Nat Jaffe and Archy Stallings are the owners of Brokeland Records, one of the few bastions of vinyl record stores left in Oakland, CA circa 2004. In comes Gibson Goode, ex-NFL star, multi-millionaire and entrepreneur who wants to open his Dogpile megastore in the area. The megastore will force Brokeland Records, who are struggling as it is, to close...
Thunderball by Ian Fleming begins with M, MI6's head, sending James Bond, our hero, to a two week vacation in a health clinic due to poor health caused by lots of drinking and smoking sixty cigarettes a day....
The novel starts off with a section in which Tolstoy writes his thoughts about the nature of historic action. At first this annoyed me (as I continued reading I discovered that this was not unique to this section) because it seems to bring the story to a grinding halt. At firs this type of meditations annoyed me, but the more I read the more I realized that Tolstoy was keeping to the theme of War & Peace, the human condition. Only inste...
Yesterday I reviewed Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero by Larry Tye, a wonderful book and even a big Superman fan like myself learned a few things. While all of the facts below might not be in the book (many are), I do hope you’ll read it and let me know what you thought. 1 ) Superman’s original artist, Joe ShusÂter, stylized the Man of Steel on Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Comic movies star...
Superman – the granddaddy of all superheroes, the one who started it all, the icon who is held to higher standard in fiction and has set the standards for many of us in the non-fiction world. It’s no wonder why the franchise is almost 80 years strong and growing stronger....
There was a time when i was absolutely fascinated by the American Civil War. I read every book (reviews to come) I could get my hands on, scoured websites, went on battleground field trips and talked to other aficionados. To this day I still have a big interest in that time period, even though not as enthusiastic. At the time of this post, the books below were free or $0.99 — please check before downloading. Authors: If you’d ...
If you do not know the plot of the Hunger Games by now, then where have you been living? Under a rock? Well, it goes something like this: in a future time, the world is divided into twelve areas and controlled by the Capitol. The evil leader, President Snow, makes each area give tributes, one teenage boy and one teenage girl, to the Hunger Games- a fight to the death in a natural arena. Much like the Roman tradition of pitting gladiator...
Article first published as Book Review: Vlad by Carlos Fuentes on Blogcritics. About: Vlad by Carlos Fuentes is a short novel taking place in Mexico City, Mexico. The story was part of the 2004 collection “Inquieta CompañĂa” and recently came out as its own book translated by Alejandro Branger and Ethan Shaskan Bumas. 112 pages Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; Tra edition Language: English ISBN-10: 1564787796 My rating for...
Welcome to another installment of “Thoughts from the RanÂcor Pit” in which Andrew and David from the fabÂuÂlous blog “RanÂcors Love to Read” will review books takÂing place in the Star Wars uniÂverse. This time they are reviewing Dark Force Risingthe second installment in The Thrawn Trilogy which popularized the Star Wars books. Buy this Star Wars Book in paper or electronic copy* Andrew: Originally...
Article first published as Book Review: Michael Douglas: A Biography by Marc Eliot on Blogcritics About: Michael Douglas by Marc Eliot is a biography of the famous actor/producer. Mr. Douglas is an award winning actor and producer who had his share of ups and downs yet always managed to capture attention. 352 pages Publisher: Crown Archetype (September 18, 2012) Language: English ISBN-10: 0307952363 My rating for Michael Douglas: A Biog...