a genre of fiction. Or it isn’t—that seems to be the big debate. I’ve been sending fiction to get published for the last year or so, and “slipstream” is a term that keeps coming up, alongside “cyberpunk,” “dystopia,” “military scifi,” “science-fantasy,” “weird fiction,” and all the other subgenres of science fiction or speculative …
Continue reading “Feeling Very Strange” — the Anthology I’m Reading, NOT my Current State of Mind
Frank Herbert’s Dune is often #1 on various “best” scifi novel lists. If you aren’t familiar with the text, you’re certainly going to be hearing a lot more about it soon: Dennis Villeneuve is adapting it into a two-part film, and he’s the guy who made the most recent Blade Runner, as well as Arrival, …
Continue reading What The Road to Dune has to do with Martin Scorsese… and Alfred Hitchcock
Earlier this year I went to a used book sale. Featured here is my small haul. Have I read any of them yet? No. Do I plan on reading them? Definitely. The goal: to get it done between now and the end of the year (we’ll see if it happens!). So as you might might …
Recently I read Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. It was the pick for the book club Leah and I are members (once we had a Shakespeare party). But this novel—Lincoln in the Bardo is one of the best things I’ve EVER read, and it is very deserving of winning the Man Booker Prize …
Continue reading The Best Book I’ve Read in 2018: Lincoln in the Bardo
So a follow up on teaching The Stranger by Albert Camus: what a success! Which initially surprised me, since I thought this would be a “we-need-to-read-this-novel-because-its-important-so-power-through-it” kind of text. Unfortunately, in high school this situation comes up every now and then. For younger students, it’s often with Shakespeare. Last year, it was with Washington Irving …
Continue reading Reading and Teaching The Stranger (Deuxième Partie) (Part Two!)
In my senior literature class we’re finishing up The Stranger, by Albert Camus. Believe it or not, but before this summer I’d never read the novel (there’s a lot of literature out there!). And I am absolutely loving it. Our copy was translated by Matthew Ward, which is a point worth noting—Camus wrote in French, …
Continue reading On Translating and Reading Camus’s The Stranger
Summer has hit, and though I’d like to say I’ve spent the last three weeks doing nothing but reading, instead it’s been a lot of cooking, cleaning, and errand running. Still, I have had time to go to the used book store, and I recently picked up Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker. …
Continue reading Finding and Reading the Original Star Wars Novelization
The other day Leah and I went to McKay’s, a used bookstore here in Greensboro. I love used books, because I love reading and I love bargains. And I love used bookstores, because I love reading, I love bargains, and I love trying to add to my Stephen King book collection. King, if you didn’t …
I’ve only read two graphic novels in my life. The second one was Persepolis, which I finished last week. It’s by Marjane Satrapi, and it’ll be part of my teaching curriculum next year. I wanted to write about it first because Satrapi has an interesting take on graphic novels. There’s some argument, I guess, regarding whether …
BATCH & NARRATIVE 