Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review: Nebula Award Stories Six Edited by Clifford D. Simak

Reading this book fascinated me on several levels. First of all, it’s an old Pocket Book edition that retailed when it came out in 1972 for 95 cents. I bought it in excellent condition at a science fiction convention for … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling by Charles Johnson

I came across this book while browsing a shelf of materials about the Pacific Northwest or by Pacific Northwest writers and filmmakers. I’m almost always up for interesting books on writing, although I had not heard of Charles Johnson. It … Continue reading

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Book Review: Best American Short Stories of the Century Edited by John Updike and Katrina Kenison

I picked this book up at a library sale. It was published in 1999 and represents the opinions of the two editors on which stories are the best from the yearly volumes of The Best American Short Stories from 1915 … Continue reading

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Book Review: Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick

Because the vast empire of the Soviet Union is dead and gone, it’s hard sometimes to remember how pervasive, influential, and terrifying it once was. I grew up during the Cold War, when the ongoing struggle between communism and capitalism … Continue reading

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Book Review: Past Master by R.A. Lafferty

Rafael Aloysius Lafferty, who wrote under the name R.A. Lafferty, was an inescapable presence in the 1960s and 1970s in the science fiction field. It seemed that just about every best of the year or awards anthology I picked up … Continue reading

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Book Review: Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis

I don’t know how many people remember Nikos Kazantzakis nowadays. He’s known mainly for two novels that became acclaimed and controversial movies: Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ. When I was a young man obsessed with becoming … Continue reading

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Book Review: Everfair by Nisi Shawl

I’ve come across Nisi Shawl’s short stories from time to time, including one set in the Everfair universe. This is her first novel. In it, she posits an alternate history in which Europeans and Americans purchase a tract of land … Continue reading

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Book Review: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

This is a wonderful, exciting, amazing, and important book. It’s one of those world-changing special books that rarely comes along. It celebrates freedom, education for all, and women’s rights while at the same time telling a horrendous story of oppression, … Continue reading

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Book Review: No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula Le Guin was one of my instructors at Clarion West 1973. It’s a shame I don’t remember very much about my Clarion experience; but after all, that was about 45 years ago and I had just turned twenty. I … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

It was a real one-two punch to read this novel right after reading the powerful collection of essays We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The novel brings to vivid life much of what Coates … Continue reading

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