Asleeping-by-the-mississippilec Soth

I had seen the cover of this book in a photography magazine and was intrigued by the cover image – a man in a baggy jumper, balaclava and walrus mustache holding two toy airplanes on a junk and snow covered deck. And you know what? I still …

good-poemsEdited by Garrison Keiller

For regular NPR listeners, Keiller’s poem selections may be familiar. These are not hard poems. They don’t require you to have read English lit at Oxford or to be able to speak olde Englishe. Nor do they span hundreds of pages, warbling on about woe, despair, …

good-poemsGood Poems & Good Poems for Hard Times – Edited by Garrison Keiller

For regular NPR listeners, Keiller’s poem selections will be familiar. If not, perhaps you will remember the (minor) flap in the news earlier this year when Kansas radio station wanted to pull Keiller’s 5 minute poetry spot …

anansi-boysNeil Gaiman

I am shocked and apologetic that I forgot to review this last month. Perhaps I forgot because I read it at the very beginning of the month – or perhaps my mind was going “wub wub wub” from having seen Gaiman/McKeen’s movie MirrorMask. SEE IT IF YOU …

Archeology Magazine

A truly fantastic magazine. Articles range from current digs in Iran recently opened for the first time in 30 years, to an urban archeological dig being done through the floor of a room in a fully functioning motel. No one country or time period receives any special emphasis. …

Under the Banner of HeavenJon Krakauer

Krakauer has fast become one of my favorite non-fiction/journalistic writers. A writer for various travel magazines, Krakauer has turned a number of his articles into full size books. Under the Banner of Heaven follows the trial of Ron and Don Lafferty, two Mormon brothers who believed God had …

Gregory Crewdson

Crewdson’s collection of photos are eerie, surreal and otherworldly. His mundane scenes of suburbia are turned into half-remembered nightmares. A bright stream of light shoots from a gardening shed, a group of people heap flowers into a mound, a woman floats in her half submerged living room. Creepy …

the-idiot-girls-action-adventure-clubLaurie Notaro

The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club, We Thought You Would Be Prettier, I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies I have Told), Autobiography of a Fat Bride

Notaro’s books are the sort of books that I know I should slow down and save some for later, but it is …

amys-answering-machineAmy Borkowsky

Do you hear little voices, telling you what to do, critiquing and nagging at all hours? You may be cracking up, or perhaps you’ve been listening to NPR playing some clips from Amy’s Answering Machine (the cd). The author, Amy Borkowsky, has been stricken with one of the …

fresh-fruitsShoichi Aoki

I loved the original book by Aoki, Fruits – a collection of photos of Japanese street fashion. Fresh Fruits is the same format, kids in their truly outlandish fashions with a small chunk of commentary at the bottom. At first, I skipped over the rather hard to read …

thudTerry Pratchett

Life would be a much bleaker place without Terry Pratchett. Thud! has all the usual happy Pratchettism, Vimes et al., lots of silly jokes and now a tie-in to his children’s book “Where’s my Cow?”. The final reading of the book – “IS THIS MY COW? NO!”, …