Oh, dear… Looks like I haven’t posted in more than a year…
Yep, I’ve been busy.
The Best Reading of 2023
[*) = reread]
I look at my selections of Top Books Read for 2023 (as well as the larger list of what I read, and yes, everything I read last year eventually gets reviewed here, so hang on to your hats), and I try to assess patterns. I will tell you, I’m not really one for the “Quality Lit Game” or “Contemporary Literature,” whether snooty NYTimes bestseller, or the YA crowding the book department at Target, or the action-packed Bourne/Reacher-rip-off techno-thriller you’ll find in the last places that still sell mass-market paperbacks. And the things that usually interest me are hardly the norm…
It's simplest to say I like Weirdness, Genuine Weirdness. It bugs me when a writing’s “weirdness” is utterly ostentatious and contrived, done to grab attention rather than an author’s honest pursuit. Don’t try so hard.
For 2023, I had meant to read only horror books (and I was planning to allow a wide definition of “horror”), but that quickly fell by the wayside: the first book read in the year was the sarcastic Amazon Jungle-based nonfiction adventure White Waters and Black (TIE for Best Read of the Year!)—which could be considered “horror” through a level of mental gymnastics, I suppose—yeah, nearly all the creatures they meet (and perhaps some of the humans) want to eat the narrator and company, but that sly and conniving tone that author Gordon MacCreagh uses! It prevents considering this wonderful book as horror.
But despite that, it was a year for humans dealing with terrifying animals—whether with a comedic, serious, or super-scientific tone, with critters natural or otherwise….
Predators I Have Known by Alan Dean Foster (2011) [non-fiction; you name it, it’s here—ready to kill you…]
The Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene (2006) —Best Horror Read This Year—
White Shark by Peter Benchley (1994) [not a Great White, but a mutant psycho….]
*) Domain by James Herbert (1984) [mutant rats] Best reread this year!
Bad books with gnarly animals—
Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2017)
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (2017) [mermaids, but not the supernatural kind….]
Maybe it’s that the “natural” world we claim to understand is far beyond what we can imagine, and doesn’t just like to hide (a la Heraclitus), but likes to surprise us. The animal world is closer to the world of the machine elves/ultraterrestrials, and the animals may be the emissaries of the Fourth Dimension… C’mon, you’ve seen a cat staring at something that’s not there—well, it’s there; we just can’t see it.
Other Reads:
Ymir, Nostrilia, and The Stars, My Destination form a sort of unofficial Cosmic SF Trilogy for me—if you liked one, you’re bound to like the others—although I’ll admit that a level of maturity or skill is required—none of these excellent novels is an “easy” or “straightforward” read, with all of them showing some degree of literary or stylistic experimentation (for the time published, at least). All three are bound by singular, driven protagonists who may or may not be “good guys,” surrounded by engrossing characters and deftly-built worlds that never wear out their welcome—and all three are packed with forward momentum; not always action, but something new, weird, and captivating—like a super-soldier commando school in a duplicate of Mt. St-Michel on Mars (TSMD), or the stomach-churning details of how a body is prepped for suspended animation during the years of interstellar flight (Ymir). And Nostrilia? Where do I start?
Then, My Metaphysical Pursuits—
The Devil’s Day by James Blish (1968; 1970; 1990)
The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham (1908)
The Unobstructed Universe by Stewart Edward White (1940)
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (2009)
*) The Quest for Wilhelm Reich by Colin Wilson (1981)
Monsters, Giants and Little Men From Mars: An Unnatural History of the Americas by Daniel Cohen (1975)
Altered States by Paddy Chayefsky (1978)
The Heaven Makers by Frank Herbert (1968; 1977)
Even I am a little puzzled by the strange stew being cooked by the kooky collection of fave reading material!
That said,,,
AND NOW, the WINNERZ!
YEAR’s BEST—TIE!
