2021

  • Revisiting Mol (An Updated Review of Hye-young Pyun’s City of Ash and Red)

    Hye-young Pyun’s City of Ash and Red is a more impactful book after a worldwide pandemic lockdown. We all experienced firsthand the frustration and tribulation Pyun’s nameless protagonist endured as he attempted to begin his new life in Country C during an epidemic. Not that the examiner’s choice of words was particularly difficult, but the…

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  • The Hope Conservationist

    Published 22 years ago, before 9/11, before Madoff, before Black Lives, before the pandemic, the January 6 White terrorist attack on the Capitol, and a lot of other things that drain my psyche, Jane Goodall’s Reason to Hope is the book I needed right now. While I don’t know if I am any more or…

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  • Anthony Kwai-dan

    SPOILERS! DON’T READ ON IF IT MATTERS! At the end of Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts you are given recipes for several of the dishes mentioned in the stories: Tokyo Ramen, meatballs, Osso Buco, Saffron Risotto, and duck breast. Hungry Ghosts is set at a lavish dinner prepared by renowned chefs for the winner of a…

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  • Sushi Yojimbo

    SPOILERS! DO NOT READ ON IF IT MATTERS It’s “Sushi Yojimbo,” if I want to be glib about it. If I don’t, Get Jiro is Anthony Bourdain’s creative expression of his criticism of the food industry from fast food to organic and local to authenticity to chef celebrities, franchises, and high end dining. You name…

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  • “Monsterousness”

    “POSSIBLE SPOILERS! DO NOT READ ON IF IT MATTERS! When I started Dracula, Motherf**ker  I hadn’t realized that Alex De Campi wrote another one of my favorite comics – Archie vs Predator, where Archie, Jughead, Veronica, Betty, and many of the other characters from the classic Archie Comics series try to survive being hunted by the…

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  • Put It Down Pick It Back Up (House of M Review)

    POSSIBLE SPOILERS! DO NOT READ ON IF IT MATTERS! I started House of M in March but wasn’t inspired to finish it until watching the X-Men panel on the Comic-Con YouTube channel. The panelists spoke about the newly concluded “Hellfire Gala,” which leads into the “Trial of Magneto.” Poor Magneto seems to be the scapegoat…

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Vincent Young