Review: “Cooking with the Muse”
Title: Cooking with the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare Authors: Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla Publisher: Tupelo Press, April 1, 2016 Hardcover, 494 pages ISBN, 1936797682 / ISBN, 9781936797684 Link to purchase: http://www.tupelopress.org/ Or http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Muse-Sumptuous-Gathering-Seasonal/dp/1936797682/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464723265&sr=1-1&keywords=cooking+with+the+muse My copy of Cooking with the Muse arrived, cornucopic and gorgeous, after much...
Read MoreReview: Trophy Wife, “Sing What Scares You”
Countless albums sit on history’s shelf, but exceedingly few create their own place in time. A place where we can revisit, enriched each time. While I will doubtless miss out on many albums that will carve their places after I am gone, I am fortunate to be alive today to visit the timeless place created by Trophy Wife‘s sophomore effort, Sing What Scares You. Have you ever felt as if language lacked the power and nuance to express a feeling as it sprouted inside you? Like the feeling of spotting a young girl at a charity auction reading a comic strip titled Bizarre Gender-Swapping...
Read MoreReview: “This Mobius Strip of Ifs”
This Mobius Strip of Ifs by Mathias B. Freese My rating: 4 of 5 stars How does one summarize an entire life of more than 60 years? When faced with this ominous task, too many self-published writers produce rambling, episodic narratives that fail to capture the true drama and beauty of their lives. Fortunately for author Mathias B. Freese, he is a gifted essayist who has been writing essays for decades. By collecting his favorite pieces, he gives readers insights into both his personal life (which is, sadly, full of tragedy) and his views on such topics as education, psychotherapy, blogging,...
Read MoreReview: “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 contemplates the history of human life on earth. Jamieson’s poems about his youth are often sprawling but packed with detail, such as in the sestina “Sunshine,” where he begins with a compelling image: My cousin Jack and I, arms out...
Read MoreI’m Psycho for this Book
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of its publication. I think it’s just about the greatest book to come out the last half of the century, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. It was published in 1991, but I didn’t read it until ’94. I was a junior in high school when this divine novel graced my naughty, sweaty palms. I recall opening my new paperback at the start of my first and only Saturday detention, for skipping a class too much called Early Childhood Development, basically free daycare for parents in a certain network of...
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