You Can’t Read That!

I started reading a thick paperback yesterday around noon … it looked to be a 400- to 500-pager … but it turned out to be written in blank verse, with just a few words per page.  Including breaks for errands, dinner, and the Rachel Maddow Show, I was done by seven.  The book was Crank […]

Ow, My Head

Very sore this morning.  Yesterday the dermatologist removed a sebaceous cyst from the top of my scalp.  There must be a lot of stitches … I can’t count them yet because the bandage doesn’t come off for another hour … but however many there are, they’re tight, tight, tight.  A poor man’s facelift!  I’m sporting […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review: The Book of Negroes

You Can’t Read That! is my new title for banned book reviews and news roundups. From a previous banned book news roundup: Conservative groups who believe in and fear the so-called gay agenda accuse the American Library Association of suppressing books with pro-hetereosexual themes. But 99% of books in libraries implicitly or explicitly endorse heterosexuality, […]

Light Tuesday Bloggage

The scandal du jour is how the gathering of tabloid gossip has escalated from eavesdropping on insider chitchat to outright espionage.  In Britain, reporters from Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World are accused of trying to get the dirt on royals, politicians, and sports stars by bribing bodyguards and household staff, hacking phone lines, and […]

Paul’s Book Reviews: Sci-Fi & Fantasy

“The sun peers over the rim of the earth, casting its blaze across Bangkok. It rushes molten over the wrecked tower bones of the old Expansion and the gold-sheathed chedi of the city’s temples, engulfing them in light and heat. It ignites the sharp high roofs of the Grand Palace where the Child Queen lives […]

Quota Systems

A friend wrote the other day and asked me if I’d ever read anything by Stuart Archer Cohen.  I fear for my friend’s mind, because just two years ago … on her recommendation … I read Cohen’s The Army of the Republic and sent her a copy of my brief review, which I’ll repost here: […]