I have a complicated relationship with The Catcher in the Rye. I read it at seventeen, the right age, and I found Holden Caulfield insufferable. I read it again at thirty, and I found him heartbreaking. But one thing has not changed across either reading. He is right about the phonies. Holden hates anyone who performs. […]
I first read Fahrenheit 451 as a teenager and understood it as a book about censorship. The government burned books. That was the horror. But I reread it recently while watching the internet fill with AI-generated listicles, formulaic content, and brands shouting into a void, and I realized I had missed the point. Bradbury was not only […]
I have a tattoo on my hand. It is a small asterisk, the kind you might see at the bottom of a page pointing to a footnote. Most people do not notice it. The ones who do usually ask if it is a star. I tell them it is a reminder. Kurt Vonnegut started his […]
So I’ve never done this before, spotlighting a single author’s work. There’s not often when I come across an author, I immediately need to rush through their whole bibliography. Also, if something like that happens, it’s not often that the author doesn’t seem to be read or even known by many readers. That last sentence […]
If you follow me on any social media platforms, you might have seen the big news. Halie and I are moving to Bangkok this summer!! I’m really excited to move to a new country and experience a different culture and be immersed in a different language. But to prepare myself for this, I wanted to conduct […]
Here it is! The final 100 Greatest Novels post! Can you believe it? I can’t. These last four novels bring us to the final. I posted the blog introducing this idea almost 4 years ago. We completed the first novel, Ulysses, and posted the blog in August 2012. We finished the first 50 books with […]
Today we’re talking about three more of the 100 greatest novels. Two of them are by what is all too rare in this list, a woman! Finally. After this, I’ll probably only have one more post in this series for the last four books. Can you believe that!? Let’s get to it. Wide Sargasso Sea by […]
It doesn’t feel real to be this close to the end of the 100 greatest novels list. I truly can’t believe how close we’re getting. Today, I’m talking about three more: 91-93. Let’s go. Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell The first two novels we’ll be talking about were really quick reads from authors that I weren’t […]
Today we have to talk about 4 more novels from the list of the 100 greatest. These four bring us ever so close to the end. We actually only have ten left! Can you believe it? I can’t. We started this in the summer of 2012, posting the first on August 20th. I know it’s […]
The next three from the 100 greatest novels were interesting in how different they were. I liked each one more than the one before it. We’ll get into the reasons below. I’m excited to talk about the last one though. Let’s go ahead and get to it. The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen […]
Tyson Peveto 