Category Archives: Book and film reviews

Got The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes from the library after reading a Burkinabè author cite him as an influence. I was like, “Who is this guy?” Fascinating and sad story. The fiction is exactly as advertised: lurid hardboiled … Continue reading →

The Six Dollar Fifty Man  Sukie and I had watched it several times some years ago. We just watched it again.  Wow, great job, Directors – Mark Albiston & Louis Sutherland, Writer – Louis Sutherland, Producer – Wendy Cuthbert

I had recently read a short story and then Nekropolis by McHugh, so I ordered China Mountain Zhang.  Great novel.  But not what you think it will be.  As numerous commentators point out, it is an ambitious sci-fi novel about … Continue reading →

Funny you ask, yes I can.  I love going on a long run and listening to someone read and short story and then discuss.  This week I heard three. Richard Ford reading Raymond Carver’s “The Student’s Wife”.  Pretty sad. OK … Continue reading →

Found this in the university library.  Realized I had never read Dick.  All books, or just this one, use abbreviated sentences?  Makes for interesting style. Noted.  Light rain falling in San Jose. Just south of setting of novel. San Francisco … Continue reading →

BECAUSE I LIVE IN MONTANA and because I have always heard Montanans talk about Thomas McGuane, I set myself the task of reading all of his work: 10 novels, several books of essays, and three collections of short stories, including … Continue reading →

I was skeptical before starting China Miéville’s The City and the City.  I had read and enjoyed Embassytown, but he did go on and on towards the end and I found myself skimming a lot.  The City and the City … Continue reading →

I checked this collection by Gardner Dozois out from the library (yes I still do that).  Science fiction generally holds its own: 20 years later most of the stories in the collection read like they could have been written now.  … Continue reading →

I was out for a long run yesterday on San Jose’s wonderful Guadalupe Park… well maybe not so wonderful but a nice place to run very convenient to our house. Half of the run is alongside the airport, and you … Continue reading →

I’ve always thought Chocolat by Claire Denis to be a wonderfully complex film (even if the Norwegian pastor is cringe-worthy).  Since then it has been all downhill for her unfortunately (Except for Beau Travail which is, well, at least interesting), … Continue reading →

I was running and listening to Joseph O’Neill reading Muriel Spark’s “The Ormolu Clock” in a The New Yorker fiction podcast and halfway into the story my battery died and suddenly there was silence. But why do we care about … Continue reading →

I got this through my university inter-library loan and read it during a trip down to Los Angeles to visit with my mother.  I had no idea what it was going to be about.  It is a tri-cross between a … Continue reading →

Read this last night. Definitely a good story, once you get started you just keep going all the way to the end, and when you get to the end you immediately go back to sections of the story, the way … Continue reading →

I really liked Maureen McHugh’s “The Cost to be Wise,” and would assign to a class if I were teaching a fieldwork oriented anthropology class.  It made me think of Doomsday Book, but told from the point of view of one … Continue reading →

I confess the book lost my attention in the final third.  I felt like I had understood enough, so I skimmed.  I enjoyed reading it, even though I do not ordinarily like American family drama novels (I live it, what’s … Continue reading →

This was on many lists of best graphic novel of 2014, so I ordered it for Christmas present for Sukie.  Very disturbing, but we had an intense discussion of what it “meant” where I got to be like a middle-school … Continue reading →

I have been terrible about recording what I have been reading and watching in the last few months.  So I thought as a way to start off 2015 without that hanging over my head I could just to a one … Continue reading →

I went for a run this morning and included a podcast of Anita Desai reading ‘The Postmaster’ by Rabindranath Tagore .   A quiet, meditative reflection on empathy (or the lack thereof). Very simple, very short. The Guardian’s selection is quite … Continue reading →

This books was recommended to me by an Australian librarians from Deep Springs (thanks Alexandra).  At first it was hard to get into, but then I gradually started reading it in smaller chunks, almost like a soap opera.  It is … Continue reading →

Was it coincidence?  Yesterday morning I started to read Gene Yang’s new graphic novel, The Shadow Hero.  In the afternoon Sukie and I went to see Raina Telgemeier at The Reading Bee in San Carlos.  And there was Gene Yang … Continue reading →