Dodie Smith is best known for her children’s book, 101 Dalmations, but I Capture the Castle is by far my favourite of the two. I first read this book when I was about 14 years old. I remember abandoning reality and diving into it every afternoon after school for as long as I could
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BOOK REVIEW | THE SEVENTH OCTAVE – SAUL WILLIAMS
I’m going to let this one speak for itself: Excerpt from “Amethyst Rocks” i be one with rain and stars and things with dancing feet and watermelon wings i bring the sunshine and the moon and the wind blows my tune …meanwhilei spoon powdered drum beats into plastic bags sellin’ kilos of kente scag
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BOOK REVIEW | ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE: A YEAR OF FOOD LIFE – BARBARA KINGSOLVER (WITH STEVEN L. HOPP AND CAMILLE KINGSOLVER)
In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the amazingly talented author Barbara Kingsolver takes on a new realm: the economy of food life. The idea for the book was born in her family’s move from the arid climate of Arizona to the temperate climate of southern Appalachia. Part of the motivation for this move was a desire
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BOOK REVIEW | STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS – CAPRICE CRANE
This book surprised me. I picked it up at my favourite local used book store one afternoon, and thought it would be one of those chicklit books I guiltily read and then dispose of in the hopes that I’ll never have to admit to having read them, nevermind having bought them. Instead it turned
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BOOK REVIEW | ALL FAMILIES ARE PSYCHOTIC – DOUGLAS COUPLAND
I have often wondered what would happen if you took every sort of mishap and cliche you could dream up, created a cast of characters and threw the mishaps at them like rotten tomatoes at a stage show. This book is the answer to that query. It features a thalidomide baby, AIDS, a kidnapping,
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BOOK REVIEW | FIERCE INVALIDS HOME FROM HOT CLIMATES – TOM ROBBINS
If I had to pick one book to take to a desert island with me, this would be it. I don’t know how many times I have passed a rainy weekend lost in the rich scenery and amusing characters of this book. Normally the term “magical realism” applies to the works of
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TRANSMETROPOLITAN – WARREN ELLIS AND DARICK ROBERTSON
Transmetropolitan is a comic book series written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Darick Robertson. It is the story of a renegade journalist called Spider Jerusalem. Jerusalem is heavily tattooed, foul-mouthed and irreverent. He takes the city by storm, popping a pharmacy’s worth of drugs, drinking enough to fell a bar full of lifetime alcoholics,
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BOOK REVIEW | THE GUM THIEF – DOUGLAS COUPLAND
“Just because you’ve been born and made it through high school doesn’t mean society can’t still abort you. Wake up.” Anyone who has ever read Douglas Coupland’s work is familiar with his uncanny ability to take the everyday world around him and turn it into a vehicle for insight into the human condition. His
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POPULAR FAVOURITES
There are a bunch of books on my shelves that I don’t quite know what to do with. Every time I peruse the shelves looking for a book to write about, one that I loved or that meant something to me, I pause when I reach them but feel a sense of futility when
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BOOK REVIEW | BONK: THE CURIOUS COUPLING OF SEX AND SCIENCE – MARY ROACH
If you’ve ever been curious about the postal service’s contribution to treating erectile dysfunction, what exactly went on in Alfred Kinsey’s attic, and what, if any, is the benefit of sex machines, this is the book for you. Mary Roach, who is best known for her book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers,
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THE PROJECT
For the last year and a half, I have been writing reviews of new books for an arts and entertainment website. This is great for several reasons. One of the main reasons being, of course, that I get free books. As any bibliophile knows, this is a dream come true. Since I was old
