The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

Funny, smart, quick, and somehow realistic, The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson is a great book. It follows the Fang family, the parents, Camille and Caleb, obsessed with including their children in their post modern art - namely, creating public chaos. The children become actors, props, anything but normally loved children. I read an interview by Wilson in the Book Pages that talked about his use of dark humor and shifting of light and darkness. It was a very good interview and it persuaded me to read the book, which if you couldn't tell, was a very good book. It's a little reminiscent of Geek Love but the kids are just mentally demented, not physically.

5/5

Under the Harrow by Mark Dunn

I probably won't finish this book even though it's an English Major's wet dream.
A society trapped from the outside world, stuck in the world of Charles Dickens, with only his compendium, a 19th century encyclopedia, and a bible to guide them.

Damn is it boring.

But so intriguing.

If only it weren't so boring......


I may give it the old college try one last time.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

This is my pile of books-to-read. But guess what. I didn't want to read any of them. So I biked down to my local library and picked up one of the last few Gaiman's I haven't read and boy, was that a good idea.



Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
5/5
Characters always ended up where they needed to be, perfect blend of modern and ancient myth, reality and fantasy, struggle and humor.

Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster

Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster is the third Paul Auster book I have read. The strange thing about Auster's work is that I wouldn't recognize it. Each novel is a world of it's own with characters unlike the others. That's talent.

Anyway, Mr. Vertigo was wonderful, it truly was. It was about a snot-nosed blabber mouth kid in St. Louis in the 1920s who meets a mysterious man. This mysterious man adopts him and actually teaches him to first levitate, and later fly. It was simply a joy to read.

So why did I give it 3/5? Because the kid stopped flying after the first part of the book- about 1/3 of the way through. And the story basically fell apart. And then it got worse. Like way worse. Like if the book had started that way I would have thrown it away. I think it was based on Auster's desire to tell the whole life story of the kid, all the way until his death but that was a mistake.

3/5

Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

5/5

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