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World Without Pain: The Story of a Search
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Road Signs
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A collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories -
Thoughts from the Aerie
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Memoirs and essays on a range of topics
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Silent Interviews
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Stories about the mysterious Telepathic Guild Invisible People
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A collection of science fiction and fantasy stories The Relocation Blues
Adriana’s Family
The Woman Who Fell Backwards and Other Stories
Apocalypse Bluff and Other Stories
The Senescent Nomad Hits the Road
Invasive Procedures: Stories
Heroes and Other Illusions: Stories
Bedlam Battle: An Omnibus of the One Thousand Series
After the Fireflood
Caliban’s Children
The Fantasy Book Murders
Opting Out and Other Departures
Sunflower: A Novel
America Redux: Impressions of the United States After Thirty-Five Years Abroad
Fear or Be Feared: Fantasies
Writing as a Metaphysical Experience
Reviews and Reflections on Books, Literature, and Writing
The One Thousand: A Novella
The One Thousand: Book Two: Team of Seven
The One Thousand: Book Three: Black Magic Bus
The One Thousand: Book Four: Deconstructing the Nightmare
After the Rosy-Fingered Dawn: A Memoir of Greece
The Misadventures of Mama Kitchen: A Novel
Dark Mirrors: Dystopian Tales
Love Children: A Novel
Painsharing and Other Stories
The Dragon Ticket and Other Stories
Category Archives: Book Reviews
Book Review: Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller by Alec Nevala-Lee
Reading this book is a natural progression after recently reading Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand by John Markoff. Brand was one of Fuller’s many admirers, so much so that pages three and four of Brand’s The Last … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Tagged Buckminster Fuller, counterculture, Dymaxion, Stewart Brand, Synergetics, Whole Earth Catalog
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Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir
I’ve seen the movie The Martian at least half a dozen times, and every time I find it uplifting, enervating, and inspiring. I’ve even written a blog post (called “Staying Alive: or, The Martian as an Allegory of the Human … Continue reading
Book Review: A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally – Part Four: Music and Dead Heads
As I mentioned before, offstage (and sometimes on) the Grateful Dead were often not exemplary in their behavior. In fact, with few exceptions, their personal lives seemed to stagger from one dysfunctional situation to the next. Although everyone regarded Jerry … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Tagged Dead Heads, drugs, Grateful Dead, psychedelics, rock music
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Book Review: A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally – Part Three: Psychedelics and the Gestalt Mind
As I read on in A Long Strange Trip, I realize that it is important to remember that the idiosyncratic behavior of the Grateful Dead and Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, especially concerning drugs and alcohol but also the tendency to … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Tagged Grateful Dead, hallucinogens, Merry Pranksters, psychedelics, rock music
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Book Review: A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally – Part Two: Locale
Although the Grateful Dead eventually toured all over the United States and around the world, their origin story is inexorably linked with the San Francisco Bay Area. The late sixties, when the Dead came to prominence, was a heady time … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Tagged Grateful Dead, hippies, Ken Kesey, Merry Pranksters, music, San Francisco Bay Area, sixties, travel
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Book Review: A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally – Part One: Background
I don’t think I ever heard of the Grateful Dead until in 1970 at the age of seventeen I headed down to Santa Clara University from Seattle for my first and only year of college. I was immature, naive, and … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Tagged acid rock, Bay Area, Fillmore West, Grateful Dead, hippies, music scene, rock music, seventies, sixties, Workingman's Dead
3 Comments
Book Review: Sea of Tranquility: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel
Sea of Tranquility is marketed as a mainstream novel but it is in fact science fiction. It is a story of time travel and human colonies on the moon, on other planets and moons in the solar system, and on … Continue reading
On the Reading and Implementation of Self Help Books: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg, and Others
We all need help. We all have areas of our lives that need improvement. In my case, I find myself living alone in a one-bedroom apartment after having raised five sons overseas (mainly in Greece) in an extremely lively atmosphere, … Continue reading
Book Review: I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins
I got it into my head that I have been reading a lot of nonfiction lately and I needed to get into a novel. I conducted an online search to see what my local library had on hand, and if … Continue reading
Book Review: A Savage Dreamland: Journeys in Burma by David Eimer
It is oddly appropriate that I am writing this during a rare power cut of several hours (and counting) in my apartment complex – appropriate because normally we here in Seattle can count on having electricity and other utilities twenty-four-seven, … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Travel
Tagged Burma, Golden Triangle, Southeast Asia, Yangon
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