Blogroll

Book Review: The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Science fiction — excuse me, speculative fiction — loves series. For whatever reason, readers — and evidently authors — can’t get enough of particular worlds or characters. And just as Margaret Atwood distances her fiction from science fiction, she may be taking the concept of a series in a different direction.

Atwood’s latest novel, The […]

No “hard and fast rule” but juror’s pre-trial Google search requires new trial

Although saying it was adopting “no hard and fast rule,” the South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld an order granting a new trial in a case where a juror did a Google search on a defendant two months before being called for jury duty and happened to mention the search during jury deliberations.

In Russo […]

Midweek Music Moment: Bill Evans

Usually, I try to use album releases and recording sessions as the basis for these features. But something struck we when I realized that September 15 was the anniversary of the death of jazz pianist Bill Evans. When he died in 1980, he was barely 51. That’s what struck me. With my birthday this week, […]

Who you gonna believe? Survey says: Not the news media

We hear a lot lately about the struggles of traditional news media in the Internet age. But it seems a lot of people believe the damage may be self-inflicted.

A new study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicates the fewest number of people in more than two decades believe […]

Tell a tale of titles

I’m finally caving in on this meme, which has been floating around for a couple weeks. I figured since it’s my birthday I can do what I want, right? So, here’s the deal, the meme requires answering the following questions using only the titles of books you’ve read this year without repeating any of the […]