the last book i loved
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Jake Cline: The Last Book I Loved, True Grit
When I grow up, I want to be Mattie Ross. Of course, a legion of realities stands between me and this goal, chief among them: • At 38, I am biologically and, I’d like to think, emotionally mature, which places…
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The Last Book I Loved: Dating Jesus
I keenly remember the day my Grandmother died. My parents picked me up early from afterschool care and before I could ask why, my Mother said “We’re going to your Grandfather’s house.” I asked, “Don’t you mean Grandmommy’s house?” My…
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The Last Book I Loved: The Death of Bunny Munro
This novel is a delightfully raunchy tale. If you crave raunch; to be torn open and fucked up, The Death of Bunny Munro delivers. Munro has all the elements I love. I love surprises. I love pussy. I love beautiful…
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Alan Horn: The Last Book I Loved, One Hour of Television
“I was stimulated deep in my brain and thought: yes: Wal-Mart: the cradle of Rome. And the Lottery Corporation of Canada is beholden to me. See, we have all worked very hard to put value down on paper, and I…
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Laryssa Wirstiuk: The Last Book I Loved (Poetry Edition), The Stranger Manual
In “Miss Peach: The College Years,” a five-section poem from Catie Rosemurgy’s latest collection The Stranger Manual (Graywolf Press, 2010), the young, female speaker confesses: “No one knows I am the flower, the bee, the wind, the rain, the dirt: all…
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Daniel Gumbiner: The Last Book I Loved, The Savage Detectives
When does writing about ourselves become narcissistic? Are we ever not writing (or reading) ourselves? Some Thoughts After the Mezcal Ran Out:
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Shya Scanlon: The Last Book I Loved, Shoot the Buffalo
The death of a little girl. The Vietnam War. Drug abuse and sexual misconduct. A boy coming of age. Matt Briggs packs together enough “big themes” in Shoot the Buffalo for several novels. Yet he does so with such attention…
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R.J. Allen: The Last Book I Loved, Vox
Reading is a lot like phone sex. A stranger whispers a scenario into your ear, and it’s up to you to decide whether it feels real enough to turn you on. Even when the writer’s metaphorical cock is inside you,…
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Daniel Morris: The Last Book I Loved, Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
It starts with a guy in an elevator. I’m condensing things here, but it’s like the greatest elevator ever made: a really smooth ride, well lit, and huge. You can tell someone put a lot of time and effort into…
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Justin Levine: The Last Book I Loved, The Happiest Man in the World
The most nauseating cliché is, “Live every day like it’s your last.” Like most platitudes, it’s banal and empty, recited endlessly like a commercial’s jingle. We hear these words invoked by celebrities and talking heads trying to imbue our ‘boring’…
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Kirsty Logan: The Last Book I Loved, Selected Poems 1956-1968
My copy of Leonard Cohen’s Selected Poems 1956-1968 is not actually mine. I stole it from my childhood home eight years ago. When my parents split I was 18 years old, and it came down to me as the eldest…
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The Last Book I Loved: Wuthering Heights
What is wrong with Emily Brontë? I want to make a house in her brain. I’m scared! I can’t tell you too much, because my sister is reading the book now and I don’t want to spoil anything.