Blogroll

2010 in books — by the numbers

2010 was a record year in one respect. I read more books this year than in any one year since I started keeping a book diary in 1976. This year’s total was 127, quite a bit higher than the 111 from last year, the previous record. I attribute the number to 2010 being the first […]

Book Review: Public Image: Stories and Poems by Thomas A. Hauck

Short stories and poetry are deceptively difficult literary forms. On the surface, they have the allure of simplicity. After all, they don’t require the detailed arcs or subplots of a novel. Short stories also need not deal with meter or rhyme. Yet these things also make them so difficult. They require far more exactitude than […]

Book Review: Requiem for New Orleans (2006)

Sometimes a title says it all. Mike Sharpe’s Requiem for New Orleans is a lament for a New Orleans that no longer exists. At the same time, the title reflects the stylistic approach Sharpe takes to the subject.

The work is intended to emulate a symphony based on the concept of a requiem mass. Sharpe […]

Book Review: Thou Shalt Not Kill Unless Otherwise Instructed (2005)

A confession first. I am not a poetry fan. I don’t know why, but it is something I never got into. My preferred “form” of the art is songwriting. Most of my favorite songwriters are generally called “topical,” meaning they’re writing about what they see is happening in the world.

That’s probably part of the […]