White Waters and Black by Gordon MacCreagh (1926)
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (2013)
Rest of the BEST (in alphabetical order)
The Devil’s Day by James Blish (1968; 1970; 1990)
The Enchanters by James Ellroy (2023)
Predators I Have Known by Alan Dean Foster (2011)
The Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene (2006) —Best Horror Read This Year—
Ymir by Rich Larson (2022) —Best SF Read This Year—
The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham (1908)
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith (1975, and 1962)
The Unobstructed Universe by Stewart Edward White (1940)
RUNNERZ-UP (The Bronze!) [mainly rereads and pulp-ish]
*) Captain America and the Falcon: Madbomb by Jack Kirby (1976)
White Shark by Peter Benchley (1994)
*) The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester (1956)
*) Domain by James Herbert (1984) 2023's best reread!
WURZT~!!! To be avoided like the plague—
WORST ([reviews hidden in the mess below]):
Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2017)
Black & White by Lewis Shiner (2008)
We Are the Martians: The Legacy of Nigel Kneale, edited by Neil Snowdon (2017)
Monica by Daniel Clowes (2023)
And several DNFs that I don’t want to remember now…It’s interesting that all my WORSTs and DNFs are contemporary works. Ahhhh, this hideous modern age…
REVIEWS—Starting with the best:
White Waters and Black by Gordon MacCreagh (1926)
Best Read of the Year—TIE—
The first book I read in 2023, turned out to be (one of) the best!
Written in a cranky style that must have influenced William S. Burroughs (who had his own journey through Amazonia with The Yage Letters), this incredible non-fiction adventure tale chronicles the (non) progress of the world’s most poorly planned expedition into the Amazon. Had I had any hair, I would have torn the last of it out as I read this ridiculous and frustrating account of the foibles of human stupidity and hubris. “Pennywise and pound foolish” doesn’t do justice to the poor planning on display.
Along the way, we learn that sloth tastes like mutton (mmm…), and that anteater tastes awful—because it eats ants. And that everything else wants to eat you. Everything. Really.
I loved the resigned cynicism and dry sarcasm with which MacCreagh delivers his misadventures, as well as the pride he exhibits when a cockamamie scheme succeeds—usually against all odds. An inspirational read for all those who like to beat their own path through the wilderness (whether genuine or metaphorical), in the city or countryside—an independent is an independent wherever they may set their feet! A must read.
Recommended to me by college buddy Jim P. back in 1987 (Jim wound up being a Park Ranger with 30-plus-years service)—it took me more than 30 years to find this book! (Of course, me forgetting about it for a while didn’t help…) Glad I stuck with it!
Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi (2013)
Best Read of the Year—TIE /
Various strands of daily life intertwine in the post-U.S. occupation of Iraq, with the author using the tools of Tom Wolfe’s New Journalism/Capote’s Non-Fiction Novel (copious socially-relevant, intensely observational non-fiction/journalistic research) to add rich details.
These individual stories intersect, and then are further intersected by the restless spirit that has come to inhabit a sewn-together homunculus created from all the stray body parts blown all over Baghdad from the numerous suicide bombings and other terror efforts and combat.
As spiritually deep and questing as Mary Shelley’s creation, this novel combines an Arabic-influenced Gothic horror with the modern horror of contemporary urban warfare.
Don’t call this novel “magical realism,” though, as Frankenstein in Baghdad is much deeper and darker—and relevant—than what you might expect from magical realism (maybe it’s me; I think the genre designation “magical realism” has become too twee and fluffy for its own good). Tie for best book read this year.
Picked this novel up on a whim; it paid off.
The Rest of the Best (listed in order read):
Predators I Have Known by Alan Dean Foster (2011)
—Top Ten—
Sci-fi scribe Foster channels P.G. Wodehouse for the writing portion of this book as in IRL he acts like a non-lethal Hemingway having face-to-face encounters with the world’s most dangerous animals; this is deliciously droll non-fiction. These are stories that, had they been fiction, you would say were impossible, but since they aren’t, they’re SO damn amazing. Swimming with sharks and poisonous octopi, avoiding carnivorous ants, being stalked by an elephant (they are dangerous, it turns out), and several more adventures with the creepy-crawlies of the world are delivered by Foster in a pleasant and self-effacing tone that keeps the reader turning the pages.
The Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene (2006)
—Top Ten/Best Horror Read This Year
—Must-read for gorehounds!
—It rains for 40 days, then giant supernatural carnivorous worms show up. And surfing Satanists have taken over a flooded Baltimore. Wild, wild, action-packed, gore-drenched horror. The epitome of a page-turner.
