Douglas Coupland
Though I’ve never heard him described as such, I also consider Coupland a magical-realist. Mostly he is known as the darling writer of Gen-X, whatever that may be. Coupland does have a knack for creating wholly believable modern characters. Parents and elders are not omnipotent. They are as …
Alice Hoffman
Hoffman is herself a queen – of magical realism. While spinning her story, she dabbles a toe her in there in pools of the fantastic. You barely notice the ripples here and there, until suddenly the most fantastic things seem totally believable. Sure, I can believe the woodman …
Ian Smith
When the going gets tough, some of the tough read cheesy murder mysteries. I grabbed this one at random (ok, the cover was red and shiny). Blackbird turned out to be one of the best and most imaginative mysteries I have read in ages. While most mysteries fit …
Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects by Marthe LeVan and The Jeweler’s Directory of Decorative Finishes by Jinks McGrath
I ran across a copy of Fabulous Jewelry in the Kohler bookstore. In a country of excess in a season of too much, the idea of recycling everyday found objects into functional …
Loretta Lux
Whoooo, creepy! Remember that little kid that was supposed to be Scully’s daughter in X-Files but everyone hated her because she was so creepy? Well, that little weirdo has nothing on Lux’s models. Lux’s children are how I imagine seraphim would appear – beautiful forms, but also terrible, …
Peter Menzel
These photo essays are short pictorals of an average family in various countries around the world. Menzel found families willing to bring the entire contents of their houses out so he could photograph them. The images are fascinating and startling. Vignettes, like TVs around the world, keep the …
Lela Lee
Hehehe. This book is a comic book of very angry little girls. Oh god are they angry. And disenchanted. And psychotic. * Sigh * reminds me of college…
Martin Parr
Time and time again, I check this book out of the library. There is something incomprehensibly mind-boggling about this book. Perhaps it’s the graphic designer in me, but the scope of work involved in this book just makes me marvel at the stupid things humanity will do. The …
A
lec 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 …
“Captain Charles Johnson”
…Such a day, rum all out – our company somewhat sober, a damnedd confusion amongst us! Rogues a plotting – great talk of separation. So I looked sharp for a prize – such a day took one, with a great deal of liquor on board; so kept
Edited 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, …
Laura PennyPenny’s book is not as much as a non-fiction account your current society as much as a very well-researched rant. Her premise is that our society rests on a base of bright, shiny gossamer thin bullshit. She differentiates “bullshit” and “lies” by stating the liars still know the
“Captain Charles Johnson”
…“Such a day, rum all out – our company somewhat sober, a damnedd confusion amongst us! Rogues a plotting – great talk of separation. So I looked sharp for a prize – such a day took one, with a great deal of liquor on board; so kept
Good 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 …
Neil 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. …
