It’s Christmas Eve and Vera Coffey is on the run. What she brings to the little town of American Rapids is certainly not holiday cheer. She has something with her, and the people following her will do anything to get it back.
In Pitch Dark
[Read more →]
What do super spies do when they retire? Buy a beach house on a little island in the South Pacific? Spend their days squirreled away in basement offices in D.C., drinking bad coffee and filing reports no one will read? Maybe they don’t get to retire — maybe they just keep on working until they blow their cover one last time.
In Original Sin: A Sally Sin Adventure
The world is going crazy around Tom Crandall in Neil McMahon’s L.A. Mental
[Read more →]
Every Step You Take: A Memoir
Jock got interested in ballet at the ripe old age of four, while watching Edward Villella dance on the Ed Sullivan Show. (He was performing a piece from Jewels, by George Balanchine, who he would later dance for at the New York City Ballet.) His parents took his request seriously and enrolled him in ballet classes. At 12 years old he auditioned for the School of American Ballet and was awarded a full scholarship. After a brief interruption in his training, he returned to New York with his family and at 14 years old, his family left, leaving Jock alone in New York City, with no income (other than his school stipend) and no adult supervision.
I can’t tell you how excited I was to get Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy
It certainly gets off to a good start! In “Curses” by Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden — the only Wizard listed in the Chicago Yellow Pages — is approached about removing a very old curse from a local sports team. I have a tremendous crush on Harry Dresden and I enjoyed the story immensely — it’s exactly the sort of local flavor I love in the Dresden Files stories.
My favorite story of the bunch was “Priced to Sell” by Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series. I was completely unfamiliar with Novik’s work, although I will certainly be adding it to my watch list. This is a story of the cut-throat Manhattan real estate market. Tough enough, in this economy, but even tougher when your clients are vampires, goblins and other magical creatures. You know it’s going to be trouble when the condo board isn’t concerned that your client’s a vampire, they’re just worried that he’s less than 100 years old. [Read more →]
When will my time come for scenery
And will it be too late?
After all
Decades ago I was never able
To get excited
About filling the lungs with ozone
On Salthill Prom.
And when the strangers
To whom I gave a lift
Spoke to me of the extraordinary
Light in the Western sky;
I often missed its changes.
And, later, when words were required
To intervene at the opening of Art Exhibitions,
It was not the same.
What is this tyranny of head that stifles
The eyes, the senses,
All play on the strings of the heart.
And, if there is a healing,
It is in the depth of a silence,
Whose plumbed depths require
A journey through realms of pain
That must be faced alone.
The hero, setting out,
Will meet an ally at a crucial moment.
But the journey home
Is mostly alone.
When my time comes
I will have made my journey
And through all my senses will explode
The evidence of light
And air and water, fire and earth.
I live for that moment.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Well, it’s interesting. We face the prospect of more of the same, or the insane, or a pizza salesman. The Irish get a poet. Granted, the presidency of Ireland is less the powerful spot held by DeValera for decades, from the end of the civil war to the 60s and more an elected version of the British Monarchy. He presides, and he then makes state visits.
But, given a choice between a business man best known for being one of the assholes on Dragons Den or the former Chief of Staff of the IRA, the Irish chose a part-time politician and full-time Irish poet. While not Seamus Healy, Michael Higgins like Louis McNeice and himself brings something worthwhile to the whole mess. And for that, perhaps we should look again to the Irish and possibly the Icelanders to preserve civilization after the glance up the skirts of capitalism we’ve endured the last few years in particular and decades in general. The women have taken over Iceland and the poets are taking over Ireland. Not a lot to say…for us.
I have developed a habit as I walk into the my office in the morning of flipping on the computer and then playing the guitar for a bit. While I seem to be finding myself listening to a lot of Celtic revival stuff of late, I started this morning with Boolavouge and then The Rising of the Moon. We’ll see…Oh, and Feck is a slightly restrained version of fuck…in case you were wondering.
Oh, was I excited to get this book! I loved the first book in the series, The Strain — recommended it to everyone who was tired of sparkly vampires. The Fall was a little less successful (often the case with the middle book in a series), but still a very good read. I have been anxiously awaiting the final installment, in part because I figure the movie can’t be far behind.
