Lore has a distinct style, and that same writing is present on every page of Cabinet of Curiosities, so much so that, without reading the audiobook, I still had Mahnke’s voice and delivery in my head, along with a light soundtrack from an imaginary Chad Lawson.
Tag Archives: Nonfiction
‘Chronicles’ An Intimate Look at One ‘Backyard’
It’s lovely and intimate to read such inner thoughts of another person. It’s intimate, too, to see Tan’s drawings improve over the years and the birds within them grow increasingly lifelike.
‘Bigfoot’ an Earnest Dive into Cryptid Lore
Even if I haven’t come away from this book believing in Sasquatch any more than I did going in, I have a far greater belief in the very real place, and effect, these stories have in our world.
‘West’ Ponders History Through Poem and Essay
West isn’t, and cannot be, an all-encompassing history of a time and place, but it is a fascinating and weighty addition to a more comprehensive view of the region that millions of us call home.
‘Heat’ Brings Only a Little Hope to Climate Crisis
Heat is certainly not a roadmap, but neither is it an indictment (at least, not for the average reader). Rather, it’s food for thought about changes that will not only affect all of us in some way.
‘Unraveling’ a Multi-Step Pandemic Project
Orenstein faces her project with a little good-natured self-deprecation. That attitude helps make each step, and misstep, feel more like a fascinating conversation than a staid travelogue or sermon.
‘Fever’ a Little Known but Familiar History
In detailing this little-known series of events, Fever provides a reminder that our fraught political landscape is nothing new, nor is a swift wave that threatens to sweep society back a few decades.
‘Art Thief’ a Compelling Portrait of Greed
The Art Thief is a slim book, under 200 pages. The story is riveting enough to make the pages fly by. The questions Stephane’s philosophy and crime stir up will last much longer than that.
‘Monsters’ Heavy on ‘Dilemma,’ Light on Answers
Much could and is said about the nature of “cancel culture,” but Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is more concerned with how we look at the art these accused, and sometimes convicted, have made.
‘Beauty’ a Balance Between Ordinary and Sublime
This is a book of stillness, and a book of contemplation. It’s a book about appreciation, and of change. Life, broadly, is all of those things, and All the Beauty in the World shows the value in recognizing that a little more.
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