- A Little Sincerity is a Dangerous Thing
Wandering Home, by Bill McKibben
"I cried when I read [a section of this book], and I choke up now as I [quote from] it. The question is: why?"
- Big Brother's Notes on Craft for Young Writers
1984, by George Orwell
"There is a positive lesson for fiction writers hidden in the consciousness-purging nature of Newspeak."
- Four Pounds Away
From Being Stunningly Gorgeous
Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delaney
"The question is whether [a] self-reflective paragraph enhances a reader's experience of the text or deflates it."
- The Other Other Thing
A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
"There are passages in this book that'll do nothing less than blow your mind. You'll think in ways you've never imagined, and thinking that way will give you a whole new perspective on the world."
- A Good Smucking Book
Lisey's Story, by Stephen King
"More than anything, this is the story of a long, love-filled marriage. And while it has blood and gore, what it has most is heart."
- No Genius Here
Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Minds, by Harold Bloom
"It seems to come down to this: Shakespeare is the pre-eminent genius, the Godhead that contains all genius, and the other 99 writers are mere aspects of that."
- On Free Will
Unquenchable Fire, by Rachel Pollack
"Jennifer Mazdan is a true believer who has been impregnated by a dream, and whose fetus seems destined to recreate the Revolution."
- Book Review Archive
Book-related posts on my previous website.
