Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The_Penniless_Author

The_Penniless_Author

Joined October 2020

Author of four books, including TRUE NORTH and MEMOIR OF A DOOMSDAY PROPHET. https://www.facebook.com/randall.devallance.author
review
The_Penniless_Author
Hocus Pocus | Kurt Vonnegut
post image
Pickpick

It's hard to think of a better symbol for modern America than a private college with a fixed annual enrollment where the subnormal children of billionaires earn largely honorary degrees before going on to inherit and/or marry into their fortunes, situated across a valley from a prison where the inmate population increases exponentially year over year.

The_Penniless_Author I've heard novels described as "news that stays news", and there's no better proof of that than a book from 1990 that's able to express better than I ever could so many things about the present day. 3d
26 likes1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
post image
Pickpick

I'm not all that knowledgeable about Turkish literature, so it was nice to get an introduction to a writer I hadn't heard of before and who is so revered in Turkey. It was also fascinating learning about the difficulties in translating Turkish to English (I love modern translator notes), and in translating Atay's complex sentences specifically. Weird, dark existentialism of the best sort. I especially loved 'A Letter - Unsent'.

Ruthiella I also really enjoy translator‘s notes. It‘s such a fascinating process. 2w
Anna40 Sounds intriguing 2w
35 likes2 stack adds2 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Lazarus Man: A Novel | Richard Price
post image
Bailedbailed

I bought Clockers on a whim when I was 15, not long after it was published, and fell in love with it immediately - the sprawling cast of characters, the street-level view of NY/NJ, the realistic dialogue - all of it was great. When I saw that Richard Price had a new book out, I was excited to dive back into that world. Why then did this one not hold my interest? All the ingredients are there, yet it sounds to me almost like self-parody at times.

The_Penniless_Author Think I'll take a break and give this another chance later. 3w
35 likes1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
Jailbird: A Novel | Kurt Vonnegut
post image
Pickpick

Returning to Vonnegut is like putting on a favorite pair of old slippers - familiar, comfortable, almost as if it were tailor-made specifically for me. How it is that I didn't burn through all of his novels long ago is a mystery, but I'm glad I paced myself and can still enjoy the pleasure of reading one of his books for the first time at my rapidly advancing age.

review
The_Penniless_Author
Parable of the Sower | Octavia E Butler
post image
Pickpick

Every bit as great as I'd always heard it was. I try never to judge older speculative fiction by how closely its predictions mirror real life; so long as the writing is good and the world that's depicted feels real and makes sense internally, that's all that matters. That said, it's impossible not to marvel at how accurately Butler foresaw our current situation (or tremble at what's still to come, if things continue this way).

Ruthiella Yeah, she really nailed it. 1mo
46 likes1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
White Bear | Henrik PONTOPPIDAN
post image
Pickpick

Even though they were written more than a century ago, this pair of novellas felt surprisingly fresh. It helps that the themes are evergreen - in the titular 'The White Bear', it's "the individual vs. the institution" and "the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law"; while in 'The Rearguard', the relative importance of "spiritual vs. material nourishment". The latter felt especially relevant to today, where so many are searching for both.

review
The_Penniless_Author
post image
Pickpick

It's telling that one of the oldest books in the world contains so many of the themes that continue being repeated in fiction right through today. Stories, after all, were overheard by man from the gods and quickly spread like a virus, marking the beginning of the age we still live in. Stories invade us, weave themselves into the fabric of our beings, until its hard to know where "we" end and the stories begin. Sophie says, "Whoa!"

Ruthiella 😻😻😻 2mo
dabbe #sweetestsophie 🖤🐾🖤 2mo
RaeLovesToRead Please more Sophie and Linus 🙏🏻💕 2w
31 likes3 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Village of Ben Suc | Jonathan Schell
post image
Pickpick

Sometimes the best way to understand a complex, extended event (a war, a historical era, etc.) is to narrow the focus to a particular event or person or place. This book began its life as a New Yorker article in 1967, a contemporaneous account of the author's (then a 24-year-old traveling through East Asia) observations of the Army's destruction of Ben Suc and the relocation of its inhabitants. Felt alive in a way that few academic histories do.

34 likes1 stack add
review
The_Penniless_Author
The Baron in the Trees | Italo Calvino
post image
Pickpick

A young boy in 18th-century Italy gets mad at his parents and scampers up a tree, a decision that will shape the rest of his life. A fairy tale about rebellion, originality, and fidelity to oneself, starring a Zelig-like figure who finds himself brushing up against many of the central figures and events of the Napoleonic Era. Linus approves!

