I occasionally read biographies of people who fascinate me for one reason or another. I picked up this one because I heard an interview with the author on the radio and I thought it had an interesting angle. And of course, Johnny Cash was a… Read More
I choose the books I read in a very disorganized fashion. Recently I felt like reading a spy novel and so I gobbled one up called Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews. I came across this book simply by doing a Google search for spy novels.… Read More
The Vegetarian is a highly unusual, psychologically complex and thoughtful novel which explores themes around identity, family, mental illness and questions about how we choose to live in this world. It’s set in Korea and written in Korean and translated to English. This book… Read More
Recently we watched the first two seasons of the British television mysteries Shetland, set on the Shetland Islands. I thought the show was very good, although I found I had to be very attentive because I wasn’t used to the accents, and as well, the… Read More
I’ve read one final book for 2016. I know, because I looked at my Goodreads list of books I read this year, that it happens to be my 12th for the year. This latest book is Yiddish for Pirates by Gary Barwin – one of… Read More
I came to read this book through an unlikely coincidence. I was walking to a restaurant to meet up with some folks I worked with before my retirement from the workaday world. I was a little early, and along my walk came across a “fiercely… Read More
I just finished reading Bad Singer – the surprising science of tone deafness and how we hear music – by Tim Falconer. The book describes the journalist’s quest to understand why he’s a bad singer. He subjected himself to loads of scientific tests, talked to… Read More
Late last night I finished reading Garth Risk Hallberg’s sprawling epic first novel, City on Fire. I bought the hardcover one day, wandering through a bookstore looking for something I could really sink my teeth into. City on Fire served up as much as I… Read More
The Alaskan Laundry by Brendan Jones is your basic quest story. It’s about a young woman from Philadelphia who is going through some personal struggles, which culminate in a big fight with her father, during which he kicks her out of the house. She decides… Read More
Last month, when I visited Chicago, I found myself with an hour or so to kill up in Old Town. I had enjoyed dinner with my friend Candy Minx at a place called Mash, across the street from the Old Town School of Folk Music… Read More
27th Street 