Guus Kuijer – Katie McCandless

The Circle by Dave Eggers tells the improbable story of Mae Holland, a horror-movie victim trapped in a techno-thriller.

liberal arts education fails Mae Holland – book reviews for the week

KatieAugust 12, 2016August 31, 2016

Just finished The Circle by Dave Eggers As a parable cautioning against the perils of privacy loss in the digital age, The Circle fails miserably. I’m inclined to be generous to Eggers, though, and if you set aside the notion that he has anything prescient or insightful to say about big data, sharing, or online privacy (he […]

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck tells the story of the Joad family as they try to make a new life for themselves out west during the Dust Bowl

embracing and avoiding books by white guys – book reviews for the week

KatieAugust 1, 2016

Just finished The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck It feels a little silly to attempt to say anything at all about such a classic piece of literature. I’m happy to report that I really enjoyed reading it, and I’m glad I hung onto it all these years after 11th grade English. The dialogue is written dialectally, […]

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen tells the story of a communist sleeper agent after the Vietnam War

revolutionary allegories to wash out the aftertaste of misogyny – book reviews for the week

KatieJuly 18, 2016

Just finished This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper I’m not sure how to talk objectively about this misogynistic piece of garbage without revealing my bias. Whoops. See? There I go already. It’s like a Mad Libs Frankenstein monster of every book you’ve ever read by a white guy before 2010. Dad didn’t say much growing […]

The Bricks that Built the Houses is written by British poet and rapper Kate Tempest

women in books, bit of a mixed bag – book reviews for the week

KatieJuly 8, 2016July 7, 2016

Just finished Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood Grace Marks was a real person, a maid convicted of the murder of her employer, Thomas Kinnear, in 1843. She was originally sentenced to death but ended up in an insane asylum, briefly, before spending 30 years in prison and eventually being pardoned. When I was reading this book last […]

Augustus is a historical fiction novel written in epistolary form by John Williams, telling the story of Rome's first emperor

off-brand classics – book reviews for the week

KatieJuly 1, 2016July 4, 2016

Just finished Augustus by John Williams Book club selection this month was an unlikely choice. I’m grateful for the diversion off our typical, contemporary path because I definitely would never have picked up this book otherwise. My knowledge of Roman history is spotty at best (largely informed by Shakespeare), so I didn’t know the story or […]

Greg Hrbek's searing and tense novel about fear, big and small. Not on Fire, But Burning

More books about time travel – is the universe trying to tell me something? Book reviews for the week

KatieJune 17, 2016June 17, 2016

Just finished Not on Fire, but Burning by Greg Hrbek This is a powerful and intense book that manages to tackle a lot of Important Topics without becoming overloaded or unfocused. The way that Hrbek initially unsettles you and then manages to stretch the tension out through the book was incredibly skillful. I was in the […]