Book Review: A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013 Introduction by Lizzy Attree The Caine Prize is awarded to a short story written by an African author (which primarily means one born in Africa–all the authors in this volume are from Sub-Saharan Africa), published in English in the… Continue reading Book Review: A Memory This Size and Other Stories: The Caine Prize for African Writing 2013
Tag: immigrants
Comic Book Review: Poseurs
Comic Book Review: Poseurs written by Deborah Vankin, art by Rick Mays Jenna Berry is a Jewish-Cherokee teen living in a downmarket part of Los Angeles. Her mother is a hard-drinking legal secretary who has been dating a string of pretty boys, and they’re always on the verge of poverty. When Mom’s shoplifting costs Jenna… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Poseurs
Magazine Review: The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate
Magazine Review: The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate edited by John Gaterud Yes, this is yet another literary magazine; I picked up a bunch inexpensively at the book fair. This one seems to take its title from Jack Kerouac’s writing; this first issue was published in 2007. The index is unusual for this kind of… Continue reading Magazine Review: The Blueroad Reader: Stardust and Fate
Book Review: The Land of Dreams
Book Review: The Land of Dreams by Vidar Sundstøl Lance Hansen has not dreamed in seven years. A divorced Forest Service police officer on the North Shore of Lake Superior, most of his days are spent chasing illegal fishing and people camping in the wrong places. He thinks that the latter will be his… Continue reading Book Review: The Land of Dreams
Book Review: Seeds for Change
Book Review: Seeds for Change by Marly Cornell This is a biography of Surinder “Suri” and Edda (nee Jeglinsky) Sehgal, the founders of the Sehgal Foundation. That foundation helps rural villages in India achieve clean water, improved agriculture, better education and more honest government, as well as funding conservation and ecological efforts around the world.… Continue reading Book Review: Seeds for Change
Book Review: Empire of Sin
Book Review: Empire of Sin by Gary Krist A criminal called “the Axman” opens this story, and after a thirty-year flashback through New Orleans history, wraps it up as well. No one is sure who the Axman actually was, how many of the crimes attributed to him he actually did, or his final fate. Rather… Continue reading Book Review: Empire of Sin
Comic Strip Review: The Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume Ten: The Junior Commandos
Comic Strip Review: The Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume Ten: The Junior Commandos by Harold Gray Little Orphan Annie was one of the all-time great comic strips, debuting in 1924. The story centered on a plucky orphan girl with curly red hair (which was considered unattractive at the time) and her attempts to get by… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: The Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume Ten: The Junior Commandos
Book Review: The Jungle
Book Review: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Jurgis Rudkos is a Lithuanian immigrant who has come to America with his fiancee Ona and their families to seek the good jobs advertised in his poverty-stricken homeland. It’s tricky for people who don’t know English or the local customs to get around, but finally they make it… Continue reading Book Review: The Jungle
Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939
Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939 This is a facsimile reprint by Adventure House of a pulp magazine. Pulp magazines tended to stick to one genre, so you knew what you were getting from the beginning; in this case action-mystery. Great literature was rare, but they really got the blood pumping. And a dozen stories… Continue reading Magazine Review: Detective Yarns April 1939
TV Review: Public Defender
TV Review: Public Defender “If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” The office of the Public Defender is a special government department that specializes in handling the cases of indigent defendants. The first such office was opened in Los Angeles in about 1914. This series, which aired in 1954-55, was… Continue reading TV Review: Public Defender