Category Archives: Books
George Saunders Explains How to Tell a Good Story – The Atlantic
For George Saunders, “crafting a good story means not condescending to your reader. It means creating sentences that clue them into something unnoticed about the character, and allowing them to figure it out.”
Cleaning up my bookshelves the other day I came across George Saunders’ absurd, humorous and terrifying short novel, “The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil”
(This is the exact same scenario that led me to “The End of the Alphabet”
Anyway, I stumbled back upon George and Phil and this thin, yet eye-catching book. In fact, I am between books right now, I may need to stumble upon it again today….
In the meantime, you should check out George Saunders Explaining How to Tell a Good Story from The Atlantic.
A Vintage Cover and a Fresh Approach | Reading Chris Holm’s “Dead Harvest”
So how did picking a book by its cover work out for me? I’d say pretty well.
The last twenty pages of “Dead Harvest” totally makes this book. The first hundred are great too. The ones in-between? Well, they’re decent. They keep you going, I’ll give you that.
Those pages keep Sam and Kate stumbling, running, and trying to figure things out, stealing bodies, stealing cars, stealing—sorry, hijacking—helicopters all while dodging demons, angels and the majority of the New York City police department. While some of it seems unnecessary or excessive (the helicopter), I never hit the point I wanted to put it down, probably due to the back-story of Sam Thornton, the Collector, as we find out a little more, not only his own back-story rooted in the 1940s and why he’s damned to an eternity of collecting souls, but also on the mythology that runs throughout the story of demons, angels, and possession.
It’s Sam’s personal back-story and the relationship between man, demon and angel that all comes together at the end, in those last few pages, and adds a little twist to a story that was starting to feel a little sluggish. Could this book have stood to lose a few pages? Maybe a hundred? Sure.
Am I going to continue reading Chris Holm’s ‘the Collector’ series
? Absolutely. And not just because of the covers.
Follow me on Goodreads for more reviews and to see what else I’m reading….
The Adventures of the Actionary | Reading ‘the Damned Busters’
There’s something addicting about this book… even while there’s something not good about it.
I realize how that sounds, but I don’t know any other way to say it. I’ve been struggling with this feeling the entire book. The story is decent and clever, with a humorous style that channels Douglas Adams without truly capturing the absurdity that perfectly captured the essence life itself that Adams seemed to effortlessly put down upon the page throughout the Hitchhiker’s Guide series
Perhaps just as Chesney is lost within the world of his comic book idol, Malc Turner aka The Driver, his adventures as the Actionary and the events of the book from the moment he summons a demon on, are intended to emulate that comic book atmosphere with characters that are almost bland in their cartoonish, stereotype roles.
When he smashed his finger with the hammer, did drawing blood cause him to summon a demon, or pass out and dream all of this? Chesney does seem like someone who might faint at the sight of blood.
Good thing “The Damned Busters” is just addictive enough and ends on a cliffhanger that I can’t help but be interested in the second of the trilogy, “Costume Not Included”
Gas Station Burrito 