Jeez, I wish I could remember through whom I discovered this excellent tome…
Ymir by Rich Larson (2022)
—Top Ten/Best SF of 2023/
Filial grudges come to bear as the sibling who left the mines to work “security” [assassination, mutant hunting, union busting, etc.] returns home to deal with strikers, ancient monsters, mysterious alien tech, and a contentious brother. A page-turner that’s rich in details, and routinely surprises, not going in expected directions, nor delivering obvious conclusions.
I’d love to go into more details, especially about author Larson’s exquisite world-building, but instead: Discover this book on your own! Be amazed like I was!
Looking forward to author Larson’s next, certainly!
Ymir was discovered via a recommendation from the vivacious YouTuber Shades of Orange.
The Devil’s Day by James Blish (1968; 1970; 1990)
—Top Ten— A degenerate billionaire starts a nuclear war to unleash Hell—and it works, with demons swarming the land. Based on actual occult texts (!!!—YOWZAH!), and seriously crushing against Cold War militarism, The Devil’s Day sounds like trash, but plunges into some deep theological thought. This book has such as striped-down, neo-haiku style that further descriptions won’t do it justice.
It’s a “fix up” of two novellas; which is why there’s three years listed after the title above: the first book (1968’s Black Easter), the second (The Day After Judgment from 1970), and finally the combined renamed volume, published in 1990. Abe Books had the hardcover for a good price, and it’s now on my research shelf.
Discovered via the YouTuber Bookpilled, and I am very grateful; The Devil’s Day is a thought-provoker that sticks with you well afterward.
The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham (1908)
—Top Ten—Sometimes it’s such a joy to plunge into “older” writing: so stylish, so polished, so poised! Sigh…. A delight.
An utterly pedestrian bourgeois couple take on airs around a genuine weirdo and suffer the consequences.
Wait, Aleister Crowley stand-in Oliver Haddo is the bad guy? You’re kidding, right? The other protagonists are such solid denizens of self-imposed snoozeville booshie zombie lifestyles that whatever mayhem Haddo chucks into their lives is well-deserved, IMHO.
I dug this book! A lot of fun, and damn! Gotta love old school word constructions!
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith (1975, and 1962)
—Top Ten— With the help of his uncle’s computer, a teenager (who has miraculously survived his society’s culling rituals: gotta keep the population down!) becomes the richest man in the universe—and buys the planet Earth. Borderline psychedelic mayhem ensues as the kid endures multiple adventures assisted by an evolutionarily enhanced cat. Yep, also a classic!
I owned a copy of this as a paperback back in the late-1970s, but couldn’t get into it at the time; I was reintroduced to this via several BookTubers praise of it, but especially the moody genius of Bookpilled, who routinely champions author Cordwainer Smith (which is a pseudonym, check out the author’s history HERE)—in addition to Nostrilia, Smith wrote the handbook on psychological warfare! Really!
The Enchanters by James Ellroy (2023)
—Top Ten—the death of Marilyn Monroe draws together a kaleidoscope of sleazebags, creeps, and corrupt cops. Hardly one of Ellroy’s “great works” (a la This Storm or Blood’s a Rover), but so much fuckin’ fun! A pure pulp bulldozer that takes no prisoners.
The Unobstructed Universe by Stewart Edward White (1940)
—Top Ten—There is no afterlife; there is only this universe, but we cannot see the people who have altered and entered a new (to them) vibratory plane. Metaphysics, man! It’s groovy!
That said, this book is truly only for those interested in its subject—that is, unless metaphysics is your jam, this ain’t for you/
The book claims to be non-fiction, but I found myself enjoying it more if I thought it was fiction—but written in a new and unique style, akin to a mockumentary or fake history—but still strongly presenting its ideas of a world just beyond our line of “sight.” [Maybe it was that I felt the characters were acting too simplistically for “real” people; that the reader would accept boneheaded actions from fictionally characters more readily…. But this is a rabbit hole I do not want to go down further…. Especially because the topic is metaphysics….]
