Tag Archives: Phil Semler

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d’art

August 8, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Fiction
Tags:
sacre_bleu

By Christopher Moore William Morrow, $26.99, 416 pages After Van Gogh is murdered by the grotesque dwarf “The Colorman” in Auvers, another “little man,” Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, and Lucien Lessard, a far lesser known Impressionist, try to solve the crime in Montmartre, Paris. This …

Read More

When I Left Home: My Story

August 8, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Biography & Memoir
Tags:
when_I_left_home

By Buddy Guy, with David Ritz Da Capo Press, $26.00, 320 pages Buddy Guy was born in 1936 in Louisiana to sharecropping parents. With little education, his “good job” was as a custodian at LSU Baton Rouge. In this heartfelt autobiography, he describes …

Read More

Canada

June 27, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Fiction
Tags:
canada

By Richard Ford Ecco, $27.99, 420 pages This is Richard Ford’s first novel in six years, and perhaps his last. Dell Parsons is fifteen when his parents rob a bank. After they’re arrested, except for one hapless jail visit, he …

Read More

Driven

May 23, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Thrillers & Suspense
Tags:
driven

By James Sallis Poisoned Pen Press, $19.95, 148 pages Drive, the 2005 neo-noir-revenge-vendetta classic, was made into a 2011 movie with Hollywood hunk Ryan Gosling. Sallis didn’t write the screenplay. The film had many changes, not all bad, but that’s the …

Read More

Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment — and Your Life

May 22, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Nature & Science
Tags:
mindfulness_for_beginners

By Jon Kabat-Zinn Sounds True, $20.95, 156 pages About 10 years ago, I took an eight-week class at Kaiser Hospital called “Mindfulness.” We read Kabat-Zinn’s Full Catastrophe Living and learned many methods to deal with pain outside of regular health care. The …

Read More

The Man Within My Head

March 12, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Biography & Memoir
Tags:
man_within_my_head

By Pico Iyer Knopf, $25.95, 238 pages This is a lovely, rambling book about a writer, Iyer, and a famous novelist, Graham Greene. Iyer, a popular travel writer often appearing on the back page of Time magazine, sees Graham Greene (really, his characters) …

Read More

The Vault

February 29, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Mystery
Tags:
The Vault

By Ruth Rendell Scribner, $26.00, 276 pages At the close of Rendell’s 1999 novel A Site for Sore Eyes, two dead bodies and one living are entombed in an underground chamber beneath the charming Orcadia Cottage. Twelve years later, in the …

Read More

I Curse the River of Time

February 28, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Fiction
Tags:
I Curse the River of Time

By Per Petterson Picador, $15.00, 227 pages ISBN 9780312429539 For many readers, Scandinavian bleakness is trending. And nobody now does it better than Petterson. The “River of Time” is actually an image from a poem by Mao. The protagonist’s name …

Read More

The Letters of Samuel Beckett: 1941-1956

February 24, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:History & Current Events
Tags:
letters_of_samuel_beckett

By Samuel Beckett (author); George Craig, Martha Dow, Dan Gunn, Lois More Overbeck (editors) Cambridge University Press, $50.00, 745 pages In 2009, the first volume of Beckett’s letters was published. This covered the period of 1929-1940. The second volume, with two more …

Read More

The Best American Mystery Stories 2011

February 21, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Mystery
Tags:

By Harlan Coben and Otto Penzler, editors Mariner, $14.95, 410 pages Best-selling novelist Harlan Coben edits the latest collection of the must-reads in mysteries from the past year. The heavies include Lawrence Block, Brendan DuBois, Loren Estleman, Ed Gorman, Harry Hunsicker, Richard …

Read More

The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, etc.

February 21, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Popular Culture
Tags:
ecstacy_of_influence

By Jonathan Lethem Doubleday, $32.50, 438 pages The Brooklyn master of maximalist fiction with infinite allusions and appropriations (Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude, Chronic City) has come out with a work of nonfiction previously published, unpublished early fiction, some new essays …

Read More

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories

February 21, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Kids' Books
Tags:
bippolo_seed

By Dr. Seuss Random House for Young Readers, $15.00, 72 pages Something new yet familiar just came in from Random House. In a momentous publishing event comes the book The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by the beloved Dr. Seuss. These seven …

Read More

On Bicycles: 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life

February 21, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Health & Fitness
Tags:
on_bicycles

By Amy Walker (editor) New World Library, $16.95, 372 pages Do you remember the Whole Earth catalog? This is a new cycling version — small, compact, tough cover and filled with illustrations, facts, how-tos, including bike gear and hardware. Bicycles are another …

Read More

James Joyce: A Life

February 11, 2012 0 Comments the_category Category:Biography & Memoir
Tags:
james_joyce_a_life

By Edna O’Brien Penguin Lives, $14.00, 180 pages If you’ve read O’Brien and Joyce, you’re in for a treat. A perfect pairing of author/biographer and author/subject, these little Penguin Life books are good introductions to famous authors and, of course, the biographer. …

Read More