Eggbeater Linus is gorgeous 😍 2mo
KathyWheeler I keep meaning to read Calvino but haven‘t yet. Linus is beautiful! 2mo
dabbe #lovelylinus 🖤🐾🖤 2mo
RaeLovesToRead Linus!!!!!! You handsome devil 🥰🥰🥰 2mo
38 likes4 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Sun City | Tove Jansson
post image
Pickpick

A different sort of "summer read", one I enjoyed immensely. Tove Jansson is one of those authors I've known about forever but had never read (not even the Moomins, which aren't as well known in the US as Europe). I knew that she was fascinated by America's unique (to put it nicely) attitude toward aging and the elderly, and she really captured the pathos of being abandoned in "paradise" with insight and gentle humor.

BarbaraBB I love her too and hadn‘t heard of this one. Thanks! 2mo
34 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
Command Performance | Jean Echenoz
post image
Mehso-so

I feel like I must be missing something. A sort of noir parody, or noir as a vehicle to play with language, there is a good deal of experimentation and deadpan humor to like here, yet taken as a whole this reads like an outline or rough sketch. Tons of fleeting characters, plot lines that come to abrupt and unsatisfying ends...it's almost like someone randomly removed 50 pages of a fully realized novel.

review
The_Penniless_Author
post image
Pickpick

A look at cultural evolution through the lens of relationships - some decades-long, while others are little more than...well, a chance meeting. Stretching roughly a century from the Civil War up through the Civil Rights era, each chapter focuses on a relationship between two (occasionally three) artistic or intellectual titans of the day and shows how inspiration gets passed like a torch from one generation to the next. A mix of meticulous...👇

The_Penniless_Author ...research, speculation, and pure invention that works much better than it has any right to. 3mo
37 likes1 comment
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
The Great Gatsby | Francis Scott Fitzgerald
post image

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

Thanks for the tag @RaeLovesToRead !

1. I think the further in time you move from a particular decade or generation, the easier it is to reduce it to a set of characteristics, events, or images that come to be emblematic of the whole. In that sense, you can absolutely have a book that defines the popular view of a generation.

2. The Great Gatsby defines the Jazz Age and the 1920s.

RaeLovesToRead I think maybe I'm taking this question more literally than everyone else. My relatives were mostly working down the mines in the 1920s, and to them The Great Gatsby would be about as alien as you can get. So I think literature can capture a particular time and place. But I don't think one book could capture all the voices of a particular decade or generation. 3mo
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead I think that's sort of the point. My relatives were either subsistence farmers or worked on the railroads. But when you talk about the 1920s, especially in America, you think of The Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age, and this book is one of the reasons. It "defined" the decade. That doesn't mean it's a comprehensive catalog of life at that time, just that it's emblematic of what people think of when they picture "the 1920s". 3mo
TheSpineView Well said @The_Penniless_Author Thanks for playing! 3mo
RaeLovesToRead Hmm... I guess my point would be is that the way we SHOULD define the 1920s. Emblematic, sure. Truly representational, definitely not. Maybe we are using the word "define" to mean different things. 3mo
23 likes4 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Dr. No | Percival Everett
post image
Mehso-so

Probably the first profound thought I had as a little kid was wondering why anything exists at all. I then tried to imagine what "nothing" looks like, at which point my brain began to whir like an overheating laptop. This, then, seems like a book I was destined to write myself, but luckily Percival Everett got there first. Dense with clever wordplay, I found the rapid-fire riffing on the meaning of "nothing" impressive and genuinely funny at...

The_Penniless_Author ...first, but by the middle of the book it had worn thin, like a hundred variations on the same parlor trick performed one after the other. I don't know what my quota of "nothing" puns is, but this book surely exceeded it. 3mo
37 likes1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
The Suicides | Antonio Di Benedetto
post image
Pickpick

A reporter is assigned to investigate a string of recent suicides in the city to determine "why they did it", while the impending anniversary of his own father's suicide looms. Interspersed with religious and philosophical treatises on the morality of self-death, provided to the narrator by a research assistant as background for the story, the question soon shifts to "why not?" There's something impressive happening here. Di Benedetto's...?

