I made two mistakes when I chose this book. One I make all the time and may get Paul Sahre’s approval as a designer. I chose this book because of its cover. I’m rarely rewarded, but I do it anyway. The cover design for Sahre’s book looks like somehow all the cover information had been … Continue reading A Well-Designed Life Is Not Without Disorder: Paul Sahre’s Two-Dimensional Man: A Graphic Memoir
I assume that like many others, my initial interest in this book was in Wim Wenders. It also caught my attention that this was about my favorite movie of his, Paris,Texas (1984), and that the interviews were done during filming. I was hoping that the book would then be a peek into the process that … Continue reading Relating to an Irrelatable World: Melinda Camber Porter in Conversation with Wim Wenders
Over the last few years, I’ve posted mega-lists of works I’m either just starting to chew on or digesting. I’ve tried to write about this more frequently this year. I decided I’d also do a set of mid-year lists of favorites so far. General Favorites 2017–So Far Books that left traces. Fiction Einstein’s Dreams: Alan … Continue reading Mid-Year Reading
Needing to read and release pressure from the finals cooker I selected my Complete Science Fiction Treasury of H. G. Wells and decided to start with some Island of Dr. Moreau. I’ve always liked the cover art to this one and it has nostalgic properties since my late grandmother gave it to me for Christmas … Continue reading It was as if all the pain in the world had found a voice /or/ Kiw da wabbit
Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 I liked this book, but I didn’t love it like most friends have. I’m not trying to be contrarian and say I’m above the hubbub it’s received. A few things go into this. One is that I genuinely like Whitehead’s writing. His philosophical zombie novel Zone One was a blast … Continue reading Recently Read: February
I’m rereading a collection of Bruno Schulz’s writing. It’s dense, lyrical, strange. I had to type up this section below about the reading experience. This reminds me of certain experiences as a young reader, or being an older listener to music of my youth, music that had seemed vital, but only feels frail and false … Continue reading for that single moment we love them ever after
School is incessant. Essays pile up. Standardized tests becloud the horizon. My feet are unfailingly wet. Either my children have hydrokinesis and practice on my socks, or they are careless around water. Despite the times, Friday saw the release of Jasper Lee’s Mirror of Wind LP. Jasper’s most well-known music is on the score for … Continue reading That Time of Year You May In Me Behold
My Ántonia Willa Cather 1918 A vision of the American West that was already gone when this went to print. I love novels from this period. Cather makes the scenery come alive, similar to what Wharton does in Ethan Frome, though often achieving opposite effects. To oversimplify, one could say Ántonia is hot and Ethan … Continue reading Recently Read: January Edition
I’m reading J.H. Prynne’s The White Stones for the first time and while enjoying it, I often find myself feeling lost. I don’t find that a negative response; I have often felt that way with works that have become favorites. There are themes and images that connect across the poems and I’m just barely getting an overall … Continue reading to be warm and tired/without some impossible flame in the heart
Stephen McClurg 