Monthly Archives: February 2017

O Gulag, My Gulag: On Daniel Beer's "The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars"

Posted on February 20, 2017 by williamjcobb

So I’m a sucker for Russian literature, and while I was recently reading a biography of Leo Tolstoy written by his daughter—Alexandra Tolstoy’s The Life of My Father (1953)—I had to set it down when I heard about this just-out … Continue reading →

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"Captain Fantastic": Matt Ross's Ode to Life Off the Grid

Posted on February 13, 2017 by williamjcobb

So I caught the indie-hit Captain Fantastic (2016) recently, and after my post not long ago about adventure stories gone wrong, this is a paean to adventure as a lifestyle choice. It’s also something of a genre mixer: adventure tale … Continue reading →

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"The Americans": A New Reality TV Show Starring Melania and Donald

Posted on February 11, 2017 by williamjcobb

So FX has a series titled The Americans, now in Season Five, in which a pair of Soviet spies are masquerading as a married American couple. I’ve always liked the female lead, Keri Russell, who was in the charming indie … Continue reading →

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"The Sailor's Gift": Short Essay in the Dallas Morning News

Posted on February 9, 2017 by williamjcobb

So as I noted in my previous post (The Goodwill Genius: On Discovering Vladimir Nabokov’s Bend Sinister) I actually wrote the “wrong” essay for my editor at the Dallas Morning News, remembering it only to be about a book that … Continue reading →

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The Goodwill Genius: On Discovering Vladimir Nabokov's "Bend Sinister"

Posted on February 6, 2017 by williamjcobb

So back in December my editor at the Dallas Morning News asked me (and other contributing writers) to pen a brief essay about a book I’d been given as a gift some time in my life, and I actually wrote … Continue reading →

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On Adventures Gone Wrong: Stephane Gerson's "Disaster Falls" and Jason Kersten's "Journal of the Dead"

Posted on February 5, 2017 by williamjcobb

So I stumbled upon a book that touches close to home for me, as a naturalist who drags his young daughter with him to various outdoor locales seething with both beauty and danger, filled with the confidence and aplomb that … Continue reading →

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