RUNNERZ-UP:
*) Captain America and the Falcon: Madbomb by Jack Kirby (1976)
Not so much a superhero comic as a spy comic as Steve Rogers finds and fights a super-science fascist conspiracy to retake the U.S. for British royalty. Kee-ray-zee! Released as part of the U.S. Bicentennial celebration, and rough & tumble-masculine in ways that only mid-1970s comics written by actually WWII vets can be.
This book is DAMN PRESCIENT!!! Mind-control, elites contemptuously destroying the “freedom freaks,” genetic modification, and private armies. “Did the Madbomb go off, and we didn’t know it?” asks Christopher Loring Knowles.
White Shark by Peter Benchley (1994)
—GREAT TRASH, perfect for the beach. Almost on the Ten Best List…
Reading this, you think Benchley started with a tender novel about a father trying to reconnect with an estranged son after a particularly bad divorce—and then his editor said, “Put a shark in it and make it gory!” The book is a perfect page-turner, but quite schizoid, as we bounce from the meandering slaughters of a leftover Nazi experiment (a shark-man hybrid: der weisse hai!), to a dad and son rediscovering their bonds. Of course, it all leads to the climax where Dad saves Junior, but totes gory, page-turning fun, with a decent body count. I’m a big supporter of Peter Benchley, and I’m planning to reread Jaws (which I originally read in 1974 (!)), and is actually very different from the flick.
*) The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester (1956)
The CLASSIC! This is either the seventh or eighth time I’ve read this book; I really get where protagonist Gully Foyle is coming from.
Image a cosmic There Will Be Blood set in a future that would give Captain Picard an aneurysm. That’s The Stars, My Destination, possibly one of the most influential SF books ever written.
*) Domain by James Herbert (1984)
—Best Reread of 2023! WWIII sends the humans into the underground bomb shelters—where oversized, mutant rats lurk… Some scenes still raise gooseflesh! Deffo for fans of Horror, especially gorehounds. Lots of nightmare fuel here as rodents devour humans unstopped. Gruesome…and awesome. A perfect horror page-turner, and one that will go on the shelf next to The Conqueror Worms (reviewed above).
Everything Else That I Read in the Year of Our Lord 2023:(including the WORSTs)
In the order I read them…
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain (1936)
Disappointing; the movie is better [or rather, I would like this book more if I had not seen the film and that it wasn’t so damn good—the movie’s a genuine noir classic, a must-see!].
Kingdom Come by J.G. Ballard (2006)
Ballard’s always great, but after Brexit, COVID, and the Social Media Brain Rot, this book has become stiff and dated in ways that his weirdo 1960s novels (like The Crystal World) have not.
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb (2009)
Great art! But that text needs some editing—I kid! I kid!
*) Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)
Didn’t love this as much as I did when I was a teen… Vonnegut’s inspirational, but his snarky style has been so thoroughly co-opted that the progenitor suffers as a result…
*) The Quest for Wilhelm Reich by Colin Wilson (1981)
Great take on the life of the maligned/insane psychiatrist (but that only needs to be read once). I am a fan of author Wilson, and find his take on subjects to be eye-opening and thought provoking; back in the 1980s, he would lecture in NYC occasionally, and I attended a couple. I like his philosophies and theories.
Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2017)
—VERY disappointing, although the chapters from the cybernetically-enhanced dog’s perspective are fantastic! The alternating chapters, from different humans’ POV, utterly suck, though.
I cannot understand why no one told Tchaikovsky this: Had the “human” chapters of the novel simply had been left out, the book would still have still been long enough to be a (shortish) novel, and any gaps in the information flow that a reader might notice would have been chalked up to the New Wave/Experimental aspects of the book—as it would now be a story told solely from the genetically-altered, mecho/chemically-implanted canine’s perspective.
BTW, what’s with the utterly pedestrian, shockingly obvious title? A completely lazy choice. Was this book a “contractual obligation album”?
Many, many people (on the BookTube channels at least) love, love, love Tchaikovsky’s work, but this experience has left a bad taste in my mouth, and I will not be trying his other novels (not unless I find a copy for free in the street—and maybe not even then).
Monsters, Giants and Little Men From Mars: An Unnatural History of the Americas by Daniel Cohen (1975)
Decent primer about legends and legendary critters aimed at younger readers, and I’ll keep it for the reference shelf.
