Blogcritics Category: Books: The Reading Life

The Great Book Adventure: Wuthering Heights - Part Two

Chris Bancells — Sat, 1 Nov 2008 13:56:45 EDT

You think your relationships have drama? Try Heathcliff on for size.
What, you may ask, are my thoughts about Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, now that it's finished? There are many, I promise you, as it is a surprisingly complex book. By and large, however, my reaction can be summed up in one five letter word, repeated over and over again. Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, this book is freaking...

The Great Book Adventure: Wuthering Heights - Part One

Chris Bancells — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:46:30 EDT

Exactly who's story is it, up there on Wuthering Heights?
Should I die only a year after publishing my first book, I certainly hope that people will take the time to read my only effort. It's a morbid thought perhaps, but it is part of what drew me to Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I have no wish to follow in the quietest Bronte sister's footsteps, but it is none the less an interesting...

Book Review: Books - A Memoir by Larry McMurtry

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:13:21 EDT

The scattershot, sketchbook quality makes Larry McMurtry's memoir haphazard and unstructured, but it's also an entertaining and informative treat for book lovers.
You would think that prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry, author of 28 novels and the creator of such high-profile works as The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, and the screenplay of Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain (with Diana Ossana), would have enough to keep him occupied. You...

Interview with Lou Aronica, Publisher of New Publishing House The Story Plant

Dorothy Thompson — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:38:29 EDT

"Some would suggest that starting a new publishing house in this environment is confirmation that I�ve lost my mind."
As publisher of Avon Books, Lou Aronica launched the Eos imprint, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. Also at Avon, he built publishing programs for Dennis Lehane, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, J.A. Jance, Stephanie Laurens, Lisa Kleypas, Bruce Feiler, and Peter Robinson. Neil Gaiman, whose work Lou acquired, reached #1 on the New York Times Best...

The Great Book Adventure: Moby Dick - Part Two

Chris Bancells — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:09:36 EDT

As the story progress, the question has become one of who loves whales more: Melville or Ahab?
Whether it be in writing or in any other part of life, nothing so irritates me as someone stubbornly refusing to play to their strengths. I, for instance, am not a guitar player, nor will I ever be. Oh, I have a guitar, and like to play around with it every now and again, but I will never be any good. I know this, I accept this, and I certainly...

The Great Book Adventure: Moby Dick - Part One

Chris Bancells — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 04:32:59 EDT

Call me Ishmael, dammit!
I can still see it sitting there, four shelves up, two in from the door. The cover was apple red and the words were in a slanted script. They were also, appropriately, white. Moby Dick.I must have been in fourth grade the first time I saw it up there, higher than I could reach, and I remember being shocked. I couldn't get over the fact that it...

A Birthday Chronicle: Ray Bradbury and the State of the Public Library

Lisa Damian — Sun, 7 Sep 2008 20:54:24 EDT

Science fiction author Ray Bradbury speaks out about the importance of preserving our libraries.
While in Long Beach, California, I had the opportunity to see one of my personal heroes, Ray Bradbury, speak at the Long Beach Main Library. As part of a campaign to save the main branch of the Long Beach Public Library system from being closed down due to lack of funding, Bradbury made a personal appearance to express his devotion to the public...

Book Review: Twenty Poems to Nourish Your Soul edited by Judith Valente and Charles Reynard

Brandy — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 13:05:21 EDT

The nourishment one takes from this volume of paired poems and essays, perhaps depends upon how one prefers to dine.
Twenty poems seem easy enough to find - but ones which nourish the soul? Nourishment of any type is difficult to find. To nourish is to enrich, to sustain. The soul is a much debated article, tangible to some, elusive to others, its very existence a sore topic to many. So, poems which nourish the soul? Seems a tall order. The question here,...

The Great Book Adventure: AWOL in August

Chris Bancells — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:02:28 EDT

After a little summer vacation reflection, the adventure is set to begin anew.
So, apparently when I said I had had enough of Don Quixote that bit of personal mutiny extended to the entire Great Book Adventure. It’s been nigh on a month since I’ve picked up a classic book and I don’t have a bit of regret about blowing my plan right out of the water. I haven’t been especially busy or distracted, just...

The Great Book Adventure: Don Quixote - Part Three

Chris Bancells — Fri, 1 Aug 2008 23:24:43 EDT

The first volume of Don Quixote, mercifully, comes to an end.
Perhaps it's the looming prospect of a week at the beach. Perhaps it's the cumulative effect of seven months spent reading serious literature. Perhaps it is real and true frustration. Whatever the case might be, I think I have about had it with Don Quixote. I've had it with the foolish knight, Sancho Panza, and all the other daft...