The_Penniless_Author ...deceptively spare prose captures a dissatisfaction all-too familiar in contemporary life. Despite having all outward appearances of success - work, family, women - a certain grim aimlessness dogs the narrator day after day. What happens when society's expectations don't provide their promised contentment? Where does a person go from there? This felt like a distillation of the existential crisis America is experiencing at the moment. 5mo
Gissy Interesting, I see it is part of a trilogy. Stacked😃 5mo
The_Penniless_Author @Gissy Sort of. The "trilogy" designation was given after the fact when critics noticed a continuation of certain themes. They're still very much three separate, standalone books. 5mo
Gissy @The_Penniless_Author Ohhh 😯 Thank you for let me know😃 5mo
The_Penniless_Author @Gissy You're welcome! 😊 I've read The Silentiary too, and it was very good. All three are probably worth reading, but the order doesn't really matter. 5mo
37 likes2 stack adds5 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Rest Is Silence | Augusto Monterroso
post image
Pickpick

NYRB comes through again 😸👍 I was not familiar with Monterroso before this and was pleasantly surprised by what I discovered. A hilarious compendium of works by and about the fictional writer Eduardo Torres, the bard of San Blas, Mexico. Poet, critic, essayist, and inveterate blowhard, Torres is a fully realized comic creation, a perfect send-up of provincial literary pomposity.

43 likes1 stack add
review
The_Penniless_Author
post image
Pickpick

A deep dive (no pun intended, I swear) into swimming's history - both its modern incarnation as a recreational activity during the early 19th-century, and the Classical era from which those 19th-century Romantics drew their inspiration, when swimming was infused with heroic, and even divine, qualities. I love to swim, and I also love books where an obsessive examines the subject of their passion in detail, so this one was perfect for me.

review
The_Penniless_Author
Clean | Alia Trabucco Zern
post image
Mehso-so

Soft pick for me. Not buying into the blurbs describing this one as "suspenseful" or a "mystery". It is, however, one of the better renderings I've encountered of the inner-monologue of someone stuck in a repetitive, monotonous, unappreciated job (of which I have personal experience, albeit not for as many years as the narrator or without a reasonable expectation of escape). Not something I'm likely to return to, but well-written and nicely paced.

Cathythoughts I wasn‘t a fan either , I agree it was not suspenseful or the thriller I was expecting. But I finished it. 6mo
37 likes1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
post image
Pickpick

I'm a sucker for stories that delve into the internal politics of relatively insignificant groups (town councils, offices, or in this case, the residents of the Emma Lazarus retirement home and their upcoming production of Hamlet) and elevate them to epic proportions. A witty, comic novel that transforms into something heavier and darker by the end, a meditation on trauma and guilt that chimes beautifully with the play at the center of the story.

Suet624 Hi, fellow Vermonter. How are you doing? 7mo
The_Penniless_Author @Suet624 That's a tough one. 😅 Good, at the moment, but with a cloud of disaster hovering ever-present on the periphery (like a lot of other feds, or just people in general, I suppose). How about you? 7mo
Suet624 Oh shoot - I didn't realize your work situation. I'm so sorry. This current situation is such a disaster in so many areas it's hard to pick just one. I'm okay - just shoveling a lot. Told my kids if social security is taken away they'll have to take care of me. At least 2 of the kids seem amenable. :) But of course I worry about all the other things happening to friends and neighbors. It's hard knowing what we could have had. Best wishes to you. 7mo
The_Penniless_Author @Suet624 It's true, everywhere you look it's impending disaster. I don't really know what to do at the moment but keep putting one foot in front of the other and taking it one day at a time (and find respite in cliches, apparently 😁). 7mo
46 likes1 stack add4 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Figures in a Landscape | Barry England
post image
Pickpick

After plodding through Balzac's discourse on the terrain of the Loire Valley, I thought I would change things up and tackle a book in which...the landscape factors heavily. 🤣 Stylistically, the two couldn't be more different, though. This one is pure kinesthetics, spare and propulsive. Two prisoners of war make a break from their captors, and we spend time ping-ponging between their POVs as they strategize how to evade recapture.

RaeLovesToRead That looks like a cup of tea!! 7mo
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead Yes, cups of coffee do look rather like cups of tea! 😆 7mo
RaeLovesToRead Secretly preparing for a trip to the UK maybe? ☕️🫖 7mo
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead We can't afford a trip anywhere at the moment. Need to be careful with the money, unfortunately, in case disaster strikes. 6mo
RaeLovesToRead 😢😢😢 🫂🫂🫂 6mo
35 likes5 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Lily in the Valley | Honor de Balzac
post image
Mehso-so

One of my issues with 19th-century novels is how many of them began life as serialized publications. When you get paid by the word, you're going to use a lot of words, and while I don't begrudge anyone trying to make a living, even a writer of Balzac's level can't make me care about the topography of the Indre River valley for four whole pages. The first 50-75 pages of this were like literary Ambien, but there were enough compelling parts...

