reading notes

by Douglas Bauer
ISBN: 0805060022
This book made me think of what I thought grown-up novels were supposed to be like when I was a kid too little to read them: pages and pages of meandering story, kind of boring because there aren’t many suprises and nothing much happens. Which is to say, this book wasn’t as [...]

by Brady Udall
ISBN: 0375719180
I loved this book.
As one might guess from the title, Edgar Mint’s story is an unlikely one, but it is one that sucked me in, one that I totally believed in. The novel starts with the story of the event from which all others in some way trace their way back toward: [...]

by Matt Kindt and Jason Hall
ISBN: 1891830236
This is one clever book.
An oversized rectangle, the book itself is designed to look like an old-fashioned radio, and that is where much of the stories’ action takes place: on a radio show. Pages between story segments even include typed-up coffee-stained bits of script.
Kindt and Hall are going for [...]

by James Kochalka
ISBN: 1891867180
This is the most recent of Kochalka’s graphic novels. Many of his familiar characters are represented (Magic Boy, Amy, and Jason X-12, among others) and of course there is a robot. He has honed his ability to introduce what anywhere else would be unbelievable absurd elements like public time machines in place [...]

by Jane Hamilton
ISBN: 0385720467
I suppose it is possible that I would have liked this novel better if Jane Hamilton hadn’t written it. I liked Book of Ruth and A Map of the World, so I had expectations for this book — expectations that weren’t met.
The setup was interesting enough. Seventeen year old Henry discovers his [...]

by Alice Sebold
ISBN: 0316666343
This is one of those books that there has been a lot of buzz about. I was intrigued enough to put it on my wishlist, and got it for Christmas.
The novel opens with the main character, barely teenaged Susie Salmon, in heaven. Not figuratively, but literally in heaven: she was raped and [...]

by Charles Baxter
ISBN: 1555972705
This is the sort of book that makes you want to go out and do one of two things after you read it: if you are at all inclined, it will make you think about your own fiction writing and pick up a pen or go sit at the keyboard, and if [...]