Books

  • Godzilla

    PLEASE NOTE – There may be spoilers in this post. Don’t read if this concerns you. MePri’s Otakon panel, “Godzilla: Just A Giant Lizard?” gave me a new perspective on Godzilla. Their presentation suggested that the different portrayals of Godzilla in its movies were a barometer of society’s acceptance of nuclear energy. From a fearful

    Read more →

  • 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

    Read more →

  • 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

    Read more →

  • After her story,“Stargazing,” I read all of ND Chan’s poetry to the tune of Oasis’ “Wonderwall.” “Stargazing” is my favorite story in her collection of flash fiction and poetry, Saved as Draft: Stories of Self-Discovery Through Letters & Notes. Set during her morning commute through New York City’s Grand Central Station, a trip to the

    Read more →

  • There are several editions of these stories. I saw on Amazon more recent editions split the “Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse” and “Black Fairy Tale” stories into two separate books. The edition I read had both and a third story, “Yuna,” collected in a single volume. “Yuna” splits the book into the “Summer” side and

    Read more →

  • I needed something to take the weight of Arrival off my mind. Daryl Gregory’s Spoonbenders was a very effective and enjoyable salve. It’s Daryl’s clever observations about life and the poesy he wraps it in that makes Spoonbenders such potent medicine. When we are introduced to Teddy Telemachus, he is cruising for women in the

    Read more →

  • It’s been months since I finished the stories in Ted Chiang’s Arrival. Before that I had binged Rick Remender’s Black Science comic book series. It was a struggle to get through the opening story in Ted’s book. After the kinetic shootouts and chases of Black Science, it was a challenge adjusting to the slower pacing

    Read more →

  • WARNING SPOILERS!!! As I read David Almond’s The True Tales of the Monster Billy Dean Telt By Hisself I kept thinking of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Both stories center around preadolescent boys who have become part of an ad hoc families. Gaiman’s Bod is adopted by the graveyard’s ghosts and Almond’s Billy, while still

    Read more →