The_Penniless_Author ...(like Henriette's first letter to Felix) to keep me sticking with it, and it ends strongly (particularly the final letter from Natalie). 7mo
Ruthiella I feel it was less “paid by the word” and more authors writing for what the medium, their audience, and their editors wanted and expected. 7mo
Suet624 Haha. Love this review. 7mo
39 likes3 comments
quote
The_Penniless_Author
Lily in the Valley | Honor de Balzac
post image

"To explain society through a theory of individual happiness expressly sought at the expense of others is a lethal doctrine, the harsh connotations of which drive man to believe everything he secretly gains, without the legal system, society, or individuals perceiving the damage done, is properly and duly acquired."

This book may be a slog, but there are some great (and painfully relevant) quotes scattered throughout.

Suet624 Thank you for sharing. 8mo
Cuilin Seems appropriate reading for our times. 😔 8mo
tpixie Beautiful quote. And timeless 8mo
32 likes3 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
The Good Soldier | Ford Maddox Ford
post image
Pickpick

This book must have caused a sensation when it was published in 1915. A slow pulling back of layers to show the rot at the heart of Victorian/Edwardian social mores, it follows the disintegration of two couples - one American, one English - who on the surface are the picture of upper-class propriety. "There is about it none of the elevation that accompanies tragedy...Here were two noble natures, drifting down life, like fireships afloat on a ?

The_Penniless_Author ...lagoon and causing miseries, heartaches, agony of the mind and death. And they themselves steadily deteriorated. And why? For what purpose? To point what lesson? It is all a darkness." 8mo
Ruthiella I hated this when I read it some 15 years ago now. I wasn‘t ready for this level of writing. I think I‘d appreciate it better now, even if it still isn‘t the kind of novel I gravitate toward. 8mo
The_Penniless_Author @Ruthiella I don't think I would have fully appreciated it either if I had read it 15 years ago. It's shockingly modern for when it was written (and the time period being written about). All the ideas and forces that were coming to a head at the start of the 20th century are touched upon - Freud, sexual repression, the erosion of the class system, the growing importance of money, colonialism vs home rule, the coming War, etc. 8mo
44 likes3 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
The Bloater | Rosemary Tonks
post image
Pickpick

A fun, fizzy comedy of manners about a young, married woman in late-60s London and the two other men who are pursuing her. There's not much of a plot here, to be honest, but that's just fine. Sometimes a story is just a delivery vehicle for witty observations and dialogue, and this book has got both in spades. I shall forever more refer to gout as "one of the great horizontal diseases". ?

Ruthiella Another Backlisted podcast recommendation! 👍 8mo
The_Penniless_Author @Ruthiella That's 99% of my TBR list at this point. 😄 8mo
Suet624 I appreciate your line “Sometimes a story is just a delivery vehicle for witter observations and dialogue..“ It's so true. 8mo
40 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Deadwood | Pete Dexter
post image
Pickpick

For years, I was nervous to try this one, as Deadwood is maybe my favorite TV series of all time. But having read Paris Trout and realizing what a great writer Pete Dexter is, I figured I was in safe hands (and after all, the book came first). David Milch may claim his series has nothing to do with the novel; I'm not sure I buy it, but there are major differences in the story structure and characters' personalities. Like with the show, 👇

The_Penniless_Author ...the dialogue really stands out here. Where the show's is florid, however - Shakespearean and profanity-laced - the novel's is simple and direct, deceptively profound. The vignette style might put off some people, but I thought it was perfect for centering the town itself as the main character. 8mo
Ruthiella I‘ve only read Paris Trout. Great writing but such a bleak story. 8mo
Suet624 I had no idea Deadwood was a book! I'm stacking it! (edited) 8mo
31 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Fraud | Anita Brookner
post image
Pickpick

One sign of a great writer is that they can violate all the so-called rules of good writing with impunity. This is the second Anita Brookner novel I've read now, and I'm hard-pressed to think of another writer who does so much telling (about her characters' personalities and thought processes) in relation to showing, but it's so nuanced and well-observed that I immediately feel like I know and sympathize with these lonely introverts.

