literature
Geek literature from the New York Times or the recesses of online. Our favorite stories showcase geeks.
Romance Reviews: Daphne Loveling's 'Lords of Carnage'
In the world of romance, there are many sub-genres. As a reader, we pick the ones that interest us, and in many cases, we pick the ones that reflect things in our lives. I grew up around bikers. My favorite babysitters were a biker and his old lady. I also married into a biker family, worked around bikers and my children’s godfather was a biker. So, when I chose to read M.C. romance, it was important to me that they were represented well. As a romance reader, I do expect them to have hot romance and even hotter men. In the Lords of Carnage series, I found everything I expected.
By Amanda Penn7 years ago in Geeks
Cultivating a Garden in Candide and Huck Finn
Since the Enlightenment period, Voltaire’s Candide, or Optimism, has served as the basis for many works of literature. The concept of the protagonist’s quest has been capitalized over the years in countless pieces of film and literature, including in Mark Twain’s classic novel, Huckleberry Finn. Comparing the works of Voltaire and Twain, similarities between the main characters and their journeys arise, adding to the common satirical themes on morality and human suffering, which prove to be ever-present throughout each plot. The journeys of both young Candide and young Huck Finn serve a purpose far greater than either naïve character could realize, underlining these overarching themes through each character’s developing morality. While originating from different backgrounds, Candide from a somewhat privileged class in Westphalia and Huck from the very bottom of the social ladder in the antebellum South, both characters demonstrate a similar sense of naïveté about the world. Candide is taught by the family oracle, Pangloss, that this “is the best of all possible worlds” (Voltaire, 1). For Huck, he lives life oblivious of the issues in his society and, enjoying “laying off comfortable all day” (Twain, 6). In contrast to Candide, Huck recognizes some of the bad things in his life, such as his alcoholic father, and makes an active decision to begin his quest down the Mississippi River. In Candide’s case, coincidence seems to play a larger role at the beginning of his quest, as he gets tricked into the military and cannot “for the soul of him conceive how he came to be a hero” (Voltaire, 2).
By Jennifer Joyce7 years ago in Geeks
4 Reasons Why 'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing' Is an Absolutely Remarkable Novel
Below are four things I particularly loved about Hank Green’s debut novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, henceforth affectionately referred to as AART. WARNING: some may consider these thoughts to be mild spoilers, but I like to think of them more as pleasant samples of joy regarding the wonder that awaits when you finally check out AART on your own. Enjoy!
By Coral Evergreen7 years ago in Geeks
5 Novels to Read this Fall
I've been tangled in the love of reading all my life. It's kept me cool in the summer and warm in the Fall when the leaves turn apple red and the wind bears it's claws. We've had a lot of adventures together, reading and I, and it's been on those mind-bending and path-twisting escapades where I have found myself in extraordinary company.
By M R Britton7 years ago in Geeks
Reason First: How Romanticism Wins Against Every School of Art
The chasm remaining from the demise ten years ago of David Foster Wallace still stuns members of the literati. His words marked a shift in the tone, atmosphere, and tenor of the current state of the written word. A decade ago on this date, Wallace ended his own life by hanging. All of the idealism, thought, and childlike wonder got swallowed up by Death. But his legacy remains. Because of the fact that he left a tome of over one thousand words, Infinite Jest (1996), replete with footnotes and musings on the Postmodernist school all while writing in the school that he critiqued. One of the targets of Wallace’s pen was irony. Deep in the psyche of the current figures within the culture, the ironical is a key component of the modern author.
By Skyler Saunders7 years ago in Geeks
'Heartless' by Marissa Meyer
Welcome to the magical world of Wonderland, where here you learn the story of the Queen of Hearts! In the wonderful world of the Queen of Hearts, we know the story of Alice but did you know how the Queen of Hearts came about? I didn’t! Not until I read Heartless by Marissa Meyer. She writes “I hope you’ll forgive any inaccuracies, or even chalk them up to creative license if you’re feeling generous, and I sincerely hope that the spirit of Lewis Carroll will find more amusement than offense in my attempts to expand on his crazy, kooky, quirky world. It is Wonderland after all.” Lewis Carroll is the original writer of Alice In Wonderland. I honestly felt as if I was in Wonderland experiencing all the magic myself! Come live in the fictional world of Wonderland.
