Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘re-read this’

Reviews |

YOU'VE GOT TO RE-READ THIS: Stotan!, by Chris Crutcher

by Gwen Glazer

I picked up Chris Crutcher’s Stotan! on an early-morning flight to Boston, ready to mock both the book and the 10-year-old version of myself who loved it. Starting with the exclamation point in the title and some early cumbersome exposition (which includes a very excellent and totally non-ironic mention of Tom Selleck as a sex symbol), I was sure the book would be dated and ridiculous and that I was in for a very good time. Of course, 180 pages later, I was in tears as I returned my tray table to the upright position.


Reviews |

YOU'VE GOT TO RE-READ THIS: Moominsummer Madness, by Tove Jansson

by Charlotte Boulay

The first review in FWR’s “You’ve Got to Re-Read This” series. These days there is always something for children to do–often a rather shallow electronic distraction–but Tove Jansson’s Moomin books show readers of all ages that quietly sitting and thinking by yourself is a valuable activity. Her characters let us know that almost everyone is lonely from time to time, and that while community can be an antidote to loneliness, we can also learn from solitude.


Shop Talk |

the re-reading has begun

by Anne Stameshkin

FWR’s first “You’ve Got to Re-Read This” is up on our Reviews page. Charlotte Boulay tells us why the Moomin books, including Moominsummer Madness, fascinated her as a kid and why we should read them today. Writer-readers: Submissions (blog posts, essays, reviews, what-have-you) for this series remain open; send queries to fictionwritersreview@gmail.com.


Shop Talk |

songs of innocence and of experience

by Anne Stameshkin

On the topic of our “you’ve got to re-read this” series, I highly recommend this wonderful essay from Tim Kreider at Balitmore City Paper. When Books Could Change Your Life: Why What We Pore Over At 12 May Be The Most Important Reading We Ever Do Let’s all admit it: We never got over those first loves. Listen to the difference in the voices of any groups of well-read, overeducated people discussing contemporary fiction, or the greatest books they’ve ever read, and the voices of those same people, only two drinks later, talking about the books they loved as kids… […]



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