Suet624 Another book I apparently need to read. 8mo
36 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
Absolute Beginners | Colin MacInnes
post image
Pickpick

A guided tour through London's burgeoning teenage scene and the beginnings of mod culture set against the backdrop of the 1958 Notting Hill race riots. I can't speak to the accuracy of his depiction, but I can say that he perfectly captures what it's like to be a teenager, waking up to the world around oneself and coming into one's own. It's a fast-paced book, crackling with energy. I buzzed right through it in two days.

Ruthiella Another Backlisted episode recommendation! 😉 9mo
The_Penniless_Author @Ruthiella And now I'm reading Anita Brookner. 😆 9mo
Leftcoastzen I read it a long time ago but remember loving it. 9mo
37 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
post image

#TLT @dabbe

55 out of 73. I didn't realize "pie crust" was a standalone item at some people's Thanksgiving dinners. ?

My three favorites have to be the classics:

? Turkey
? Stuffing
? Mashed potatoes

Of course, it's all down to how they're made and who's making them. My single favorite thing is probably my wife's roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and maple glaze. ?

TheBookHippie And now I want those brussel sprouts!!! Yummmmm. 9mo
dabbe @TheBookHippie Same here! Funny about the pie crust ... if I have any left over, I do twirl it and make cinnamon crisps for breakfast. Does that sort of count? Thanks for playing and sharing! 💛🤎🧡 9mo
32 likes2 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
All The Devils Are Here | David Seabrook
post image
Pickpick

Like seemingly everyone else, I found out about this book through the (excellent) podcast, Backlisted. It was every bit as strange and compelling as they described it, like a walking tour of Kent directed by David Lynch, covering two centuries' worth of murder, depravity, and madness. In my experience there are few places with such sinister vibes as a decaying seaside town, and this book captures that feeling in spades.

Ruthiella I remember listening to that very episode. 10mo
The_Penniless_Author @Ruthiella I think my entire TBR at this point is either Backlisted recommendations or my NYRB monthly book club selections. 10mo
37 likes2 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Riddley Walker | Russell Hoban
post image
Pickpick

The best book I've read all year. A second Book of Genesis cobbled together from scraps of Bible verse, western mythology, parables, art history, and pop culture left over after a nuclear holocaust sent human civilization back to the Stone Age some 2,400 years in the past. Profound, moving, funny, and utterly unique. I imagine I'll be re-reading this for years to come.

BarbaraBB That‘s quite the recommendation 🤩 10mo
Bookwomble It's a fantastic book. I loved this one. 10mo
44 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Fire | George R Stewart
post image
Mehso-so

On the plus side, Stewart writes about plants and animals and the ever-shifting yet timeless nature of the landscape with a simple grace that's almost poetic at times. Unfortunately, such passages are immediately followed by characters and dialogue as wooden as anything you'd find in Highlights magazine. Would love to read some straightforward, nonfiction nature writing from him, but this one just didn't hold my attention.

review
The_Penniless_Author
Erasure: A Novel | Percival Everett
post image
Pickpick

Distracting myself from my increasing sense of doom by mixing in some reading with my election viewing. This is my first Percival Everett, and I love it just as much as I thought I would. If nothing else, maybe tonight has given me a new favorite author (a pretty thin silver lining, admittedly 😕).

BarbaraBB He can very well turn into a favorite author but that doom is real. I am terrified 10mo
The_Penniless_Author @BarbaraJean Honestly, it's over. I'm not even anxious anymore, just depressed. He'll win Pennsylvania soon, and that will be that. 10mo
Leftcoastzen Tragic 10mo
57 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Loser | Thomas Bernhard
post image
Pickpick

A 170-page unbroken paragraph composed of a would-be piano virtuoso's obsessive, paranoid reflections on his former friends and fellow students - Wertheimer, now dead by suicide, and the great Glenn Gould, whose genius sent the others' lives into a tailspin (all three of whom are really different aspects of Bernhard himself). Venomous, funny, and formalistically daring, this was not an easy read by any means but well worth the effort.

