‘Reviews’ Archives
Review: “In Vitro” by Leland Jamieson
As in his earlier book, Twentieth Century Bread, in In Vitro: New Short Rhyming Poems Post-9/11, poet Leland Jamieson paints a vivid landscape using rhyme and diction. A formal poet by nature, his best efforts are tightly-crafted examples of form meeting function. With his verse, he explores childhood memories, extols the beauty of nature, and [...]
Review: A Whale’s Tale
Combining fiction with zoological information, in A Whale's Tale, Daniel S. Janik explores the undersea world of the Pacific Humpback whale. The book is described on the back as a "Read-Aloud, Color-Me-Please Book." It follows a particular whale from his birth until he begins his own family. The idea for this book is a noble one: to [...]
Review: Chansons of a Chinaman
As he writes in the poem "The Calm Clam," poet Changming Yuan yearns "to be a voice empowered / For all around me." In his collection, Chansons of a Chinaman, he strives "To translate my loud pain / Into a muted pearl," to reconcile his Chinese ancestry and his American life. To do so, Yuan, whose work has appeared in Wild Violet, draws from [...]
Review: A Tiara for the Twentieth Century
Write what is hardest to say, my poetry instructor in grad school used to urge us, and Suzanne Richardson Harvey does precisely that. In A Tiara for the Twentieth Century: The Collected Poems of Suzanne Richardson Harvey, the poet tackles subjects ranging from motherhood, family relationships and aging to bulimia, AIDS and [...]
Review: Idol Musings
If you like humor, real-life stories or just plain good writing, you will enjoy Idol Musings: Selected Writings from an Online Writing Competition edited by Sophie N. Childs. Idol Musings includes some of the best entries from LJ Idol, an annual online contest for Live Journal modeled after American Idol. Entrants come from a variety of [...]
Review: Dig Up My Gold
By the time anyone has reached 70 to 80 years of age, he or she will have accumulated a wealth of stories. At some point, a friend or family member is likely to suggest, "You ought to write a book." Of all those people with interesting stories, only about 10 percent probably have anything worth writing about, and only a fraction of them are [...]
Review: Genuine Men
On the surface, Genuine Men: Journeys in Stories and Stills sounds like a promising project. Photographer Nancy Bruno set out to depict the lives of men from a variety of backgrounds and ages, and to share their views on what it means to be a real man. Unfortunately, for a book centered around photography, the portraits fail to [...]
Review: Halfling’s Court
While much of modern fantasy makes use of similar tropes and settings, The Halfling's Court by Danielle Ackley-McPhail takes fantasy to a new level: blending the familiar with the unexpected, timelessness with modernity and— believe it or not — faeries with a biker gang. Ackley-McPhail first introduced this world through two stories she [...]
Review: Go Get Some Rosemary
Directed by Ben and Joshua Safdie Starring: Ronald Bronstein, Sage Ranaldo, Frey Ranaldo, Abel Ferrara, Lee Ranaldo According to FIPRESCI Jury Zoran Gojić, Špela Barlič and Radmila Djurica of the 20th Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFE) in Slovenia, the jurors made up their mind pretty fast to award the International [...]
Review: The Limits of Control
Directed by: Jim Jarmusch Starring: Tilda Swinton, Isaach De Bankolé, Luis Tosar, John Hurt The brand-new Jim Jarmusch film The Limits of Control was screened at the 20th annual Ljubljana International Film Festival (LIFFE) in Slovenia. One of the truly independent American film directors, Jim Jarmusch is an uncanny and charming [...]
