Everichon

A ce point, c'est tres bien fait (je n'ai lu que 50 pages encore).

I'm only 50 pages into Jennifer Egan's The Keep. I am liking it so much that I must restrain myself from ripping out the pages and eating them.

Susanna Clarke is not for everybody, and The Ladies Of Grace Adieu is not even a sure thing for those who liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The book reads like a series of eminently competent five-finger exercises prior to bashing out Norrell. A good number of the stories are "covers" of folk tales, including a nice Rumplestiltskin variant via Cornwall. I am infatuated with Clarke's understated wit and mastery of Regency-style prose; she could write a technical manual about a hairdryer and I would find it engrossing. If a reader is just out for a ripping yarn, Grace Adieu may not be the best place to look.

Laura Barrett is delightfully weird, and does unnatural things with a kalimba. On her Rare Earth EP, she combines thumb-piano prowess with lyrics that take Melvins-like liberties with coherence. It all works really well, I can't stop listening.

Dark, paranoid, and not entirely coherent. I liked it anyway: the illustrations are superb, and the net effect of the book is pleasantly nasty. 5 mental-health professionals cope with an emerging conspiracy of medical experimentation on children. Always in the background is the panopticon-modeled hospital, and it's not totally clear that the narrative isn't some kind of dream the building itself is having.