Review: Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Love. So much love. Okay, it was odd reading about the porn awards on my subway ride to teach small Korean children at a church-run English academy, but it was also hilarious. And I'd read the last essay on talk radio before, in a compilation, but it was sufficiently awesome that I decided to read it again today while sitting in Korean immigration. The piece on McCain was fascinating, even a decade later, and I really liked how he looked at the ethics of cooking lobster. I really should get to Infinite Jest asap. What that really means in real time, I have no idea!



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Review: All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire

All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



That was a one-day read. As vamp porn goes, it was pretty good.



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Review: Sins of the Night

Sins of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Meh. Read it on one day's subway commute though.



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Review: Digging to America

Digging to America by Anne Tyler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was more of a 3.5 stars. I thought I'd like the Korea angle, but what I ended up enjoying was the meditation on what it's like to spend a lot of time living in a foreign country.



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Review: Night's Cold Kiss

Night's Cold Kiss by Tracey O'Hara

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



For a book I picked up solely to occupy myself with while waiting for a sandwich, this turned out to be fairly entertaining, if you ignore the alien bit.



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Thanks by W. S. Merwin

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is