On Monday I published my review of Shapiro’s newest book The Art Forger, a book I thoroughly enjoyed, largely for its ability to engross the reader andteach them something. I’ve always liked art but knew very little about what goes into creating a painting.It was somewhat startling, then, to read the news last week and see that in Rotterdam art thieves hit the Kunsthal museum ... Read More...
Wordstock
Wordstock is a weekend long literary festival that brings authors, publishers, readers, and would-be writers together in the book friendly mecca of Portland. I went last year and recorded my thoughts here but this year was special as now that I legitimately review books and am learning more about them, their authors and the publishing industry itself it potentially felt the way ... Read More...
Banned Books Week: Authors
It’s Banned Books week in America so I hope you’re all reading away. While I don’t know that it was ever banned I’d like to credit my mother for telling an overeager school official that she was aware I was reading Go Ask Alice and that she and my father would be discussing it with me. She never once told me I was not allowed to read something (but she did balk at paying for ... Read More...
What We’ve Come To
This is one more reason why comic books are now called graphic novels or "sequential art". And why I despair for the future of mankind. Advice to writers: WRITE BELOW THE 8th-GRADE LEVEL. Some writers worry that this may insult their readers' intelligence. In reality, no one complains that something is too easy to understand. Studies show that writing below the 8th-grade ... Read More...
