reading notes

by Saul Bellow
ISBN: 03804271333
Written in 1958, this novel is the tale of an eccentric millionaire’s misadventures in Africa. Henderson is a larger than life type of figure; he is bold, self-obsessed, boozy. Really, he is more of an alcoholic than an eccentric.
Impetuous, vain, and unable to fully think through the possible consequences of his actions, [...]

by Etgar Keret
ISBN: 0312261888
translated by the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
This is a collection of very short, very odd stories and one strange novella.
Keret is apparently hailed the the hip young writer in Israel; he is also a lecturer in film at Tel Aviv University; and the comic collective Actus Tragicus has turned [...]

by Christian Bauman
ISBN: 0743227840
This first novel is the story of Jones: a directionless young man, a husband and father, who joins the Army during the Gulf War, and winds up serving in Somalia. Something happened there, something Jones doesn’t know how to handle. In a larger way, it is a book about young people not [...]

by Shaun Tan
ISBN: 0968876838
Words like “beautiful” and “haunting” get thrown around all the time when people talk about images, talk about stories they aren’t sure how to talk about. And what do they mean?
For this book, “beautiful” means paintings and collages that are intricate, surprising, imaginative, and make me want to keep looking at them, [...]

by James Kochalka
ISBN: 1891830333
This is a reprint of Kochalka’s first graphic novel, and the ending is different this time around. Not having seen the first version from 1995, I can’t compare the two, but I can say I think this one works.
The format is different from his more recent books; this is digest-sized instead of [...]

by Fred Johnston

by Lemony Snicket
ISBN: 0064407675
As expected, this book bring more woe to the Baudelaire children. This time around they are sent to live with eccentric herpetologist Montgomery Montgomery.
Sunny actually says a few words, bonds with the Incredibly Deadly Viper, and of course bites things. Violet invents; Klaus reads. Mr. Poe is getting to be beyond irritating [...]

by Salman Rushdie
ISBN: 0679757899
This collection of nine stories was my introduction to Rushie’s work. He is one of those author’s I’ve always meant to read, but somehow never got around to his books. I started with this one for two reasons: I’ve been on a short story kick lately, and it was already in the [...]

by Lemony Snickett
ISBN: 0064407667
I’m not sure what is says about me that I enjoyed reading a book that is all about wretched, horrible things happening to three children.
It is funny. Okay, so the Baudelaires are orphaned early on. They have to wear hideous clothes and perform ridiculously difficult chores. And a creepy old man — [...]