reading notes

by KayLynn Deveney
ISBN: 1568987048
As a grad student studying photography, Deveney moved into the neighborhood where Albert Hastings lived. She struck up a friendship with the elderly man, and this book is the result of their collaboration.
It’s a story with multiple points of view: there are Deveney’s photographs, Albert’s hand-written captions and drawings, and [...]

by Amy Hempel
ISBN: 0743291638
All four of Hempel’s books (Reasons to Live, At the Gates of the Animal Kingdon, Tumble Home, and The Dog of the Marriage) are contained in this this volume. Reading it all at once is a feast. It’s gluttony, really, but you probably won’t be able to help yourself either. It’s also [...]

by Margaret Atwood
ISBN: 1400097010
I’ll start with a confession: I haven’t read Margaret Atwood before. It seems to me I should have; people have been telling me for years she’s smart and I’d like her. The Handmaid’s Tale was everywhere for so long that it became one of those books everyone read, so it’s probably willful [...]

by Shaun Tan
ISBN: 0439895294
The more Shaun Tan books I read, the harder it gets to write the reviews. I don’t want to repeat myself, but things I’ve said before could apply equally to this book:

One of Tan’s gifts is his ability to create an understanding of potentially difficult topics that are generally thought of as [...]

by Douglas Coupland
ISBN: 0671874349
For me, reading Life after God is like wearing a favorite old sweatshirt. It’s not the nicest thing I have but I love it. Every so often I need to spend time blowing off whatever I’m supposed to be doing, pull my comfy sweatshirt on, and take a break — so I [...]