Posted in Book Reviews, tagged Awe, Dorothea Lasky, poetry, Wave Books on January 26, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Dorothea Lasky’s Awe is a beautiful work, both in presentation (I have yet to see something published by Wave that doesn’t feel and look great) and content. Still, this is a book that had to win me over: For every great poem title in here (“Whatever You Paid For That Sweater, It Was Worth It,” [...]
Posted in Music Reviews, tagged Dusty Springfield, Shelby Lynne on January 26, 2008 | No Comments »
I don’t know how many concerts I’ve been to. 50? 70? Something like that, probably (proper concerts, I mean: not, like, seeing friends play in a garage or happening by some choir in the mall on the day before some holiday). One of the best moments ever: at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis, [...]
Posted in Book Reviews, tagged Joe Wenderoth, Tod Wodicka, Richard Zoglin, George Steiner on January 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
(Absolutely due to laziness, I’m reviewing four books together, and I’m not doing full in-depth stuff for each not because of any lack on the part of any of the books, but because of the laziness. Each of these books are fantastic: all were (and should be) read and enjoyed slowly by the reviewer, very [...]
Posted in Book Reviews, tagged A Long Retreat, Andrew Krivak, Jesuits on January 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
In the copy I’ve got here of Andrew Krivak’s just heartrendingly beautiful A Long Retreat, toward the bottom of page 71 is a sentence I’ve thought of at least once a day since I read the book back in the beginning of December: “There was no ideal morning or ideal night, no certain task or way [...]
Posted in Book Reviews, tagged Contemporary America, Nick Hornby, The Abstinence Teacher, The Believer, Tom Perrotta on January 17, 2008 | No Comments »
In a recent issue of The Believer, Nick Hornby writes about The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta’s new novel, in regards to its depiction of our particular American moment. Hornby asserts (and I’m remembering/paraphrasing here, as I don’t have the article before me… and okay, okay, I’ll admit it, I don’t have a Believer subscription and [...]
