Tag: Appalachia

Updates

August, September and October Recap 2018

Geoff W

I’ve put off posting this since August 1. I actually had a draft scheduled for September 3, and again for both October 1 and November 2. And yet here we are almost two full weeks into November and It’s just now being posted.

When I started this post the first line was: Good Bye Summer/not really damn weather. Now it’s more like holy hell the cold has arrived (not really, but it was below freezing the morning I wrote this). I’m going to keep it pretty simple so I can just get this thing posted. I do have the last two books queued up but am spreading them out over the next two weeks so I at least get a post a week. Continue reading “August, September and October Recap 2018” →

ARC, Books

Book 538: Quakeland – Kathryn Miles

Geoff W

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one when the publisher reached out to me about a few books way back in August of last year.* Quakeland caught my eye for the very reason any of those disaster movies (Twister, The Day After Tomorrow, San Andreas, Volcano, etc.) speak out to millions of people every year. We’re fascinated by the potential destruction and yet completely disbelieving that it could happen to us. Fun fact, it can and will at some point (maybe not the Volcano story line) but according to this and a lot of scientists earthquakes could!

The book started off a little slow after a powerful forward, but picked up pace the further I got into it, which was weird because the amount of science seemed to increase and I usually fall asleep when books get too technical.

Continue reading “Book 538: Quakeland – Kathryn Miles” →

Books

Book 412: Are You My Mother? – Alison Bechdel

Geoff W

Bechdel, Alison - Are You My MotherAfter re-reading Fun Home for book group I dove right into the follow-up Are You My Mother? As much as I enjoyed it and ultimately identified with it, it didn’t live up to the magical experience of Fun Home. It’s hard to say whether this lack of magic was a result of the intense navel gazing or the less compelling surface emotional story. To be honest it could be the daughter identifying with mother as this is an experience/story that I will never experience in the same way.

This being said, the story was still eloquently and humorously told! The graphics were just as poignant and detailed as those in the original. I enjoyed the complete color shift from the green-gray to the red, especially when Bechdel revisited scenes from her earlier work and the emphasis changed slightly. The book list in Are You My Mother? wasn’t quite as long as Fun Home but it was still pretty impressive at 38 separate works listed.

Continue reading “Book 412: Are You My Mother? – Alison Bechdel” →

Books

Book 411: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel

Geoff W

Bechdel, Alison - Fun HomeI first read Fun Home in undergrad after my friend Mia gave me a copy not long after it came out in paperback. (I’m pretty sure it was paperback and I’m pretty sure it was Mia. I wasn’t so great at tracking who, when or where books came from back then…oh the olden days :-D)

Either way, I remember thoroughly loving it that first time I read it. I even went out of my way to read Camus’ A Happy Death after I finished even though I have very little recollection of it now other than these quotes I saved on a proto-blog I had that I’m pretty sure it was called East Coast Traditional Meets West Coast Casual or something like that (I stole it from a furniture magazine.)

Continue reading “Book 411: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel” →