By Dagny Desiree7 years ago in Geeks
Six Stories My Mother Gave Me. Top Story - September 2018.
I have always loved books, and I give my wonderful mother full credit for encouraging and indulging that love when I was growing up. She started by reading to me, and when I was older we'd stand in front of our copious library and she'd pull her favourites from the shelf and pile them up in my arms for me to read in my own time. She never patronised me by fobbing me off with teen lit (I could find that for myself at school), and I really love her for that. We still talk and discuss and disagree about books today! These are some of the stories she either read to me or gave to me thinking that I might find them interesting.
By Harriet Christabel7 years ago in Geeks
5 Books to Read Before You're 25
1. 'She's Come Undone' by Wally Lamb Get ready to go on an adventure from childhood to adulthood as Dolores Price. Her cynical, yet hilarious personality is almost shocking. She has a long, twisting road ahead of her. Lamb writes with so much passion it leaves his readers aching for Dolores as she stumbles through her many trials of tragedy. She goes through life losing, jobs, people, you name it. She can't seem to catch a break no matter what. Betrayed by anyone who gave half a damn, Dolores is basically on her own before even graduating high school. Dolores is a character who anyone could potentially love, one you won't be able to resist cheering for. Once you start, I bet you can't stop reading. Dolores will have you laughing and crying.
By Waverleigh Rose Garlington7 years ago in Geeks
A Lifetime of Magic
The year is 1997. The first Harry Potter book comes out and the world has no idea that it is about to be taken by storm. No one yet knows that J.K Rowling, a young woman from the United Kingdom, has just given life to one of the greatest literary phenomenons in history. That magic is yet to be discovered. Especially for three children all the way across the world in the small town of Englewood, Ohio. I was only four when that book was released. I have very little memory of it. I do, however, have memories of the way my brother's room smelled when I snuck into it. The way that the pictures on his walls—not at all appropriate for a child—made me giggle. I remember the way his blankets felt so much warmer than mine when I would snuggle up underneath them, and I remember the sound of him coming home, and trying to put everything back the way I found it before he could realize I had been there. My first emotional connection to the famous series lies here. In the shelved of my big brother's bunk bed. Years would come and this would continue, until I was finally caught pulling Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire down from those shelves in the year 2000. I was caught by my sister, with a wide smile on her face. The look of a big sister who knew undoubtedly that they had just caught their younger sibling red handed. She laughed and asked what I was doing and I sheepishly explained to her that I was here in our brothers room to sneak a peek at books. It was hardly the worst crime in history.
By Rachel Estep7 years ago in Geeks
An Open Love Letter to Holden Caulfield and 'The Catcher in the Rye'
When it isn’t busy being banned, The Catcher in the Rye is a novel that is commonly read in high school English classes, and for a good reason; it’s a literary masterpiece. But to teenagers, Holden Caulfield is like a familiar stranger caught up in the world of adolescence. His angst, which J.D. Salinger managed to capture so perfectly, is relatable between generations. We’re all restless, we’re all dissatisfied, and as Holden would say, we’re all tired of phonies. There comes a point in our lives where, suddenly, we are stuck in a purgatory between childhood and adulthood, but we aren’t craving the adult life; we’re craving the choice to be who we want to be and to escape it all.
By Victoria Brown7 years ago in Geeks
'Nothing to See Here' by Gabriel Hart
There’s a timbre that kicks and spits throughout Gabe Hart’s city-boy-death-knell, Nothing to See Here, his new "novelette" (chapbook?). It rumbles in a plaintive prose akin to the mid-tempo reflections of the outlaw country music of yesteryear. Similarly, he's gifted with an almost unnerving plain-speak, wrought with the rough and tumble of crooked Americana. And like all good country music, NTSH yearns for some sort of redemptive resolve. It’s fitting, then, that this testimonial rhythm would birth from a crooner-come-author such as Hart.
By Keats Ross7 years ago in Geeks
