Waywords Book Reviews
Quick Takes on My Reading SteveAtWaywords on Storygraph Steve Chisnell on GoodreadsEver since I retired from the public school classroom, I have voraciously been consuming titles new and those I regretted missing. And in keeping with my goals, I want to find the value of the widest range of reading. Here are many, rating them based upon their own purpose or ambition.
“The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.”
–Oscar Wilde
Quoted in Oscar Wilde, Art and Morality: A Defence of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Stuart Mason (ed.) (1908)
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“Postcolonial Love Poem” by Natalie Diaz
Diaz’s work is a layered and nuanced work on desire and relationships, identity and resistance, on a backdrop of indigenous politics, one of the most powerful reads I have encountered.
“Bewilderment” by Richard Powers
Lyrical and quotable, it’s a dangerously simplified “answer” instead of a thoughtful opening of questions.
“Nightwood” by Djuna Barnes
“Nightwood” is beautiful and daring, suggestive and entwining, a love story or one of obsession and desperation–finding clarity for its contagonist is its challenge and charm.
“We3” by Grant Morrison
Basically a fair idea undeveloped, Morrison cuts every storytelling corner he can to offer us a thin story frame instead of a creative play on earlier works of the same topic: Plague Dogs? Incredible Journey? Conquest of the Planet of the Apes?
“How Minds Change” by Gerald McRaney
McRaney’s personal and scientific approach to revealing the nature of our contemporary polarized discourse and keys to healing it is both thought-provoking and practical; a great non-intuitive strategy for all of us!
“The Divergent Trilogy” by Veronica Roth
Derivative and predictable, this over-hyped series is far inferior to so much YA which aspires for something more.
“Nixon in China” libretto by Alice Goodman
Savvy, ironic, and contemporary, the stage may emanate the 1970s, but the incompetence of the American ideology to match what it encounters rings, of course, too truly; Goodman’s libretto more than earns its reputation for one of the best in opera.
“The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov
Audacious and profound, Bulgakov’s masterwork lives up to its reputation: a rich and adventurous reverie on the nature of evil and everything it touches.
“If It Bleeds” by Stephen King
Four fiendish takes on the monsters within us, these being even more dreadful, perhaps, than those exterior ones King finds to feed upon us.
“The Vampyre” by John Polidori
Cited as the first vampire novel (at least in this guise of the sensuous killer), Polidori’s story is odd in the incapacity of his hero/protagonist and its narrative distancing. Still, a quick read, lovers of horror will be happy to meet it.
“The Dhammapada,” Sayings of the Buddha
This magnificent meditative work must be read slowly, savored for its tone and emanating simplicity.
“Poetics” by Aristotle
A foundation of Western thinking on literature, there is little here that is not more effectively summarized elsewhere, though if you are into the nuances of Greek grammar . . .
“The Fatal Eggs” by Mikhail Bulgakov
A fun little side romp for Bulgakov where a bureaucracy-created apocalypse is thwarted not a bit by human competence!
“Saga” Vols 1-3 by Brian K. Vaughan
While this sf/fantasy graphic novel series has something to offend everyone, it remains a unique curiosity of universe-creation and storytelling choices.
“The Rake’s Progress” by W.H. Auden & Chester Kallman
A strong Stravinsky score cannot quite disguise a rather tried Faustian tale with little freshness.
“Oriental Mythology” by Joseph Campbell
This second volume of The Masks of God is a archeological and narrative examination of the history of Eastern tradition; while dated in terminology and some evidence, Campbell’s over-arching themes remain provocative and reflective ideas on how cultures shift across history, and perhaps how our own will/is.
“Gitanjali” by Rabindranath Tagore
Though the English translation is marred by earlier publisher tampering, this translation by the author remains a beautiful work of layered prayer and thought on peace and salvation.
“The Confessions” by Augustine of Hippo
A classic and still vital read on the nature of redemption and faith, the text is all the more rich and comprehensible with a larger guide for the context of its writing.
“Something is Killing the Children” (V 1-3) by James Tynion IV
A dark fantasy (horror?) designed for more shock value at times than effective plotting or nuanced characters.
“Hiroshima No Pika” by Toshi Maruki
Don’t forget to put some kind of excerpt here! Use it for social media.
“Buja’s Diary” by Seyeong O
A beautiful and grim set of tales around the Japanese occupation of Korea by poet O.
“Nice House on the Lake, Vols 1-2” by James Tynion IV
A trope-heavy graphic horror novel is made so much better by excellent character development and powerful artwork.
“The Argonauts” by Maggie Nelson
A powerful and intimate autobiographical exploration of motherhood, writing, sexuality, and relationships alongside theory–“autotheory”–from poet Nelson: more than worth the read, it’s a necessary evolution for scholarly writing.
“The Magic Mountain” by Thomas Mann
This classic and massive work needfully slows us down to reflect on philosophy and death. Worth the time (and the time again).