In 2004, Anna Lyndsey’s face began to burn as she sat in front of her computer. Like the worst sunburn, like a hot torch. This was the beginning of sensitivity to light so severe that Lyndsey, found herself seeking comfort in a blackened room, dressed in thick garments from head to toe.
Book Reviews
The good, the bad, and the ugly about books I’ve recently read.
Lily King Writes Euphoria and Dread on the Kiona River
But so many of my favorite books are packaged as love stories, and are then actually full of mystery and intrigue, love more lost than found: Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin, Kate Walbert’s The Gardens of Kyoto. Euphoria falls into this second group, as this is less a book of romantic longing than one of human need and human obsession, in all their brilliance and ugliness.
Miranda July Introduces Us To The First Bad Man
In The First Bad Man, July is never afraid to be both funny and way too intimate, oddball and honest. She peers over the fences of social roles and gender norms, doing acrobatics atop the concrete walls we live in.
Jurassic Park, but with Chinese Dragons? Say What?
Matthew Reilly’s The Great Zoo of China is easy to explain. Think Jurassic Park, but instead of dinosaurs, there are big motherfucking dragons!
For Valentine’s Day: Books On Love, Hate, And Everything In Between
Because can you ever really know which emotion you’ll end up with?
John Scalzi’s Lock In Takes the ‘Artificial’ out of AI
In John Scalzi’s novel Lock In, the near-future brings a virus which leaves millions across the U.S. locked-in. Everyone has a child, mother, brother or sister stranded in a body that won’t work, while their mind is still fully active.
Take a Slow and Creaky Ride With Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train
Comparisons to Gone Girl are coming hot and heavy, but where Gone Girl is twisty, The Girl on the Train is slow and stabbing, with Rachel desperately flailing to find answers to her own lost time.
From Lifestyle Reporter to Something More Serious: Pete Crooks Dishes on Lying PIs and Dirty Cops in The Setup
Pete Crooks’ The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV is so bizarre at every twist and turn it could only be true. The players’ motives here are petty, the suspects’ behaviors inexplicable, Dr. Phil enters the story twice, becoming first excited, then disappointed. The Setup is, in other words, an incredibly human tale.
We’re Living In The Perfect Climate For An Arctic Thriller
From melting Arctic ice opening up new shipping lanes, to conflict over the newfound resources, to viruses reanimating after thaw, White Plague places protagonist Joe Rush in the midst of an area primed for conflict.
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