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jodiwilldare's reviews
1523 reviews
Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You about Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights by Robert Schnakenberg
4.0
Secret Lives of Great Authors is the kind of book that you should read in the company of others. It’s filled with odd bits of trivia that you want to share with someone the instant you read them, and without sharing the trivia seems to fly right out of your head.
I was going to come here and write all kinds of witty little things about all the secrets that I learned while reading the book and it seems that I have forgotten a lot of them. The overall impression that I got from this book is that writers drink a lot and have a lot of sex. Here are a few of the other things I remember:
Read the rest on iwilldare.com
I was going to come here and write all kinds of witty little things about all the secrets that I learned while reading the book and it seems that I have forgotten a lot of them. The overall impression that I got from this book is that writers drink a lot and have a lot of sex. Here are a few of the other things I remember:
Read the rest on iwilldare.com
The Night of the Gun by David Carr
4.0
Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat, because some of you won’t make it to the end of this piece. David Carr’s memoir The Night of the Gun is really good. It’s dramatic, spell-binding, engaging, encouraging, and all sorts of good stuff you look for in a book. In fact the memoir is so good I often forgot it was non-fiction and had to remind myself that David Carr was a real man in the world and not some repugnant creature from a writer’s imagination.
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Who Do You Love: Stories by Jean Thompson
4.0
Jean Thompson’s short stories are so beautiful that it frustrates me that she’s not more revered. At least she’s not revered in the short-story centric circles I run in. It’s a damn, damn shame.
I first heard of Thompson from, of all people, David Sedaris. He mentioned how much he loved her work at a reading he did in Duluth. But it wasn’t until I read her Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay that I really paid attention. Glory be! Her collection Throw Like a Girl was one of my favorite books last year.
Read the rest on I Will Dare
I first heard of Thompson from, of all people, David Sedaris. He mentioned how much he loved her work at a reading he did in Duluth. But it wasn’t until I read her Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay that I really paid attention. Glory be! Her collection Throw Like a Girl was one of my favorite books last year.
Read the rest on I Will Dare
Dear Everybody: A Novel Written in the Form of Letters, Diary Entries, Encyclopedia Entries, Conversations with Various People, Notes by Michael Kimball
4.0
Dear Authors,
Listen to me. If you were smart you would write interesting Largehearted Boy Book Notes essays about your book and include good music. I cannot count how many books I have read because of the author’s Book Notes essay. Wait. I will count a few just so you know how many I’m talking about: Sabotage Cafe, Personal Days, The Monsters of Templeton, Throw Like a Girl (and there are eight others on my shelf that I bought but haven’t gotten around to reading yet).
Read the rest of the review on I Will Dare
Listen to me. If you were smart you would write interesting Largehearted Boy Book Notes essays about your book and include good music. I cannot count how many books I have read because of the author’s Book Notes essay. Wait. I will count a few just so you know how many I’m talking about: Sabotage Cafe, Personal Days, The Monsters of Templeton, Throw Like a Girl (and there are eight others on my shelf that I bought but haven’t gotten around to reading yet).
Read the rest of the review on I Will Dare
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
4.0
I feel a little bad about What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn. Here O’Flynn wrote this great novel and I had to go wreck it all by reading Elizabeth McCracken’s memoir and having my mind blown. Now all I want to do is talk about the McCracken book only I can’t yet find the words.
In my (slim) defense, the less you know about O’Flynn’s book the better. There’s a mystery at the heart of this novel and talking about it too much would give it away and I don’t want to wreck it for anyone.
Read the rest of the review on I Will Dare.
In my (slim) defense, the less you know about O’Flynn’s book the better. There’s a mystery at the heart of this novel and talking about it too much would give it away and I don’t want to wreck it for anyone.
Read the rest of the review on I Will Dare.
Indignation by Philip Roth
4.0
Forgive me Philip Roth, for I have sinned. First of all, I’m confessing as though I was that kind of Catholic and according to that weird guy at Barnes & Noble you’re an atheist. So I guess that’s kind of weird.
Anyway, Mr. Roth, my sin is that of doubt. I doubted you. Oh you of twenty-nine books and the admiration of Charles D’Ambrosio, Jonathan Lethem, and Nathan Englander. Yes, I picked up Indignation with doubt in my heart. And that doubt, it did persist.
Read the rest of the review on I Will Dare.
Anyway, Mr. Roth, my sin is that of doubt. I doubted you. Oh you of twenty-nine books and the admiration of Charles D’Ambrosio, Jonathan Lethem, and Nathan Englander. Yes, I picked up Indignation with doubt in my heart. And that doubt, it did persist.
Read the rest of the review on I Will Dare.
Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer
3.0
As someone who spends most of her time reading (and writing) literary fiction, I have a hard time writing about graphic novels. I am unsure of what metrics to use to measure their success or failure, and spend a lot of time trying to determine what those might. Just when I get myself worked up into a nice confused tizzy, I kick myself in the ass and go back to the most basic question we should ask of any piece of art we’re trying to talk about, does it work?
Identity Crisis, a graphic novel written by Brad Melzer and illustrated by Rags Morales, works. Going into the book I was a little leery. My friend Wolfdogg had loaned it to me, and he has the distinction of being the person who has suggested some of the shittiest books I’ve ever read.
But when it comes to graphic novels I’ve learned that he can be trusted. He has yet to steer me wrong.
Read the rest of the review on MN Reads
Identity Crisis, a graphic novel written by Brad Melzer and illustrated by Rags Morales, works. Going into the book I was a little leery. My friend Wolfdogg had loaned it to me, and he has the distinction of being the person who has suggested some of the shittiest books I’ve ever read.
But when it comes to graphic novels I’ve learned that he can be trusted. He has yet to steer me wrong.
Read the rest of the review on MN Reads
The Theory of Light and Matter: Stories by Andrew Porter
4.0
I read Andrew Porter’s Flannery O’Connor award-winning collection The Theory of Light & Matter over a month ago and I thought I didn’t like it. I was wrong. Today, I fished the book out from the pile that surrounds my bed because I was determined to write about it.
As I flipped through the pages reading paragraphs from various stories I found myself thinking, “oh I really liked this one,” “this one is my favorite.” It was right about then I realized that I really only disliked one story and was sort of on the fence about a few others. But the beauty of stories like “Merkin,” “River Dog,” and “Skin” should have more that made up for any of the others. I am a fickle reader and what I remember most is disliking the story “Theory of Light and Matter” and therefore dismissing the rest out of pocket.
Bad reader! Shame on me.
Read the rest of the review on MN Reads
As I flipped through the pages reading paragraphs from various stories I found myself thinking, “oh I really liked this one,” “this one is my favorite.” It was right about then I realized that I really only disliked one story and was sort of on the fence about a few others. But the beauty of stories like “Merkin,” “River Dog,” and “Skin” should have more that made up for any of the others. I am a fickle reader and what I remember most is disliking the story “Theory of Light and Matter” and therefore dismissing the rest out of pocket.
Bad reader! Shame on me.
Read the rest of the review on MN Reads