“the sauce is up, sport.”

that’s right: the fellowship of the ring, parts I & II; the two towers, parts I & II; and the return of the king, parts I & II. I even liked all the endings. what a week of making up for lost time. 

what a charming romp! and much less malevolent than the epic that follows it. in fact, it feels so chubby and animated that I’m curious to see how these movies go. 

yes, again. I didn’t quite catch it the first time. 

such a good companion piece to 11/22/63 though my lee harvey oswalds are getting tangled up. 

a darling meander through albert camus’s life and works through the very self-aware lens of our young ingenue narrator. the rose glasses were a little much in places but the emotion was so sincere that I didn’t mind. 

the setup is good and so is the punchline. super good. as page-turning a page-turner as any of his other books, and I’m especially impressed that he managed to keep the gore and the cell phones out of the action. 

I have a hard time with novels so descriptive as this one. I love the words but I lose the plot over and over again. the second time around, when I have a sense of how the action will proceed, I become enchanted with the relationship between plot and language. I’ll have to give this one another whirl before it reaches its full potential but I already love it. 

a delightful romp through the metropolitan museum of art with two charming and clever children told by an unusual and rather effective narrator. it’s a lovely little book for those interested in falling in love with cities, and people, and art. I’m on a real awe kick these days, and this book is perfect for encouraging that. 

I’d never read the sequel before, and I’m so very glad I did. mrs. elaine l. konigsberg offered it in her acceptance speech for the newbery (jamie: “what kind of berry is that? I never heard of a one-R-berry.”). I urge you to find it on the internet if you’ve read the first and haven’t run into it. and if you’ve not yet read the first then get cracking. 

an exquisite companion piece to the drowned and the saved, this novel leads us through the end of the war and the subsequent days with a band of partisans who reveal to us the different ways one comes to be a partisan, the conflicts that carry over from the more typical parts of the war into this one, and the confirmation that we are both drowned and saved. 

gripping; relentless. in the same universe of considerations coetzee later puts forth, but without the temper of age, they come forth raw and unbridled. and the echoes of early lessing are so strong that she might justifiably be listed as a co-author. 

ramona’s just about finished self-actualizing, with the help of a baby sister and a new best friend. but unfortunately for the reader, she’s running low on conflicts. 

a quick read, and a good one, about the first and most important part of becoming part of our army. not unlike part i of the short-timers or full metal jacket. 

okay, I obviously did not read this book in italian. but, while I understand that this translator is an award-winning translator, it’s impossible to read this book and not feel suspicious about translation. on this, the second time around this book for me, I found it even more insightful and compelling. levi gives us compassion without sacrificing rigor, and warmth without sacrificing reason. what a treasure. 

neat subject, but GET OUT OF THE WAY, BIOGRAPHER, you’re ruining the whole enterprise with your “creative” writing.