RaeLovesToRead If you like unbroken paragraphs, have I got a book for you... 9mo
27 likes1 comment
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
post image

#TLT @dabbe

Only 9 out of 100. There were a few authors I'd read, just not the listed book, and a few movie adaptations I've seen that could have boosted my score. Still, it included three of my favorite books of all time:

📘 Crime and Punishment
📕 The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
📗 The Long Good-Bye

dabbe Have you read THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV? That book was torture for me. Should I give CRIME a go? Thanks for playing and sharing! 🖤🎃🖤 10mo
The_Penniless_Author @dabbe Yes! Dostoevsky was my first "favorite author" back in high school, so I've read nearly everything he's written. I would definitely recommend C&P. It's the most accessible of his books. At root, it's a psychological thriller, albeit with philosophical/religious overtone. 10mo
dabbe @The_Penniless_Author Now on the TBR! Thanks! 🤩 10mo
25 likes3 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
The Pornographer | John McGahern
post image
Pickpick

A deceptively sophisticated book about unrequited love, self-sacrifice, and the seemingly impossible task of trying to be true to oneself while doing right by others and becoming part of a community. The protagonist is a smut writer dealing with the impending death of a beloved aunt on the one hand and birth of an unwanted child on the other. Full of fantastic dialogue and insightful observations that feel wholly organic, never forced or tacked-on

32 likes2 stack adds
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
Cheap Thrills | Ron Goulart
post image

#TLT @dabbe

62 out of 100, way more than all my previous ones. So many of my favorite movies are on this list, too many to choose just three. I also see they've stretched the definition of "thriller" to the breaking point. So in that spirit, here are my top 3 movies that are absolutely NOT thrillers:

? Titanic
? The Wizard of Oz
? E.T.

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @CBee @Ruthiella @IndoorDame

RaeLovesToRead I love that you love Titanic 🤣🤣💕 10mo
RaeLovesToRead Near.... faaaaarrrr.... wherevvvver you are. I believvvve that the heart does..... go oooonn 10mo
Ruthiella Thanks for the tag. 😊 10mo
See All 9 Comments
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead I don't think you actually read what my list was. 😂 10mo
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead I suppose someone who adds a half-dozen books to her collection every day has to do a lot of light skimming. 😄 10mo
dabbe AFI definitely stretched the definition of “thriller“, didn't they? 😂 Thanks for playing and sharing. 🖤🧡🖤 10mo
RaeLovesToRead I read it several times. Top non-thriller movies on the list?? 10mo
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead No! ? The three movies that least meet the definition of "thriller". 10mo
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead Trust me, Titanic would never make any list of things I like. (And I should be predisposed to like it, given that I first saw it on a movie date with a girl I used to work with, but even then it was 🤮😂). 10mo
25 likes9 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
post image
Pickpick

This book melted my brain. I can't claim I fully grasped everything Campo laid out in these essays, even after multiple readings. Attention is good, imagination bad. The Gospels, (true) poetry, and fairy tales are good, realist fiction and contemporary are bad. Virtue can only be found in an ascetic, hermetic lifestyle. I'm not sure I can wholeheartedly endorse a worldview that dismisses the Renaissance as a "universal disaster", but I have...?

The_Penniless_Author ...to admit that a lot of what she argues rings true, even when I found myself having an immediate and visceral reaction against it. Whatever else Campo is, she's a genius. I wouldn't say this is an "enjoyable" book (not in a million years), yet I guarantee I'll still be thinking about it long after I put it down. 10mo
The_Penniless_Author I should also mention that Campo writes some incredible sentences. The strength of her opinions lies heavily in the quality of her writing. I'm continually shocked to find myself being persuaded that the correct course in life is to drop out altogether, move to the desert, and become an anchorite Catholic monk. 😂 10mo
The_Penniless_Author I also feel compelled to add that Campo is kind of a whack job and believes that illness has its roots in spiritual decay and asserts - sincerely, by all appearances - that "wild creatures do not usually attack children" because children are "the saint's model". ? You can see her slipping further into religious fundamentalism as the book progresses, and even her excellent writing can't save her from becoming tedious by the end. 10mo
35 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
post image

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

To accuse the French fabulists of frivolity because they adorned their fairies with a handful of ostrich feathers is to "have sight and not perception."

blurb
The_Penniless_Author
post image

@TLT Thanks for the tag @dabbe !

33 out of 100. Given how many there were that I'd heard of but haven't yet watched, I think this time I'll go with my "Top 3 I was surprised to realize I haven't actually seen":

? Silkwood
? The Stepford Wives
? Texas Chainsaw Massacre

dabbe #ditto! I have quite a movie list going! Thanks for playing and sharing! 🖤🧡🖤 11mo
21 likes1 comment
review
The_Penniless_Author
post image
Pickpick

I rarely read nonfiction these days, but this was the perfect book to get me back into it - a popular history of everything, from the beginnings of the universe through Earth's formation and the appearance of life right up until the present day, told through a series of mind-boggling facts and statistics that had me following my poor family around saying, "Did you know...?" incessantly for the past two weeks. ?