The Night Eternal
Judy McFarland’s life is a mess. Her marriage is crumbling, her school is going bankrupt, her best friend just died. She’s started to think about escape — her youngest son will be graduating soon and then she could leave, get a divorce, do whatever she wanted. Unfortunately, she doesn’t wait until after graduation. In Rebecca Coleman’s The Kingdom of Childhood
You really want to feel sorry for Judy. The school she has loved and supported for more than 20 years is financially unstable. Her husband, Russ, is withdrawn, caught up in his own career struggles and out of touch with the family. Her daughter, Maggie, away at college, is rebelling against the very principles her parents found so important. Her son, Scott, is silent and sullen (a typical teenager). Her best friend, Bobbie, died of cancer and every day, Judy has to walk by the classroom where she used to teach. It’s a miserable situation for anyone. [Read more →]
Zero History
Zero History is about fashion…sort of. It’s about underground fashion — so secret that there are no stores, no catalogs, no websites. There is only a mailing list and if you’re lucky enough to be on it, maybe there’s a cryptic message. The meet might be in Tokyo. Or London. Or Perth. Bring cash. [Read more →]
In honor of National Coming Out Day, I’d like to steer your awareness in the direction of a project I hold very close to my heart… a project that will maybe, one day, help eliminate the need for a specified day where the public and government are encouraged to raise their awareness of something that in my opinion, is seemingly natural. Sadly, that is not a nationally shared opinion — yet. Luckily for most, although “she” came out last week, I would like to introduce you to a little girl named Jessie. My co-authors Phylliss DelGreco, Kathryn Silverio and I have written a series of children’s books. Seven books (one for each day of the week) about a little girl named Jessie, growing up in the city with her two moms. The focus of each story is Jessie and her adventures. The focus is not on her parents. Jeanne Sager wrote a wonderful blog about “The Jessie Books.” She summed it up perfectly, “… they created a series of books about a little girl who just so happens to have two moms, but otherwise is exactly like any curious tot who enjoys playing… She’s not OK despite her moms. She’s OK. Period.” [Read more →]
The cover of this book says: “Infidelity can be deadly.” Murder on the Down Low
According to Wikipedia, “on the down low” refers to men who identify as straight, but still have sex with other men in secret. Obviously, this is not limited to the African American community, but this novel’s focus is on black women and their reaction to it. A group of friends — Venetta, Special, J.C. and Nichelle — are determined to avenge the death of their friend, Maya. Maya died of AIDS, and she was exposed to it by her fiance, Eugene, who is on the down low. They want to use the law to get justice for Maya and to bring the issue to the attention of the larger community: they file a lawsuit against Euguene for wrongful death. [Read more →]
Sometimes, a book makes lovely reading, even when the subject matter is very sad. Partitions
In 1947, the border between Pakistan and India was closed. It was not a peaceful closing. Muslims and Hindus caught on the wrong side of the border found themselves in great danger; by some estimates, up to a million people died. Partitions
What do you want your loved ones to do with your body when you die? I’ve actually had this conversation with my family; both my parents want to be cremated. I also want to be cremated, and though I’m not entirely certain what I want to do with my ashes, I hate the thought of them sitting in an urn on someone’s mantle. So I liked the premise behind Roastbeef’s Promise
The rest of the family is not entirely down with this idea, but Jim, aka Roastbeef, decides to drop out of college, take his beat-up car and hit the road. In theory, hilarity will ensue. [Read more →]
This is going to be a tough review to write.
I can tell you how The Map of Time
First thing I loved about this novel: the Narrator. This is not just any omniscient narrator — this one has a charming voice and a lovely way to tell a story.
“Assuming you stay until the end of this tale, some of you will no doubt think that I chose the wrong thread with which to begin spinning my yarn, and that for accuracy’s sake I should have respected chronological order and begun with Miss Haggerty’s story. It is possible, but there are stories that cannot begin at their beginning, and perhaps this is one of them.”
Sometimes, you need a little junk food for your brain. This book was a lot of fun — if you’re a zombie junkie, you’re going to love it. Ross Payton is someone who has spent waaaaay too much time thinking about the undead among us. In Zombies of the World: A Field Guide to the Undead
The book starts with a section on the origins of zombies and current research into their condition. Zombies as a source of cheap, clean energy? Why not!
“Zombies expend tremendous amounts of energy moving their corpse bodies, as their decaying systems operate more inefficiently than a living human…Yet, they walk endlessly until slain. Once the secret of the Omega Anima is cracked, the possibilities are endless: immortality, endless clean energy and more.”
I can’t imagine why no one ever thought of designing cars that run on zombie power! [Read more →]
We are ten years into this great historical shift, appropriately set in motion with a new millennium, and we have not yet begun to comprehend the size of it. Such climacteric moments of history are many (multiplied endlessly if you subscribe to the absurdum of the butterfly effect or one of the endless conspiracy theories indulged by immature people too lazy to do their homework). In those schools which still teach history, we are informed of the surprising events of October 10th, 732, and October 14th, 1066. Not incorrectly, we have been comparing September 11th, 2001 to December 7th, 1941, though, historically, it appears that our most recent day of infamy might fall far closer in significance to those first two prior moments in time. [Read more →]
At first, I was greatly entertained. Joseph Epstein, a considerable talent and first rate intellect in his own right, had taken the time to make new enemies by the score among the reigning academic elite, with a single critical review of the recent Cambridge History of the American Novel. But then, having read it and wanting to savor the piece, I found myself overcome by a deeper depression. [Read more →]
Forgetting English
An extraordinary gentleman, Edward Beauclerk Maurice. Not “The Last Gentleman Adventurer” as his publishers have advertised in the title of this posthumous 2005 memoir. Not an adventurer at all, we discover, but a better man than that, honest, earnest and brave. A true-heart. Certainly a gentleman, but not the last of those, however rare they are today. Extraordinary in every way that I know of him. But, alas, I only know of him through the pages of this, his only book. And though a fine and natural writer, he is not given to bragging.
To be fair to the publisher’s choice of titles, the Hudson’s Bay Company, for whom Maurice worked in the 1930’s was established by Charles the Second of England in 1670 as the ‘Gentleman Adventurers Trading into Hudson’s Bay.’ In these times of Costco and Apple Inc., we don’t have such incorporations today. But the publisher’s misleading banner is subtitled, “coming of age in the arctic.” This is more to the point. This has more of the straightforward modesty of the author. [Read more →]
The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime
“I can break it down into three simple things,” said Bob Brenly, who followed a nine-year big-league career by managing the Arizona Diamondbacks to a world championship in 2001. “Respect your teammates, respect your opponents, and respect the game.”
