Category Archives: Book and film reviews

One of my favorite science fiction authors is Robert Reed. His “great ship” series of novellas and stories I found fantastic, and he has lots of other good stuff. But Sister Alice was a mess, at times virtually unreadable.  I’d … Continue reading →

After panning her most recent novel I decided to give an author another chance, and boy did she ever! “The Painted Drum” by Louise Erdrich came out in 2005. The novel has two main parts, and then returns and integrates. … Continue reading →

I have always enjoyed reading Louise Erdrich and when I saw she had a dystopia quasi-scifi novel I thought that might be a good reading experience. So I checked it out from the library and started reading. After fifty pages … Continue reading →

From Wikipedia Smoke & Mirrors (Spanish: El hombre de las mil caras) is a 2016 Spanish thriller film directed by Alberto Rodríguez based on the non-fiction book Paesa, el espía de las mil caras by Manuel Cerdán. The film stars … Continue reading →

I still think Chocolat (not the one with Juliette Binoche) is her best film though it is quite flawed. That seems to be a recurring theme with Denis, amazing parts of films, mixed in with occasional cringy scenes or acting.  … Continue reading →

Well, possibly it does not, but Ha Jin’s War Trash is one very good war novel. Apparently based on the experiences of his father in the Korean War (and it is fascinating to search for the real historical events described … Continue reading →