banner
LightNews
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan
@brendanbe.bsky.social
180 followers 150 following 300 posts
I enjoy good books and good shitposts. I don’t post much.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · Dec 31
A somewhat @backlisted.bsky.social - inflected selection of my favorite books of 2024. I finished only 41 this year, but at least Middlemarch was one of them
3 2 38
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 11h
"we want disarm"
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 1d
Yo, I have an extra ticket (my partner can't get out of work early enough to go), and I can't figure out how to cancel it on the 92NY website.

So ... DM for deets if you’re in the NY area and want to go, I guess?
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 1d
does your signature look like flawless cursive in *every* book you sign — like when you're at a bookstore before an event and staffers are handing you hundreds of copies, do they all come out perfect

Saunders's (for one) barely qualifies as a squiggle
1 3
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 1d
I don't get posting on bluesky either tbh
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 1d
grammar discussions are the best comment threads
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 1d
i get it—the english-class term you're looking for is participle adjective, as in "a valued commodity." derek's phrasing could technically still be called passive voice*, but rewriting it as active would sound silly and pedantic, e.g. "which the market has valued under $800"

*swidt
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 1d
which it is! that's actually a great example of passive voice being preferable
1 2
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 1d
here and on Twitter, "passive voice" seems to have become anything someone thinks is vague / doesn't like the phrasing of ... but like, does Stoller think "got rid of" is passive? If so, that's a new one
1 10
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 5d
my god — GG’s take on shirley temple had slipped my mind until this very moment
1
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 5d
not that he's got any chance of winning, but the peace prize doesn't get announced till friday. even his nuttiest goons weren't saying he should get the chemistry or literature prize
1 1
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 12d
Bsky labeled this Adult Content 🫶
1 2
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 12d
Thanks! I picked it up on the recommendation of a former student who reached out to say it reminded her of the books I taught in my class, so signs are positive
1
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 12d
I don't know where else to put this, but DOUBLE BLACK DIAMOND has the most fascinating Goodreads "Readers Also Enjoyed" suggestions I have ever seen
1 2
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 12d
August and September combined: bought (left) and finished (right).

YTD totals: 33 read, 20 bought

I'm also still plugging away at Proust and the thousand-page Plath biography, so hundreds of pages that I've read aren't represented here (yet)

#booksky #litfic
Books bought: AGUA VIVA by Clarice Lispector POETRY IN THE MAKING by Ted Hughes VEGAS by John Gregory Dunne THERE ARE RIVERS IN THE SKY by Elif Shafak Books bought: THE SELECTED POEMS OF DONALD HALL STORM by George R. Stewart THE ESSENTIAL RUTH STONE, edited by Bianca Stone
1 10
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 13d
As so often happens in this world, this prediction came true much more stupidly than anyone could have imagined
She Is in Love With ChatGPT
www.nytimes.com
1 4 91
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 14d
what a website.
Al Pacino saying "What a picture!" with his eyes closed
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 14d
off topic, but why is he pretending to be George C. Scott in the opening scene of PATTON (1970)
1 7
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 14d
Delighted to report that, even though no American publisher has ever printed this book, it’s still available from US booksellers for those of us readers who have little or no frame of reference for what “East Kent” even means. Looking forward to this
www.mcnallyjackson.com
2 4
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 15d
gift article btw ☝️
1 1 16
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 15d
haha, but fwiw:
Marc Maron and Other Comedians Rebuke Peers in Saudi Festival
www.nytimes.com
1 38
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 15d
no no, ALL the disrespect to them
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 17d
Crowe's spirited defense of WE BOUGHT A ZOO in response to the interviewer's question about why his post-ALMOST-FAMOUS movies aren't good
1
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 17d
would buy any book with “sufficiently droll” quoted on the cover, tbh
1 2
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 17d
Dammit. I read Outline last year and thought it was fine, but I've been using the off-putting cover* as an excuse not to read Transit. Andy hasn't been wrong about a recommendation yet, though, so ...

*the US edition has a photo of a praying mantis under a glass on someone's bare hand
1 2
brendanbe.bsky.social
Brendan @brendanbe.bsky.social · 18d
morbidly curious about whether by “Brahmins” he means upper-caste Hindus or Bostonites who can trace their ancestry to the Mayflower
1