Book #173 of 2022: The Stranger Beside Me: The Shocking Inside Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy by Ann Rule I sometimes have difficulty rating pieces of nonfiction, but my general principle is to weigh a work against the best possible version of itself, by asking what the author is trying to accomplish and how …
Tag Archives: books written in 1980
Book Review: The Magic Labyrinth by Philip José Farmer
Book #321 of 2021: The Magic Labyrinth by Philip José Farmer (Riverworld #4) This 1980 sci-fi finale is honestly worse than the miserable third volume, although it picks up slightly for its closing stretch, in which the tower at the headwaters of the river is finally reached and breached. Not that that goal has ever …
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Book Review: The Wounded Land by Stephen R. Donaldson
Book #111 of 2021: The Wounded Land by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant #1) In the first Thomas Covenant trilogy, the titular antihero resisted the appeal of the fantasy realm that summoned him from our reality, but gradually came to decide that its ideals were worth fighting for even if he …
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Book Review: The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones
Book #70 of 2020: The Magicians of Caprona by Diana Wynne Jones (Chrestomanci #4) Returning to a book from one’s childhood can sometimes be a letdown, but I’m pleased to report that this fourth Chrestomanci volume (in the author’s preferred reading order; actually the second to be published and roughly the fifth chronologically) is far …
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Book Review: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Book #57 of 2020: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole This is for the most part an enjoyable madcap picaresque, but its entitled manchild of a protagonist can be awfully infuriating. Admittedly much of the humor of the text is at that character’s own expense, but I still found myself gritting my teeth …
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Book Review: The Man Who Killed His Brother by Stephen R. Donaldson
Book #228 of 2018: The Man Who Killed His Brother by Stephen R. Donaldson (The Man Who #1) Author Stephen R. Donaldson is best known for his fantasy sagas like The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, but his character work and intense internal struggles resonate more than the epic quests and magical worldbuilding, and …
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Book Review: Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding
Book #7 of 2018: Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding All things considered, I think the 2002 movie adaptation tells Frank Abagnale’s story better than Abagnale (with co-writer Stan Redding) does himself. Even setting aside the issue of whether the criminal prodigy …
Book Review: Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
Book #179 of 2017: Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (Patternist #1) Anyanwu is an African shapeshifter who has survived for centuries by healing all physical damage and keeping her body young. She thinks there’s no other person remotely like herself until she meets Doro, a man millennia past his own natural lifespan but whose …
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Book Review: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Book #59 of 2017: A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn A People’s History of the United States is really two books, and one of them is significantly better than the other. Author Howard Zinn’s thesis is that any telling of history is inherently political, and his stated goal is to present …
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