Category > Books

Look Up

I know I’m a little behind on this one, since it came out in the summer of 2009 (and subsequently went on to win the National Book Award for that year), but I finally got my hands on Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.  And I’m certainly glad I did.  This is not […]

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Coming of Age

I return from my break revitalized and full of literary wiles.  And said wiles implore me to advocate a book by newly minted novelist Erik Raschke, The Book of Samuel.  This novel is wholly relatable in that it hearkens to a lot of the fundamental truths of what it is to be an adolescent, from […]

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New Jersey Bard

Today, I just wanted to write a little something about poetry.  By no means am I an expert on the topic (or even a passable amateur).  But if poetry is good and effective, it sticks with you and rears its head through all the embarrassing moments and regrets, and through all the humor and joy; […]

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Simple Means

Two years ago, on a balmy summer day, I wistfully meandered around The Coop bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  I was in town visiting my good friend Tyler (whose blog I have to advocate as essential reading if you’re into the philosophy of religion and cultural criticism) and, as always, I was also looking for something […]

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Halloween and Hardware

With this week’s post, I won’t be writing about a single book in particular, but rather about an author.  And that author is none other than the brilliant Kurt Vonnegut, who died (to my, and likely his, chagrin) over two years ago.  Vonnegut has been on my mind for about a week or so, ever […]

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If Death Ever Had a Voice

Last week, three people on three separate occasions told me that I absolutely must read Juan Rulfo, especially if I loved Gabriel García Márquez (which I do).  I took these recommendations and stored them in one of the tertiary parts of my brain for a later date; one not so fraught with midterms and other […]

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Proustian Solutions

If you’re anything like me (i.e. deeply insane), you’ve probably tried to read Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu in its entirety a dozen times or more.  Because honestly:  who doesn’t long to spend months painstakingly reading a seven-volume work of French modernist literature for no reason other than having the satisfaction of […]

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Even More Darkness

Perhaps due to the relative closeness of Halloween, I’ve been writing about a lot of dark books lately.  And this week is no different (I promise, I’ll try to stop soon).  For today’s post, I wanted to write about a book I stumbled across when I was in junior high that has managed to stick […]

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A thoughtful Nation

This review is a little after the fact, but every new Pratchett book needs eventual attention. And this new book, Nation, is fantastic.   It doesn’t have a giant turtle, or any elephants, and there are no witches and dwarves, but it does have its own creation myth, giant tidal waves, spirits, dolphins, and tree-climbing […]

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Longing & Poetry

Thus far, I’ve only really written about prose on Unwind.  However, with this post, I’m going to dive into a bit of poetry.  On a whim, I picked up Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing in a bookstore based on my enjoyment of his music.  I’ve always had a sort of strange, intrinsic attraction to Cohen’s […]

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