I am old enough to remember when drug stores had revolving wire racks filled with inexpensive paperbacks. Mostly genre novels, maybe with a few classics (usually with more than usually lurid covers) thrown in. One of the books you always saw on those racks was a Doc Savage novel. Read more
… was such a disappointment.
It was a downer. Little of the breathless, beach read voyeurism of the first two. The most grounded characters were either sidelined or given depressing subplots (custody hearings); everyone seemed poorly sketched; the ending felt tacked and like a poor attempt at a veneer of realism painted onto a romance novel. Read more
What began as an admirable effort to show the wide ranging influence of an eighteenth century London club whose members included Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Joshua Reynolds, and Edward Gibbon rapidly devolved into an unsatisfying biography of Boswell and Johnson. Read more
I bought this at World at the CornerWorld At The Corner. Because it takes place in Thailand, it seemed appropriate. Read more
Space opera but almost totally lacking in shots fired. Those fired are key to the plot but, notably, the protagonists never fire back.
A good ensemble piece that steals greatly, but not badly, from Firefly (but with aliens). Read more
I was walking back towards Eastern Market on Sunday and made a point of walking Riverby Books. I have been trying to restrain my book buying habit lately but it was on my way back (I’d been visiting some museums earlier) so why not?
And I saw… well, you can see the pictures. Read more
I went into the office on a Sunday because I simply couldn’t believe that over the course of four and a half day holiday weekend I hadn’t received any work emails (I hadn’t but then again, our systems were being spotty and people claimed to have tried to send me documents).
Upon discovering that my fears were groundless and having already found parking downtown, I decided to spend a little flaneur time.
First, the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
The museum was not only free that day but featured a Book Art Festival, which is a fancy way of saying that young, creative types set up tables with their zines and chapbooks and letterpress creations.
Naturally, I bought five books. One of those books was a book of art reproductions created in the wake of Trump’s election which leads to my next fortuitous encounter.
While walking to Chinatown in search of noodles, I passed by a sign that pointed through a door and up some stairs to the Center for Contemporary Political Art.
Philip K. Dick is deeply weird, but the Ace Double packaging (the other side is Leigh Brackett’s 
the coffee philosopher 