Archive for the 'BOOKS and more books' Category

I’m an avid Atticus fan now.

I read Atticus Lish’s books because his father is the reason I was able to finish writing HIGH COTTON. I had brought him a handful of pages when he was at Knopf. He was Raymond Craver’s editor, and I am a big fan of Carver. Lish called me at the ad agency where I worked […]

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More than Confusion of Languages!

The Confusion of Languages by Siobhan Fallon Not a patient person anyway, I was more than irritated by the Margaret Brickshaw character in this book. Well-intentioned but remarkably stupid in my opinion, Margaret follows her heart rather than social conventions when she finds herself immersed in Middle Eastern  culture. Both Margaret and Cassie Hugo are […]

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Unsettling.

Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar Goshen Like Bonfire of the Vanities, this debut novel starts with a hit-and-run, an unexpected bolt of violence in the very first sentence. So unexpected that I had to go back and re-read the first few pages to make sure I had got it right. Unlike Bonfire, however, the protagonist […]

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JACKPOT.

Jackpot. I always check out 4-5 books at a time, sometimes more. I stack them up on the windowsill next to my bed and when I decide that a book isn’t worth my time, I flip to the end to see if the guy dies or the wife walks out or the doctors give up […]

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Read Brewster. Just read it.

Brewster By Mark Slouka I can hardly wait to read the other books Mark Slouka has written to see if they are as gripping and sad and unforgettable as Brewster. Ostensibly a novel about teenage friendship, Brewster is anything but a typical coming-of-age story. Plots develop side-by-side as they charge through the book like they’re […]

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Instant Expert — not

  INSTANT EXPERT (A visual guide to the skills you’ve always wanted) By Nigel Holmes Publisher: Lonely Planet 2015 OK, so the title is misleading. Reading this book will not make you an expert in anything, nor is it crammed full of skills you’ve always longed for. But then the title of GONE WITH THE […]

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I can’t believe all this happened in one summer.

Please don’t miss this book. The only reason I got it was because I love Bryson.  (If you haven’t read A WALK IN THE WOODS, do so immediately and be prepared to laugh your butt off.  I love this guy.) But I’m not big on history, baseball, or aviation, so what happened in 1927 was […]

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Woof Woof (book reviews)

  Usually, I hate short stories.  Just about when I get involved with the characters, the story ends.  However, I just finished two (yup, TWO) short story collections that I loved.  Really loved.  Enough to go back to the library and get earlier books by both authors, who happen to be women … another oddity […]

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DETROIT by Charlie LeDuff (I know what you’re thinking.)

I was thinking the same thing.  Who wants to read a book about a city of smoldering detritus, where you are advised by hand-written signs to not gas up your car after dark?  (Once you step out of the driver’s seat, someone will deftly get in it and drive away.) Square miles of abandoned buildings. […]

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Semi-Sleep – a collection of poems. Read them.

It’s been a long time since I sat and read poetry for the pure joy of reading poetry.  TS Elliot in college, of course, and e.e.cummings, and more recently Billy Collins, but none of that was anything like the gritty melancholy of Kenneth Baron’s verse.  Kind of like “guy poetry” – about “guy” stuff.  The mysteries […]

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