Brian Beise (Books Ningmaster)'s Blog Posts Tagged 'novels' (3)

Listen Jena, when he was young, poor, and hungry in Paris, Hemingway used to go to museums. He said his hunger brightened the colors of every painting he saw. With critics giving The Dark Knight Rises a standing ovation at an advanced screening, the wait for this movie is killing me. So, rather than sit and listen to my stomach rumble, I thought it best to let the hunger brighten some other good pop. Here are three ways to prepare for The Dark Knight…

Listen, Jena, I want to dig more into the scale of adventure. You know Daniel Defoe was sort of the father of the novel, but J.M. Coetzee's Foe goes after Defoe's best book, exploring the reasons we must tell stories, showing how details keep us speaking and listening.

Before…

Listen, Jena, if you get around to reading this entry, it won’t be because the title pulled you in. It’ll be because you love me, for some reason. This got me thinking about writing and mortality, and made me wonder; who’s better suited to enjoy Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol: his wife Catherine, or me?

Dickens dabbled in mesmerism. He was an actor, a philanthropist, a maker of amazing punch, and able to read his works aloud so effectively that women…