I am no fan of science fiction. When I was in college I had a bandmate who loved the stuff – he pushed Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, and Herbert’s Dune on me. I waded though all this stuff diligently (one of my neuroses is that once I begin a book I have to finish it – […]
Tag Archives: books
ArtSunday: About a book…
“Will was beginning to come to the conclusion that he was not, as he had always previously thought, a good liar. He was an enthusiastic liar, certainly, but enthusiasm was not the same thing as efficacy, and he was now constantly finding himself in a situation whereby, having lied through his teeth for minutes or […]
Unsolicited book review: Spillover, by David Quammen
This is a damn scary book. Quammen is perhaps our best science writer, and his subjects in the past have ranged widely, from island biogeography to large predators to whatever he fancies in his excellent collections of essays. And this time he’s picked something topical, timely and thoroughly terrifying. It’s zoonosis—the phenomenon of diseases that […]
Mountain Memoirs: An Ashe County Anthology – love letters to a place…
Back to the 2013 reading list with this entry – an anthology put together by the local writer’s group, the Wordkeepers, where I live: Ashe County, North Carolina. The book, Mountain Memoirs: An Ashe County Anthology is just that – an anthology. So first we’ll talk about what that is, then we’ll talk a bit about the book. Truth is, now […]
ArtsWeek: Where can you go for free e-books?
A question arose in a comment thread on an earlier post. To wit: I love reading, and Kindle is cool, but books are expensive. (Okay, that’s really more of a statement than a question. You get my point.) It’s true. Now granted, the average e-book is a lot cheaper than even a paperback, but still, if […]
ArtsWeek: Dinosaurs, dodo birds, books and novelists
After my first novel was published, I was invited to be on a panel at writing convention. In response to a question, I said that books and novels were endangered species. I was about to say the very act of reading might be as well, but I didn’t get to, because at that point the […]
Telling History vs. Making Art: An upcoming series at S&R
Introduction to a series As part of my doctoral work, I recently did some work that focused on Civil War literature. I use “literature” in a broad sense to cover fiction, nonfiction, and film. My interest in the topic stems from my work as a historian for Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. Visitors come to […]
Jim Booth guest commentary over at Southern Creatives
If you’ve been paying attention you know that our boy Jim Booth recently published a novel. And that it’s really good. And that it presents us with the opportunity to consider fame and substance at war over the soul of an artist. He has now authored a guest essay on “Southern Rock Stardom, Postmodernism, and […]
Just why do nations fail, anyway?
Way back in 2002, when George W. Bush was trying to muster an international military force to take out the Taliban from Afghanistan—how’d that work out, by the way?—one of the arguments he used was that Afghanistan was a “failed state.” As I recall, he tried to use that argument for Iraq as well, although […]
The incompleteness of the soul: an insider's non-review of Completeness of the Soul: The Life and Opinions of Jay Breeze, Rock Star
I’ve been thinking about Completeness of the Soul: The Life and Opinions of Jay Breeze, Rock Star, the third novel from my friend and fellow scrogue Jim Booth. I finished reading it a few days ago, but for me it’s been a slightly disjointed experience because I’ve seen most of it in its pieces before: chapters like […]
Trashing libraries just a bit more
Critic Boyd Tonkin had a piece in last week’s Independent recounting the sad fate of his local library, Friern Barnet Library, in the hands of the enlightened council of the London Borough of Barnet. In this case, a group of volunteers have invaded this local library, which was, along with a number of others, slated […]
Book Review: Completeness of the Soul: The Life and Opinions of Jay Breeze, Rock Star
Inside baseball alert! This is a review of Completeness of the Soul: The Life and Opinions of Jay Breeze, Rock Star (Queen’s Ferry Press) by Jim Booth. Jim is a blogger here at Scholars & Rogues, and I know and like him. And that puts me, and maybe you if you are a reader of […]
Samuel L. Jackson as Minty Fresh in A Dirty Job? Make this movie happen NOW
I’m currently reading Christopher Moore’s 2006 novel, A Dirty Job, and am nearing what I expect to be a slam-bang, fun-filled, rollicking climax. I picked it up because I thought Lamb, the story of Jesus Christ’s life as told by his best friend Levi, who is called Biff, was one of the funniest things I’d ever read. […]
Review: Ann Beattie's Mrs. Nixon
When I think of useful literary devices, Pat Nixon is not the first thing that comes to mind. To be honest, I don’t have one single thing that comes to mind when I think “Pat Nixon” other than, of course, her husband. I know nothing about her. I don’t know that Ann Beattie knows much […]
Hank Haney's 'The Big Miss' is just that: Nothing new about Tiger Woods
by Chip Ainsworth A good nonfiction sports book is hard to find because most authors tend to put athletes on a pedestal. There are exceptions, such as Robert Creamer’s biography of Babe Ruth and Pat Jordan’s brutal self-assessment of being a failed Milwaukee Braves bonus baby in the 1950s. The Big Miss: My Years Coaching […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- I-5 bridge collapse: reflecting on our crumbling infrastructure
- Pope Francis says atheists can go to heaven: Sweet Jesus! The College of Cardinals done elected a hippie
- Magic Hat vs. West Sixth brewhaha: will MH win the battle that costs them the war?
- WordsDay: Postmodernist Xerism at it most discontentedly hopeful…
- How to stop journalists: Say they might be criminals
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
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populartechnology: You are seriously comparing the mathematical error…
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Brian Angliss: Their methodology is imperfect. They admit it. I…
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I-5 bridge collapse: reflecting on our crumbling infrastructure | Scholars and Rogues: […] Wufnik from last November, post-Sandy: …
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