by Michael Waldrep

The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson

by

The Orphan Master’s Son is beautiful, heart-breaking fiction. But to write of things that some would call genocide as, “the slow endless pitch of everything to come,” is just too lovely, too contemporary, too literary.

Occupy and Democracy

by

Democracy is important. And it is difficult.

Reamde – Neal Stephenson

by

Reamde finds itself reveling in gun violence, a preoccupation not only with the the typical drama of cover fire and heads exploding under a sniper’s hail, but with the geeky details—hammers, safeties, gauges, and even idiosyncrasies of certain models of pistol. It is unflinching, unquestioning, and ultimately not very much fun.

Neal Stephenson

w/

When I was a kid, opening a sci-fi or fantasy book with a map inside front cover was always thrilling — to look at this imaginary landscape. And it’s still thrilling. I’m still a sucker for books where the first thing you see is a map…because of this feeling that you’re going into another world.

Sunset Park – Paul Auster

by

“The book seems, much in the same manner as many of its main characters, conflicted and unsure.”

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell

by

“The power of the novel lies not in its research, nor in any kind of experimental form, but in its pages.”