Retreading Surrealism and Existentialism: 2 books I liked

MONSTERS AND MYTHS: SURREALISM & WAR IN THE 1930s AND 1940s: Come for the glorious gatefold reproducing Europe After The Rains II (detail below) in its entirety, stay for four essays diving deep into Surrealism as an interwar movement, one that drew on WWI trauma (some, like Ernst, were veterans) and gave dark omens of … Continue reading Retreading Surrealism and Existentialism: 2 books I liked →

Book Review: JOHANNES ANGELOS, by Mika Waltari (with spoilers)

[Read in Greek, so the few quotes are approximated] [Content warning: historical detail may resonate in manner disheartening to modern Greeks] Part of the reason this doesn't make 4 stars is just my own differing expectations. I came for the forbidden romance set against falling Constantinople, and halfway through I found myself in the middle … Continue reading Book Review: JOHANNES ANGELOS, by Mika Waltari (with spoilers) →

I am Gnomon and I will now review myself (with spoilers)

Nick Harkaway sighs and scratches his stubble as he waits for the washing machine to finish, a round of wool on standby. Fatally, he's squatting impatiently next to the machine while it's juddering its utmost, and the shape of his cognition, still stretching into the late morning and clouded with pre-Brexit anxieties, cannot make room for … Continue reading I am Gnomon and I will now review myself (with spoilers) →

Book takeaway: THE BYZANTINE ECONOMY, by Angeliki E. Laiou and Cecile Morisson

Laiou and Morrison's The Byzantine Economy is a study, not a story. I read it as an outsider struggling to keep up with the endless silks, vineyards, pottery, glassware, legislation, special taxes and shipwrecks so the conclusions make sense and there is gist to take away. The book covers almost the entirety of the empire's … Continue reading Book takeaway: THE BYZANTINE ECONOMY, by Angeliki E. Laiou and Cecile Morisson →

Book Review: MOVE UNDER GROUND, by Nick Mamatas

Mamatas kick-started his career with this rollicking road-trip adventure mashing the Beats with the Cthulhu Mythos. Far from foreign bodies, as he shows, these two entities share dark links, both navigating existential voids and the lure of enlightenment on broadly individualist terms. Among the book's most confident chapters are in the beginning, where Jack is … Continue reading Book Review: MOVE UNDER GROUND, by Nick Mamatas →