The Amityville Horror
I have a very old movie-tie in edition of The Amityville Horror and it was printed back when it was able to put the whole ‘based on a true story’ claim on the cover.
Contemporary
The 20th century contains a lot of small movements, categorized by modern history. Some are more prominent than others, and some are very difficult to define. That’s where the contemporary label comes in.
Post-modernism, structuralism, post-structuralism, post-post-modernism, deconstructionism, post-colonialism, hypertexts, and modern genre fiction can all be found here. Books that don’t fall into a broader movement can also be found here, including many topics of interest that are still current for readers.
Contemporary works were written mostly in the last 100 years. These books are usually a bit easier to find on shelf (though not always) in a bookstore.
You are viewing Contemporary reviews.
You can view all other eras/movements, or you can search by language/region, genre, editor/translator, book authors, or year of edition.
Psycho
Bloch writes a twisting thriller that manages to surprise, even when you’ve watched the film first.
All the President’s Men & Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
I often read as much about American politics as I do about the politics about my own country. Though it feels like I’m on the outside looking in when I read books like this, it to some extent feels closer than is comfortable as well.
The Dead Girls
What drew me to this book initially was the simple fact that my local independent bookstore had it in stock and it was a mystery published in the late 1970s that was dubbed a classic.
On The Road
This book goes beyond a road trip, because what it provides is more of a historical snapshot of what the roads and landscape were like over a half-century ago.
Travels With My Aunt
I didn’t plan on not being able to finish this book — but I didn’t finish. So this unreview is part of the journey, a bump on the literary road trip.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
On the surface, he’s travelling with his attorney and a trunk full of drugs in order to document a racing event and later on to attend a convention for law enforcement on drugs and drug culture. Below the surface, it’s a journey to figure out the purpose of journalism, idealism, and its role in the shifting tide of American culture. This is a review of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
The Copenhagen Trilogy
Chapters, paragraphs, sentences, and words flow into each other, but at the same time there are images and concepts that stand out and become touchstones for the work as a whole. This is a review of Tove Ditlevsen’s The Copenhagen Trilogy.
In Cold Blood
It’s a fast-paced narrative that critics and readers alike agree has literary merit. The debate comes from the author’s proclamation of being perfectly factual. This is a review of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.
The Sea, The Sea
I had read some of Murdoch’s work previously, but I admit that I wanted this set because the book design was gorgeous from the covers to the selection of typeface and the ratio of text to margins. This is a review of Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea.