Pete Lit: Indiana Jones and the Dead Letter Office

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Indiana Jones and the Dead Letter Office

Mystery: Indiana Jones Mystery Package.
Solved.

December 18, 2012 in Books | Permalink

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Thank goodness for the internet :)

Posted by: Julie at Dec 19, 2012 10:17:33 AM

Recent Reads

Patrick Michael Finn: From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet
Joliet stories that hit you in the gut, and the heart.

Various Writers: Hair Lit Vol. One
Solid, fun, often touching collection of stories about hair metal songs.

Marilynne Robinson: Housekeeping
Good but not classic novel burdened by overwritten and digressive prose.

Anton Chekhov: The Duel
Priviliged but unhappy people take personal honor to its extreme.

Hans Keilson: Comedy in a Minor Key
Subtle but affecting portrait of a marriage, war and human compassion.

William Butler Yeats: The Wind Among the Reeds
Early collection of poems from the Irish master.

Samuel Beckett: Endgame
Bleak and quietly profound.

J.P. Donleavy: The Ginger Man
Loathsome protagonist, meandering narrative, overwritten prose. Mediocre.

William Trevor: Cheating at Canasta
Lovely, quiet yet powerful collection of stories about people who are lonely but often not alone.

Kurt Vonnegut: Armageddon in Retrospect
Funny, angry, incisive stories and essays about war, peace and humanity.

Elizabeth Crane: You Must Be This Happy to Enter
Mediocre collection of overly clever stories.

Edward J. Rathke: Ash Cinema
Haunting novel of grief, longing and reaching across time.

Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad
Disappointing retelling of the classic Ulysses and Penelope myth.

Jeff Sypeck: Looking Up: Poems from the National Cathedral Gargoyles
Entertaining, lively collection of traditional poetry.

Ben Tanzer: This American Life
Funny collection of monologues and stories.

Larry Brown: Joe
Tense, biting story of family and retribution.

Mike Royko: Sez Who? Sez Me
Funny, witty, skewering collection of Royko columns from the 1970s and 80s.

Knut Hamsun: Victoria
Fine narrative of romantic tensions, slightly undone by a melodramatic and unrealistic ending.

Tarjei Vesaas: The Ice Palace
Haunting tale of childhood secrets and learning to grieve, and learning to live on.

Jason Fisk: Hank and Jules
Sobering portrait of a failing marriage, marked by frustration, heartbreak and temptation.

Kent Haruf: Where You Once Belonged
Prodigal son returns home to a hostile welcome.

Sinclair Lewis: Go East, Young Man
Fine stories with all the satirical wit and social commentary you would expect from Lewis.

Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim
Wry satire of midcentury British academia.

Nick Hornby: Juliet, Naked
Pop music and failed relationships - but still a letdown.

Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day
Lovely, quiet, dignified portrait of an English butler and a vanishing way of life.

Joe Meno: Office Girl
Deceptively light narrative that runs much deeper than it seems. Nicely done.

Richard Wright: Native Son
More polemic than novel, contrived narrative in service of the author's grand message.

Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment
Slow, ponderous, verbose, endlessly digressive. Not a classic.

Kjersti A. Skomsvold: The Faster I Walk, the Smaller I Am
Uneven debut novel of a lonely, lost old woman.

Matthew LeMay: XO
Good, but not completely convincing study of Elliott Smith's great album.

Ryan W. Bradley: Prize Winners
Crisp, quick and obsessed with sex.

James Joyce: The Dead
Excellent, atmospheric story of long-ago Dublin life.

Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man
Chaotic, propulsive, contemplative, visceral, devastating. Brilliant.

Michael Czyzniejewski: Chicago Stories; 40 Dramatic Fictions
Funny, imaginative, thoughtful monologues from Chicago's famous and infamous.

Tom Williams: The Mimic's Own Voice
Brilliant fictional biography of an artistic genius.

Ben Tanzer: My Father's House
Emotionally moving story of coping with grief before loss has even occurred.

