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Recent Posts
- “Song Sung Blue” Makes Kate Hudson Oscar Worthy
- On Randall K. Wilson’s “A Place Called Yellowstone”: Award-Winning History of Yellowstone National Park
- On Candice Millard’s “River of Doubt” and “River of the Gods”: Bugs, Snakes, and Disease Aplenty
- More Alone than “Alone”: On Adam Shoalts’s “Vanished Beyond the Map: The Mystery of Lost Explorer Hubert Darrell” (2025)
- Rachel McAdams film “Send Help” (2026) Makes Comic Gold Out of “Survivor” and “Alone” Audition Videos
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Author Archives: williamjcobb
On Tim Flannery's "Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet," and LinkedIn Is Now Officially the Most Annoying Social Networking Site
So Tim Flannery, author of one of the best books about global warming, The Weather Makers (2006), has a new book out, which sounds like its subtext is environmental disaster—Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet. While the … Continue reading
Posted in books, Climate Change, Social Networking
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On Mark Hertsgaard’s “Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth,” and the Forest Fire in My Backyard (Almost)
So I’m continuing in my quest to read every book ever written about Global Warming. (Well, not all of them, but I have read quite a few.) I’m also starting to think only wimps use the term ‘Climate Change,’ which … Continue reading
Posted in books, Climate Change, The West
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An Interview With William Gay, a Great Southern Gothic Mystery
A friend of mine recently turned me on to this link (Thanks, Jess)—an interview with the great Southern Gothic writer William Gay that appears in the Oxford American: http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2011/jun/15/solost-home-william-gay/ I’ve been a fan of Gay’s for years, and some of … Continue reading
Posted in books/film
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Curb Your Enthusiasm Is Back, and I Can't
So I’m sure if I were some kind of know-everything, Entertainment-Tonight wonk I would have already known this, but Curb Your Enthusiasm is back this Sunday! It’s hits and misses, but when it hits, it hits. The whole season with … Continue reading
Posted in Good TV
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On James Hansen's "Storms of My Grandchildren" & The Folly of Creepers
So I just saw that the temperature reached 118 degrees in Phoenix yesterday (How can they stand it?) and is forecast to be at record levels all across the country, including where I am, in the Southwest, which by some … Continue reading
Posted in books, Climate Change, The West
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Review of Stefan Merrill Block's "The Storm at the Door"
My review of Stefan Merrill Block’s novel The Storm at the Door appeared in the Dallas Morning News last Sunday, and can be found at this url: http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/books/20110624-book-review-the-storm-at-the-door-by-stefan-merrill-block.ece It’s an earnest novel about his grandparents’ lives, and at times I … Continue reading
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Yellowstone Snow, Hungry Wolves, & the Tumble Inn
So I’ve been traveling in Wyoming for 11 days, kayaking & hiking, not to mention buying stuffed animals for my daughter—dinosaur (diplodocus), river otter, deer, yellow horse, dinosaur (pterodactyl), and something I’m forgetting I’m sure. We camped in the Grand … Continue reading
Posted in The West
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The Silence of the Swedish Lambs: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” or Our Misbegottten Love of Serial Killers (Stories)
So a year ago I picked up the Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo novel in paperback just to see what all the fuss was about, and I couldn’t really get into it and become a fan, mainly because … Continue reading
Posted in books/film
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Dream Hooey: Inception Island, or a Contrarian’s View of “Inception” and “Shutter Island”
So none other than knockout writer Susan Orlean (whose book on Rin Tin Tin is coming out soon, I believe) turned me on to the world of streaming video last fall, telling me that she finds that much better than … Continue reading
Posted in Film
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Arizona Is Burning, and We're Breathing It
Smoke from the Bear Wallow Fire in Arizona—several hundred miles away but over 233,000 acres in size—is so thick here we can’t see the valley floor from our hillside home, just a mile or so away. We’re all coughing and … Continue reading
Posted in books, Climate Change, The West
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