Category Archives: Year

Troll: A Love Story, by Johanna Sinisalo

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Thistle

Mikael (aka Angel) has just broken up with his boyfriend to date a new guy, but the new guy, conflicted about his sexuality, rejects him the night they go out. Mikael returns home, drunk and dejected, to find a baby … Continue reading →

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Passing, by Nella Larsen

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Thistle

One day as Irene is visiting Chicago from New York, she meets up with an old friend of hers from childhood, Clare. Both women are African American, but pale-skinned enough that they can “pass” as white. Irene has chosen not … Continue reading →

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Mondays in the Middle East, by David Cross

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Thistle

Mondays in the Middle East is a collection of emails. David Cross and his family lived in the Middle East for many years, where he studied the culture. Every week on Monday he would send an email home to friends/family … Continue reading →

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Mrs. Craddock, by William Somerset Maugham

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Thistle

When Bertha Ley falls in love with a farmer on her family’s land, Edward Craddock, she flies against convention to marry beneath her. Her love is passionate, violent, and irrational, while Edward’s love for her is calm, sensible, and steady. … Continue reading →

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Stories, by Vladimir Nabokov

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Thistle

Nearly 70 short stories fill this volume, which is supposed to be all of Nabokov’s known short stories. I read most of these over the last few weeks of December, leaving only a handful to finish up in 2011. I’ve … Continue reading →

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The Host, by Stephenie Meyer (audio)

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Thistle

Wanderer is a Soul, a parasitic alien who has lived through multiple lives on multiple planets before coming to earth to invade a new host, a girl named Melanie. Earth has been mostly taken over by the new alien race, … Continue reading →

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Cold Comfort Farm, by Stella Gibbons

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Thistle

Nineteen year old Flora Poste has just been orphaned. She doesn’t want to work – why work if you can easily live off others? – so she sets out to mooch off her extended family until she decides to marry, … Continue reading →

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Christmas Holiday, by William Somerset Maugham

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Thistle

Charley Mason, part of a fairly well-to-do family in England, goes to Paris for his Christmas holidays to visit an old friend and have a bit of fun. Everything changes, though, when Charley’s friend (Simon, now very changed) introduces him … Continue reading →

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Returning to Haifa, by Ghassan Kanafani

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Thistle

My sister recommended three novellas by Ghassan Kanafani, and so I read all three. This was the last of them. In this story, Said and his wife Safiyya are going back to their home town Haifa twenty years after they … Continue reading →

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The Rock and the River, by Kekla Magoon

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Thistle

The Rock and the River is set in the late sixties during the Civil Rights Movement. Sam is a thirteen year old boy caught between two paths of the Movement. His father is one of the leaders in the peaceful … Continue reading →

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