*) Fiction Illustrated, Vol. 2: Starfawn by Byron Preiss and Stephen Fabian (1976)
Space Opera comic book/graphic novel that was a childhood fave with some incredible pre-Heavy Metal illustrations. The first human faster-than-light starship collides with a mammoth cruiser, and a unique and thoughtful “first contact” story ensues. Recommended for fans of Becky Chambers-like “nice” SF. Also: the illustrations are great, and artist Fabian sure knows how to capture the female form—a primary reason I loved this comic back in the 1970s!
Black & White by Lewis Shiner (2008)
– Contender for Worst Book Read This Year: First third of this weird opus of white guilt would have made an excellent novella, but the rest piles on seen-it-comin’-a-mile-away coincidences until you’re sick. Awful, and essentially unreadable.
Altered States by Paddy Chayefsky (1978)
Basically notes for the screenplay, but worth it for me: The book’s a primer regarding occult/transcendent/metaphysical knowledge, and deffo goes on the reference shelf. Otherwise, a crap novel, with no plot and dullard protagonists, with deus ex machinas disgustingly prolific. If you’re not collector scum, or a deranged autodidactic sorcerer (like me!), this book is pointless. On the other hand, Ken Russell’s film of Altered States is a blast, and something to greatly enjoy after gobbling a handful of THC gummies.
Alien³ by Alan Dean Foster, based on a script by David Giler & Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson, story by Vincent Ward, based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon & Ronald Shusett (1992)
Found this at Salvation Army for a buck; had to pick it up (2023 was supposed to be the year I concentrated solely on horror books—remember?). Interesting because it’s based on a script that was then ditched, but otherwise Garbage book, only worth it for novelization-nerds (see YouTube channel “Reading Movies”) or mega-hardcore Alan Dean Foster fans.
Geniuses by Jonathan Reynolds (1978, 1983; play)
Hired as a ghost writer for Apocalypse Now (Reynolds’ only contribution to the flick was the line, “What do you know about surfing, Major? You’re from New Jersey!”), the author was one of the crew trapped in the Philippines during the infamous typhoon, and he turned the experience into a play. With so much info about the insane production of the Vietnam War classic out there (Hearts of Darkness, et al), this play is now only a curiosity for fans, and largely forgettable.
Jojo’s Story by Antoinette Moses (2000; novella)
[read as part of ESL class exercises—my job]
Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson (2000)
—This lost points for being too open-ended regarding a sequel. Started off well, intersecting plenty of conspiracies, with a breezy, action-packed style suitable for a mass-market paperback, but there was no conclusion, just an ending—with the obvious sequel on the horizon. Annoying!
Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant (2017)
—for 9/10ths of this, the book is PERFECT. Then, almost in the last five pages, blows away all goodwill with a cash-grab for a sequel. (And personally, I wish the “monsters” had been supernatural horror, not scientific horror, but that’s just me.) Can’t recommend because I feel betrayed. I’m sick of “series.” NAME was SO DISAPPOINTING because it had been SO EXCELLENT up until the 9/10ths mark: I was loving this book, then pffffft!
Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix (2014)
Too snarky for its own good, and a lost opportunity to instill the idea of the Ikea-like shopping center as a soul-sucking abyss of cosmic nihilism. There’s a lot of buzz surrounding author Hendrix (and his work towards preserving paperback horror art is to be applauded), and I read this to see if I like his stuff. Nope, sorry—I feel that I’m more of a gorehound regarding horror, and gore goes well with sick humor, but not snark.
Telefon by Walter Wager (1975)
Inspiration for the movie, and fun 1970s pulp action. The movie’s a little better because you get watch Charles Bronson play a KGB assassin, kicking ass and taking names. Wager also wrote Viper 3 which was made into Robert Aldrich’s underrated thriller Twilight’s Last Gleaming.
The Formula by Steve Shagan (1979)
Inspiration for the movie, and fun 1970s pulp action. The book’s a fun page-turner, but the movie’s better, with Marlon Brando channeling Dick Cheney as the flick’s seminal villain, an “aw, shucks” oilman who criticizes his Mexican gardener for putting too much chlorine in the pool: “It hurts the frogs!” he chastises. Meanwhile, the scenes in a German brothel/disco are right out of an R. Kern movie. George C. Scott’s hero cop is a bit of a snooze, but since it’s George C. Scott earning a paycheck, the scenery gets chewed up regularly and with plenty of energy. The book was obviously written as a predecessor to the screenplay, and the two’s history is intertwined. Still fun trash, both to read and view.
The Heaven Makers by Frank Herbert (1968; 1977)
“Straight” SF readers might not dig this book, but if you’re hep to tales of UFO abductees as well as the sightings of “little people” near UFO sightings, this novel makes a whole lot more sense.
I like Herbert’s non-Dune works (which tends to get ignored by Dune cultists); they’re weird but logical, quite thoughtful, and often go in unexpected directions (that are still logical; see also Hellstrom’s Hive). As might be expected from the creator of the Dune series, politics and social dynamics are also examined thoroughly in The Heaven Makers.
Specimens by Fred Saberhagen (1976)
Another SF book that’s better if appreciated as a piece of fiction in the otherwise usually nonfiction UFO abductee genre. Otherwise, a mediocre work.
We Are the Martians: The Legacy of Nigel Kneale, edited by Neil Snowdon (2017)
–Contender for Worst Book Read This Year for being such a salivating, pandering, stupidly repetitive hagiography (was there no editor on this useless waste of paper?). What also doesn’t help is that the subject of the book vilifies himself with his disdain for “genre” work like sci-fi or horror. Sometimes you shouldn’t learn about people whose work you admire; Nigel Kneale, case in point.
Saga: Volume One by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples (2012)
Snarky modern comics where nothing is serious, and wisecracks rule the day; the stuff’s okay, I guess, but I’m not interested in reading more of this, nor do I care enough to give a synopsis—although I’ll say that the “mythos” this comic series creates is similar to the ones created by author Roger Zelazny, and that instead of Saga, dig up his work (like Creatures of Light and Darkness or the Amber series).
*) Angry Young Spaceman by Jim Monroe (2001)
A bit of a shaggy dog story: nothing much happens, but if you’re a fan of Becky Chambers-like “nice SF,” this is for you. A young man gets a job teaching ESL on an alien world (an underwater society of octopi living in highly-oxygenated water, so you can stay underwater without any scuba gear), and we’re given various, not-quite-explained (no info-dumps here!) looks into life on the aquatic planet. Enjoyable, light, and “nice.”
I had fun rereading this but I’m not sure anyone else needs to read this.
Cosmic Odyssey: The Deluxe Edition by Jim Starlin and Mike Mignola (1988; 2017)
Nice superhero tribute/revival of Jack Kirby’s DC comics characters (New Gods, specifically). Superman, Batman, et al join forces with seminal figures from Kirby’s Fourth World series to prevent a universal erasure. Mignola’s art is cool. For fans only.
The Director Should’ve Shot You: Memoirs of the Film Trade by Alan Dean Foster (2021)
A fun behind-the-scenes read about the convoluted and often exceedingly frustrating process of novelizing a screenplay. Foster has novelized plenty of classics: Star Wars (ghostwritten for George Lucas), Alien, The Black Hole, and plenty of others. His novelization of John Carpenter/Dan O’Bannon’s film Dark Star is actually funnier than the film itself, IMHO.
ADF is too polite and nice regarding his experiences with the dunderheads whose contracts he had to sign, though. A book like this calls for venom! Which is in short supply—you can tell ADF wants to blast these morons, but damn! The man is too darn noble. To all of our benefits, I suppose.
The book is a lot of fun—but for only the most hard-core fans.
Bad Love by Sue Leather (2003; novella)
[read as part of ESL class exercises]
I Am Stan: A Graphic Biography of the Legendary Stan Lee by Tom Scioli (2023)
Wow, Stan Lee was a dick!
Berlin Express by Michael Austen (2010; novella)
[read as part of ESL class exercises]
Monica by Daniel Clowes (2023)
–Contender for Worst Book Read This Year; horrible! Not sure who this graphic novel is meant for, but not me. I did not understand the point of this book—and the way Monica is written, I feel that its attitude is that I’m a moron for not getting it. Dan Clowes lost me a long time ago.
--FIN--
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