BOOKS and More Books/September 2017

    Floating Tales by Jeff Friedman ISBN 978-1-941196-46-5 $21.95, paper. Plume Editions, MadHat Press Asheville NC https://madhat-press.com/collections/plume-editions   Floating Tales by Jeff Friedman With an introduction by Daniel Lawless  ...

Painting Rust & Blood and Salsa – Tom Bradley Review

Full disclosure: Jonathan Penton is this reviewer’s fraternal twin. That’s right. The author currently under examination was parturated clinging onto my red-hairy ankle. He entered upon this particular incarnation all primed to fuck me out of my birthright for some dribbles of lentil soup the color of blood, salsa and unpainted rust. So, how have I managed, in this strange critique, to approach my rival sibling’s stuff with such an unjaundiced eye? Is it due to the magisterial disinterestedness of my critical faculty?

Perhaps it’s just because—as I’ve suddenly come to realize, now that Bradley’s Complaint has been duly lodged and I’ve delivered myself of my authorial pet peeve—I don’t give a fuck. I don’t even recognize the notion of birthright.

8 Books Worth A Look/Reviews

8 Books Worth A Look/Reviews

Queen Kong by Amanda J. Bradley 88 Pages, 7 x 10 Library of Congress Control Number:  2017930503 ISBN:  978-1-63045-038-0 Anticipated Publication Date:  April 24,, 2017 Cover Illustration by Mikayla Lewis  by Emily Vogel, Poetry Editor Much of classic feminist theory...

Five More Books/V12N4

In addition to weaving an engrossing story in Finding the Raven, Pieczka’s two main protagonists happen to be young women with substance. At a time when well-heeled women were considered to be little more than ornaments for a man’s arm with few rights outside of child-rearing and the running of the household, the characters of Julia and Rose evolve from being helpless females to slowly standing on their own two feet as they take command of their lives.

More Book Reviews: Wish for Amnesia & State of Grace

The book is a kaleidoscope of references to obscure and eclectic subjects evinced by Jewel, the self-indulgent Caroline, the in-over-his-head Jack, and the evil godmother Beatrice. As such, they are delightful to experience, especially since most are explained in one way or another saving the reader a trip to her Oxford dictionary or Britannica encyclopedia, or (more likely these days) his run to a computer to fact check with Google or Wikipedia. — from Wish for Amnesia, by Barbara Rosenthal

Book Reviews

Winner of Rose Metal Press’s 2016 Short Short Chapbook Contest, Lex Williford’s Superman on the Roof is a haunting series of stories told in the voice of Travis Truitt, the oldest of four children. While they are told years later, the reader gets a strong sense of the child’s consciousness, his helplessness against circumstances way beyond his control or comprehension.

More books, more reviews

The political rift around Vietnam has not healed since the installation of the Wall in 1982. Many Americans still have not reconciled their faith in the country, which they consider the most powerful in the world, with the fact that the US lost an undeclared war against a small country in Southeast Asia.

The political rift around Vietnam has not healed since the installation of the Wall in 1982. Many Americans still have not reconciled their faith in the country, which they consider the most powerful in the world, with the fact that the US lost an undeclared war against a small country in Southeast Asia.

The American psyche is further tormented by the fact that two Presidents exaggerated and even lied (Gulf of Tonkin) about the circumstances there in order to garner public and Congressional support.

Book Reviews V12N4/July-August 2016

Book Reviews V12N4/July-August 2016

This Amazing Cage of Light by Martine Bellen ISBN-13: 978-1941550328 – Paper/$18.00 Spuyten Duyvil: 2015 www.spuytenduyvil.net   This Amazing Cage of Light Review by Tom DeBeauchamp   n "Cuccina,"...

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Allen Ginsberg is known as one of the United States’ most significant poets, in particular thanks to his 1956 epic, “Howl,” which was the subject of a subsequent obscenity trial. Later, Ginsberg was known throughout America and the rest of the world for his role as a countercultural leader…

Bookstores of New York

Bookstores of New York

The prognosis for the future is mixed in Uptown Manhattan. Among the last of the independents on the Upper West Side is Book Culture, at 536 West 112th, around the corner from the gates of Columbia University and down the block from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The store has long leaned to the scholarly, but the academic book business is in a slump, given the dwindling number of students applying to and pursuing Ph.D.s in the humanities. In business since 1997, owner Chris Doeblin decided to diversify. In 2009 he opened a new store, Book Culture on Broadway, that also carries “non-book,” i.e. scarves, toys, and knickknacks, along with more popular titles. But sales in the main store are declining. Doeblin ascribes the sorry state of affairs at least in part to an industry at odds with itself…

86 Sonnets/Book Review

86 Sonnets/Book Review

I was attracted to the title of this new poetry collection by Mary Barnet, the Founder/Editor of poetrymagazine.com because I know how difficult it is to write sonnets and admit giving up on them and concentrating on other forms — the triolet, villanelle, and pantoum…

After Birth/Book Review

After Birth/Book Review

Another day gone, okay and I get it, I got it: I’m over. I no longer exist,” says Ari, the sometimes blunt, always quirky narrator of After Birth, a first novel from Elisa Albert. Throughout the novel, Ari struggles with her identity, now that she is no longer single, and no longer pregnant, but a mother…

Festival Notebooks/Book Review

Festival Notebooks/Book Review

A certain place at the festival, and in the heart of poetry lovers, belongs to a group of poets and writers of Romanian origins who frequent the Residence. They found their own voice in Canadian and Romanian literature, some of them being consecrated and others less-known, still modelling their style.

Habeas Corpus/Book Review

Habeas Corpus/Book Review

  Habeas Corpus   by Cindy Hochman   (Glass Lyre Press, 2015)   ISBN-10: 1941783023   ISBN-13: 978-1941783023   Softbound, 27 pages, $12.00           Habeas Corpus   Reviewed by Jeff Santosuosso    ...

Strange Theater/Book Review

Strange Theater/Book Review

  Strange Theater   by John Amen NYQ Books, 2015 http://books.nyq.org/author/johnamen Paperback ISBN:  978-1-63045-008-3               Reviewed by Paul Sohar   [dropcap style="font-size: 46px; color:...

Diner Stories/Book Review

Diner Stories/Book Review

    Diner Stories: Off the Menu Edited by Daniel McTaggart         Mountain State Press Inc., Charleston, WV, 25304 www.mountainstatepress.org Order from Amazon.com ISBN: 978-0-941092-71-5 Published in 2015 234 pages, 6” x 9”, Paperback,...

BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

Gabriel: A Poem
by Edward Hirsch

True Love Scars
by Michael Goldberg

Fire Road
by Barbara Siegel Carlson

Life Is Perfect
by Amy Small-McKinney

Uncontested Grounds
by William Conelly

Hidden Dangers: Mexico on the Brink of Disaster
by Robert Joe Stout