35 likes2 stack adds
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
post image

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

No matter how hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton.

32 likes2 stack adds
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
Thrill! | Jackie Collins
post image

#TLT @dabbe

28 out of 100. That includes a few movies I've only seen part of, but I need to pad my numbers somehow. 😀

Three faves:

🎬 I'm not sure how anyone could classify The Karate Kid as a thriller, but I watched it so many times as a kid that I have it memorized beginning to end.
🎬 The Hustler
🎬 The Postman Always Rings Twice

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @CBee @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @Ruthiella @IndoorDame @Yuki_Onna

Yuki_Onna Thanks for the tag, Randall! 😺I'm always rubbish with those! 😅 11mo
dabbe I guess some of them are more action than thrills/scares. 🖤 THE KARATE KID, too! Thanks for playing and sharing! 🧡🖤🧡 11mo
22 likes2 comments
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
Thrillville, USA: Stories | Taylor Koekkoek
post image

##TLT @dabbe

31 out of 100. Guess I don't have the most thrilling viewing habits.

Three from the list I've been meaning to watch but haven't yet:

🎬 Cat People
🎬 The Asphalt Jungle
🎬 The Big Clock

Tag: @RaeLovesToRead @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @CBee @Ruthiella @IndoorDame

Ruthiella Thanks for the tag. 😊 11mo
RaeLovesToRead Haha, I can confidently say without clicking on this that I will barely have seen any 🤣🤣🤣 11mo
RaeLovesToRead Having taken the survey. 5. Yes. Five. 11mo
See All 10 Comments
The_Penniless_Author @RaeLovesToRead Yeah, I'd say 5 equals "barely any". ? 11mo
RaeLovesToRead I'm not even 100% sure I've seen Aliens... 11mo
dabbe @RaeLovesToRead You still saw some! Thanks for playing and sharing! 🖤🎃🖤 11mo
dabbe I love THE BIG CLOCK! Charles Laughton is sooooo good! Thanks for playing and sharing! 🖤🎃🖤 11mo
The_Penniless_Author @dabbe He's good in everything. Even the one movie he wrote and directed (Night of the Hunter) is great. 11mo
dabbe @The_Penniless_Author Agree 💯! 11mo
dabbe @The_Penniless_Author I also love he and his wife together in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION. My students read that when we did a big detective unit, and their reward was that movie. They LOVED it! Oh, and she was fantastic in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, too--another one on this list! 11mo
29 likes10 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
Lightning Rods | Helen Dewitt
post image
Pickpick

An ex-salesman comes up with a creative solution for dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace. The juxtaposition of using such banal business/self-improvement jargon to describe such an outlandish idea really worked for me. DeWitt is a funny writer and great at conveying the gap between how people see themselves and how they actually think and behave.

rwmg I loved \“The Last Samurai\“. I didn\'t know she\'d written another one. 11mo
43 likes4 stack adds1 comment
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
Lightning Rods | Helen Dewitt
post image

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

One way of looking at it is that it was just an unfortunate by-product of Hurricane Edna.

blurb
The_Penniless_Author
Banned Books Club | Brenda Novak
post image

#TLT @dabbe

Only got 12% (26 out of 211). I'd say that I need to start working on this list, but I'll probably just wait for a schoolboard to ban something I'm already reading. ?

Weirdest bans:

? The Bible: "Jesus was a commie!"
? Diary of Anne Frank/1984/Brave New World: "Let's give fascism a fair shake!"
? Nickel and Dimed: "How dare you besmirch the good name of the 1996 welfare reform act!"
? Where's Waldo: "He's not! It's a scam!"

