Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Hakuri Murakami

I have had Murakami on my radar for some time.  I was hesitant, however, about tackling his recent book 1Q84 due to its length – almost 1200 pages in paperback.  After reading a fascinating interview with him in The Paris … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Paris Review Interviews Volume IV Edited by Philip Gourevitch

I had so much fun reading the book-length interview with Robert Silverberg, Traveler of Worlds, which Fairview Press published recently, that I thought I might enjoy reading more author interviews.  What I really wanted was more interviews with science fiction … Continue reading

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Book Review: Traveler of Worlds: Conversations With Robert Silverberg by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Robert Silverberg was one of the most important writers of science fiction in the late 1960s and early 1970s, during the so-called new wave, when a number of innovators attempted to eschew the genre’s pulp origins and create more literary … Continue reading

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Book Review: A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition by Ernest Hemingway

I must have read this book decades ago as a young writer.  Certain parts have the ring of familiarity, especially Hemingway’s descriptions of writing in cafes with a notebook and pencil. It’s a sparse book: a collection of vignettes about … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Best American Short Stories 2016 Edited by Junot Diaz

In these days of economic austerity I often peruse the new book shelves of the local library rather than book stores for reading material.  On one of those forays I came across this volume.  It’s a hardcover; I didn’t know … Continue reading

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Book Review: Wolf: The Lives of Jack London by James L. Haley

Reading about the life of Jack London had an enormous effect on me when I was a young writer.  Inevitably when I read a new biography of London I compare it with the book that introduced me to him, Jack … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Third Annual Collection Edited by Gardner Dozois

This is a huge doorstopper of a book: almost 700 pages, more than 300,000 words of the editor’s selections of the best short science fiction published in 2015.  Unlike other best of the year editors, Dozois sticks strictly to science … Continue reading

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Book Review: How to Write Like Tolstoy: A Journey Into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers by Richard Cohen

The title of this book, although catchy, is misleading.  Personally, I wouldn’t want to write like Tolstoy anyway.  I am perfectly content to write like John Walters.  Anyway, the author makes no attempt to teach writing or techniques of writing.  … Continue reading

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Book Review: Zero K by Don DeLillo

The aftermath of reading this novel is a residual impression of the plot, characters, and imagery as a totality.  However, it is a weak impression. As soon as I heard about Zero K I decided to give it a read.  … Continue reading

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Book Review: Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for the Page, Stage, and Screen by Robert McKee

When I read books on writing, I don’t expect to agree with everything the author says.  There are as many theories on writing as there are writers, and that’s as it should be.  Still, the opinions and advice of others … Continue reading

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