Book Review: A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013

Book Review: A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013 Introduction by Lizzy Attree The Caine Prize is awarded to a short story written by an African author (which primarily means one born in Africa–all the authors in this volume are from Sub-Saharan Africa), published in English in the… Continue reading Book Review: A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013

Comic Book Review: Vertigo CYMK

Comic Book Review: Vertigo CYMK edited by Scott Nybakken Disclaimer:  I received this volume from a Goodreads giveaway for the purpose of writing this review.  No other compensation was offered or requested. I don’t talk a lot about colorists.  In most comics, they’re not noticed unless they really screw up, or there’s a particularly striking image.… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Vertigo CYMK

Book Review: The Land of Dreams

Book Review: The Land of Dreams by Vidar Sundstøl Lance Hansen has not dreamed in seven years.   A divorced Forest Service police officer on the North Shore of Lake Superior, most of his days are spent chasing illegal fishing and people camping in the wrong places.  He thinks that the latter will be his… Continue reading Book Review: The Land of Dreams

Book Review: Jewish Noir

Book Review: Jewish Noir edited by Kenneth Wishnia Many of the themes of noir fiction, alienation, hostile society, darkness and bitter endings, resonate with the experience of Jewish people.  So it’s not surprising that it was easy to find submissions for an anthology of thirty-plus noir stories with Jewish themes.  (Not all of the authors are… Continue reading Book Review: Jewish Noir

Comic Strip Review: O Human Star Volume One

Comic Strip Review: O Human Star Volume One by Blue Delliquanti Roboticist Alastair Sterling wakes from a dream of dying to find out it was true.  His mind is now in a synthetic being (“robot” if you will) body that looks exactly like his human body did sixteen years ago.  Two other synthetic beings, who look… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: O Human Star Volume One

Comic Book Review: Bodies

Comic Book Review: Bodies written by Si Spencer; art by Dean Ormstom, Phil Winslade, Meghan Hetrick, & Tula Lotay. Disclaimer:  I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.  No other compensation was involved. A string of seemingly-identical murders baffles London detectives in four time periods.  It can’t… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Bodies

Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 15: Dark Matter

Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 15: Dark Matter edited by Mary François Rockcastle This literary journal is published by Hamline University in Minnesota.  The title comes from another name of the Philosopher’s Stone, the transformative agent which turned base metals into gold, in the search for true immortality, as literature turns ordinary words into art.… Continue reading Magazine Review: Water~Stone Review Volume 15: Dark Matter

Comic Book Review: Top 10: The Forty-Niners

Comic Book Review: Top 10: The Forty-Niners written by Alan Moore, art by Gene Ha In an alternate America with science heroes and other weird or wonderful “characters”, it’s been decided to move everyone who isn’t “normal” to one city, Neopolis.  It’s 1949, and war veterans Jetlad and Sky Witch are reunited on the relocation… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Top 10: The Forty-Niners

Magazine Review: Out of the Gutter #7

Magazine Review: Out of the Gutter #7 (Winter 2010) Back in the day, the low-cost entertainment option of choice was the pulp magazine.  It contained fast, exciting stories on cruddy paper–a lowbrow art form that is still fondly remembered by some.  “Out of the Gutter” tries to be somewhat in that tradition. This is the… Continue reading Magazine Review: Out of the Gutter #7

Book Review: Kitty Genovese

Book Review: Kitty Genovese: A True Account of a Public Murder and Its Private Consequences by Catherine Pelonero Disclaimer:  I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it. I am not quite old enough to have any firsthand memories of the coverage of the March 13, 1964 murder… Continue reading Book Review: Kitty Genovese