William Trevor: Felicia's Journey
Lovely novel of loneliness, longing and regret, and two vivid characters whose lives briefly cross, with only one emerging unscathed.

Various Writers: Great Tales of City Dwellers
Strong 1955 short story anthology - Algren, McCullers, Wolfe...

Jane Addams: Twenty Years at Hull-House
Memoir of the first twenty years of the pioneering Chicago settlement house, by the great social reformer.

David A. Taylor: Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America
Great subject matter, less than great presentation.

Peter Orner: Esther Stories
Solid story collection of lonely lives.

Jim Thompson: Savage Night
A hitman's compelling tale and surreal fate.

Ben Katchor: The Cardboard Valise
Weird and wonderful graphic novel from the best one going.

Aharon Appelfeld: The Iron Tracks
Grim, joyless yet quietly powerful story of memory and revenge.

Sholom Aleichem: Selected Stories
Delightful tales of Eastern European Jews of a now-distant yet vivid past.

Isaac Bashevis Singer and Richard Burgin: Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer
Stimulating discussions on literature and humanity.

Bohumil Hrabal: Too Loud a Solitude
Thoughtful, philosophical, funny and tragic novel about the power of the written word. Stunning.

Alan Heathcock: Volt
Strong, sometimes brutally real collection of short stories set in small-town America.

Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure
Love versus marriage, happiness versus obligation, scholarship versus real life.

Jason Fisk: Salt Creek Anthology
Suburban story cycle of mostly empty lives.

Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
Fine but overlong story of ambition, resignation and redemption.

Ben Tanzer: You Can Make Him Like You
Funny, thoughtful novel of looming fatherhood.

Per Petterson: Out Stealing Horses
Quietly intense, impeccably narrated, simply beautiful.

Nelson Algren: Nonconformity: Writing on Writing
Passionate book-length essay on writing, artistic freedom and championing the downtrodden.

Sebastian Barry: The Secret Scripture
Beautiful prose doesn't quite save the structural and narrative flaws of this otherwise promising novel.

Len O'Connor: A Reporter in Sweet Chicago
Interesting memoir of the longtime Chicago journalist.

Scott Phillips: Rut
Dysfunction and corruption reign in a forlorn Colorado town.

Stona Fitch: Senseless
Tense, disturbing thriller of political extremism and one man's fight for survival.

Sinclair Lewis: Elmer Gantry
Entertaining satire of religious ambition and hypocrisy - but more of a polemic than a novel.

Austin Kleon: Newspaper Blackout
Innovative, fun collection of found poetry, all created by blacking out newspaper articles.

Jamie Iredell: Prose. Poems. A Novel
Lyrical portrait of a dissolute life, glimmering slightly at the conclusion.

Corey Mesler: The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores
Lust, murder and dark hilarity consume a fictional Arkansas town.

Mel Bosworth: Grease Stains, Kismet and Maternal Wisdom
Boy meets girl, heartbreak unexpectedly does not prevail.

George Ade: In Babel: Stories of Chicago
Wonderful collection of short stories, originally published as newspaper columns.

Ring Lardner: The Portable Ring Lardner
Terrific collection of novellas, short stories and satirical essays.

Finley Peter Dunne: Mr. Dooley Remembers
Fine collection of the final essays of the great humorist, along with twelve classic Mr. Dooley columns.

Andrew Ervin: Extraordinary Renditions
Strong, sharply-written debut about three intersecting lives in Budapest.

Studs Terkel: Working
Lively, compelling, indispensible oral history of Americans talking about their jobs.

O.E. Rölvaag: Giants in the Earth
Magnificent epic of South Dakota pioneers.

Seamus Heaney (translator): Beowulf
Modern, flowing verse interpretation of the great epic poem.

Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass
Whitman's love song to America, best enjoyed in small doses.

Stendhal: The Red and the Black
Long, plodding disappointment.

Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart
Good but less than essential novel of African tribal life, tradition versus modernity.

READINGS 2001-11

Pete Lit

Literary pretendings, off-the-cuff insights and the occasional rant.

Indiana Jones and the Dead Letter Office

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