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This book was written with an impressive amount of collaboration, and superbly executed! These stories are all little windows into the world of Achten Tan that each give their own unique slice of an unfolding story. As you read, each contribution gives a different experience of what it's like to live in the shadow of the bones of a leviathan, ranging from comedy to adventure to poetry, from political assassinations to declarations of love to daily restaurant management. And make sure you read through the Appendices too; the description of Meaningful Dave and “Post-Structural Semiotics of Reconstructive Osseotopography” are a real hoot!
I am always dubious of books that have the word “TRUTH” in large letters on the cover (a tactic employed by people with strong opinions that may or may not be based in reality), but by the end of this book the author had convinced me that the “War on Cancer” needs some serious reform. Be warned, this is not a light read. In order to support his thesis, Leaf first endeavors to convince the reader that progress on this front is minimal at best and regressive at worst. There were times that I felt that his bleak opinion of the current state of cancer research may have been a little overblown, but at the same time he provides a powerful argument that we cannot begin to reduce the cancer burden until we improve upon the current system. The “and How to Win It” portion of the title also comes “in small doses”, so don't go in hoping this book has all the answers. It has many more questions than answers, but most importantly, it has a call to arms.
I received my copy of this book for free through the Goodreads First Reads program.
The parallel tales of Nemo Johnston and Jacob Thacker come together to tell a deeply troubling story of the past that is inextricably tied to the present. When renovations at South Carolina Medical College uncover a history of graverobbing, particularly of deceased slaves, the institute's heads must decide how to (or whether to) place these events in their school's public image. Alongside the bureaucracy and politicking of the present-era College is the more visceral story of the deplorable practices themselves, made all the more intriguing by the fact that the graverobber himself was a slave, walking the bizarre line between forced labor and learned surgeon.
I received my copy for free through the Goodreads First Reads program.
The Barkes family was happy – Martha, Clive, and their daughter Eliza didn't lead perfect lives, but they were content and secure – until a complicated figure from Clive and Martha's past, Miss Eliot Fox, returns unexpectedly to their lives. As the family is confronted with secrets long kept, they are forced to evaluate their lives and their priorities. Even young Eliza, who had never met Eliot until the story takes place, comes into her own as an individual. Martha and Clive both make a number of poor decisions in this book, and I often found myself disgusted with them, yet I enjoyed their tumultuous chronicle, hoping all the while that they could piece themselves back together.
I received a free copy of this book from the Goodreads First Reads program.
The first season of this series was over too soon! The art style is unique: a bit rough at times but that only adds to the power of the artist's style, especially in some of the darker scenes. I read this graphic novel because I liked the premise of a girl dealing with an unwanted connection to the spirit world. With only a few main characters, Penny's story is deep and personal. The devils and the Straw Man are each deliciously creepy in their own way (I hope to see more of them in season two), and the last few panels certainly have me hooked for the continuation!
I received a free digital copy from the author.
This is the first Agatha Christie novel I've read. I loved her stories in Masterpiece Mystery, but reading this book, I understand why she is the all-time-top-selling author! There is an equal balance of humor and intrigue, and her characters are all colorful both in personality and in their personal histories.
I don't generally seek out scary stories, but these were just the right balance of creepy for my tastes. There wasn't a lot of heart-pounding terror, but instead more of a general sense of unease – a slow realization that superstitions and the fears you never share aloud are there in the stories, insinuating themselves into the characters' lives. Part of what made the stories so fascinating to me was the familiarity of the characters' responses to realizing that their fears are justified.
I would highly recommend avoiding splitting any one story into multiple sittings. Stephen Graham Jones writes with a cadence that is as natural as a process of thoughts and the power of his endings draw heavily on the reader being in the mindset that has been built up over the previous pages. His stories flow best uninterrupted.
I received my copy of this book for free through the Goodreads First Reads program.
This book is composed of a variety of settings and different takes on the King in Yellow mythos, which I was familiar with before reading. If you haven't heard of the King in Yellow before reading this book, you would probably still enjoy the stories just as much and would likely piece together most of the commonly accepted aspects of the mythos based on what is common between the each story. There are a few nods to earlier works which are fun, but not essential to enjoying the stories.
Considering how different each story was in terms of setting, characters, and atmosphere, I found most of them appealing. They were all linked by The King in Yellow, but even with that similarity no two stories handled it in quite the same way. There is some poetry speckled in amongst the stories, which I enjoyed as a change of pace, but overall I didn't find the poems exceptional.
Moore's snarky hero Pocket inserts himself seamlessly into the most unsuspecting of famous tales – first in Fool, which (loosely) covers the plot of King Lear, and now in the Serpent of Venice, a hodgepodge of comedy, tragedy, and horror. The plots and characters of The Merchant of Venice and Othello come together to create new intrigues. With constantly snappy dialogue and just enough raunchy bits to be endearing rather than gratuitous, The Serpent of Venice is a fun read that can border on intellectual if you squint hard enough.
I have not read the original source material by Poe regarding the serpent, so at first it seemed a bit out of place for an otherwise magic-free story, but there's always a bloody ghost, so might as well throw in a mythical creature!
I put off reading this book for a number of years because I absolutely adore Douglas Adams, and I was terrified that this “sequel” would put an unsettling taste in my mouth. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but unfortunately I didn't feel that it lived up to Adams' works in plot or in prose. I can't fault Colfer for not being Douglas Adams, but I can refuse to accept this book as the canonical ending to the series that stole my heart.
Friends had told me before I read it that I would probably be disappointed, but I had to know for myself. If you're less bothered by the need to consume every piece of literature associated with Douglas Adams than I am, then you probably won't miss much if you don't read this book.
This is an absolutely charming book. A good chunk at the beginning is dedicated to describing practical jokes throughout Barnum's family history as a lead-in to his career as a showman. I often found myself chuckling at his phrasing, which I believe is more than a product of the time at which he was writing. If you are looking for an objective history/biography, Barnum's autobiography is certainly no source of hard facts, but the spin he puts on his stories is an interesting piece of the truth, and my favorite part of reading this book was constantly trying to imagine how his version of his life's story would line up with the experiences of his contemporaries.