IndoorDame 💯 agree about where‘s Waldo!!! That was so bizarre!!!! 11mo
CBee I had no idea that Where‘s Waldo was banned - that makes me want to burrow under a rock and never come out 😂😩🤪 11mo
See All 17 Comments
The_Penniless_Author @IndoorDame @CBee I love the idea that it's because a majority of schoolboard members couldn't find him, but I'm guessing it's far dumber than that. 11mo
CBee @The_Penniless_Author I mean, sometimes I couldn‘t find him either, but you eventually do. It takes something called patience, which I doubt these ridiculous book banners have an abundance of 🙄 11mo
RaeLovesToRead 32 (15%) woo 11mo
RaeLovesToRead Bone is a weird one. Wholesome 11mo
RaeLovesToRead I think it was banned because one of the MCs plays poker and smokes 🤣 11mo
Ruthiella I‘ve read 50 which puts me at 24%. Apparently Waldo was challenged because in one illustration where Waldo is somewhere on a beach, a woman‘s breast is exposed. 11mo
The_Penniless_Author @Ruthiella Ah, so Waldo's in southern Europe. Mystery solved! 😂 11mo
dabbe @Ruthiella And again I say 😱😱😂 ... seriously, people! 11mo
dabbe @The_Penniless_Author Now THAT\'s funny! 😂😂😂 11mo
dabbe Quite the list, isn\'t it? I couldn\'t believe some of it as I was putting it together. I think the really interesting statistic to know would be of all the people who challenged a book, DID THEY ACTUALLY READ THE DAMN THING? Thanks for playing and sharing! 🧡🍁🧡 11mo
The_Penniless_Author @dabbe Have they actually read anything? 😆 Adding a special 👎 for banning my favorite book, Slaughterhouse Five. 😡 11mo
dabbe @The_Penniless_Author When our school board was deciding whether or not to ban SO YOU\'VE BEEN PUBLICLY SHAMED, one of the board members said, \“Well, I haven\'t actually read the book, but if Dr. Bales (the Superintendent) thinks we should ban this book, then I agree. 😳 What the hell did we vote her in for? The absolute lack of diligence is stultifying. 11mo
CBee @dabbe you just taught me a new word - stultifying 👏🏻👏🏻 thanks! 🤓 11mo
dabbe @CBee 🤩😂😘 11mo
38 likes17 comments
review
The_Penniless_Author
post image
Pickpick

A collection of Vonnegut's previously published short stories that were not included in Welcome to the Monkey House. Like most short story collections, the quality varies - a few were truly excellent, most good, and a few "meh". As a document of a writer in the process of finding himself, I would highly recommend it. It was cool to see so many of the elements of his later novels popping up here in fits and starts.

37 likes2 stack adds
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
post image

#TLT @dabbe

42 out of 50. Hard to choose three (though not as hard as the villains list), but here goes:

1. Rick Blaine (Casablanca)
2. Philip Marlowe (The Big Sleep)
3. Marge Gunderson (Fargo)

Honorable mention to Han Solo, George Bailey, and probably half a dozen others who just missed the cut.

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @MegaWhoppingCosmicBookwyrm @CBee @Yuki_Onna

RaeLovesToRead 7....... wow. You are correct in that you have to give me cultural info 🤣🤣🤣 Ripley is the standout on this list, for sure. 12mo
dabbe My #1 fave actor is Humphrey Bogart. I think we have something in common! Thanks for playing, sharing, and tagging! 🤩🤩🤩 12mo
33 likes2 comments
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
Eve's Hollywood | Eve Babitz
post image

#wondrouswednesday @Eggs

Thanks for the tag @Yuki_Onna ✋️

1. Not much competition given my current reading rate, but really enjoyed this one.

2. Paper!

3. Literary Fiction

Eggs Thx for joining in🥳 12mo
29 likes1 comment
blurb
The_Penniless_Author
Meet Me at the Museum | Anne Youngson
post image

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView

1. I've been to my share of world-famous museums, but for my money none are as enjoyable as the Corning Museum of Glass. I never get tired of visiting.

2. Nothing was coming to me, so had to cheat and google something.

Tag @RaeLovesToRead @IuliaC @CBee @dabbe

TheSpineView I've never been to the glass museum. I've heard it is fabulous. Thanks for playing 12mo
RaeLovesToRead I loved your glass museum pictures!!!!! I want to go and visit 12mo
The_Penniless_Author @TheSpineView @RaeLovesToRead It's pretty amazing. You can barely turn around without coming across something breathtaking. Plus they constantly have demonstrations going on with both in-house apprentices and visiting artists, and you can even make your own ornaments. Best of all, the tickets are good for two days, and you can tack on admission to the Rockwell Museum of American Art that's a couple blocks away. How's that for a sales pitch? 😅 12mo
See All 6 Comments
dabbe Will do; thanks for the tag! 🤩 12mo
TheSpineView @The_Penniless_Author I really need to go! 12mo
Susanita Yes that‘s a cool museum. 12mo
29 likes6 comments