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Recent Posts
- 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
- “The Wiggle Room”: A Short Story
- On the New Film “Grizzly Night,” Based on the Nonfiction Book “Night of the Grizzly” (1971)
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Category Archives: books/film
How Is Dan Brown's "Inferno" Like "Doomsday Preppers"? Hint: Fun Factor
So I’m juggling the reading of about six different books right now, for various reasons, including Stephen D. (I think the “D.” is important here) King’s When the Money Runs Out: The End of Western Affluence (which I should really … Continue reading
Posted in books, books/film, Cormac McCarthy
Tagged Book Reviewing, Cormac McCarthy, Dan Brown's Inferno, Fiction Writing
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Cormac McCarthy/Ridley Scott's "The Counselor": No Country for Old Men II, or No Country For Anyone in Love With Penelope Cruz, Either
So on its first weekend in my neck of the woods, I caught Ridley Scott’s new film The Counselor, with the screenplay being by none other than the great Cormac McCarthy, finest novelist of our times: It was a, um, … Continue reading
Posted in books, books/film, Cormac McCarthy, Horror Films, The West
Tagged Book Reviewing, Cormac McCarthy, Fiction Writing, Film, Good Fiction, The West
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Review of Bob Shacochis's "The Woman Who Lost Her Soul"
So my book review of Bob Shacochis’s The Woman Who Lost Her Soul appeared in the Dallas Morning News last Sunday, and can be found here. One thing remarkable about the book is that it’s quite long (720 pages), and … Continue reading
Posted in books, books/film
Tagged Bob Shacochis, Book Reviewing, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction
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On Being in the Center of Everything, With a Nod to the Master, Vladimir Nabokov
So I’ve just returned to my home in State College, Pennsylvania, a name that must rank high on a list of Least Imaginative Monikers, but it does have an odd distinction: It’s (more or less) exactly in the center of … Continue reading
Posted in Art, books/film, The West
Tagged Book Reviewing, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction, Photography, The Bird Saviors, The West, Vladimir Nabokov
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Encounter With a Lawman in Kent Haruf's Fiction Country: Hats Off to Sheriff Ken Putnam
So I’ve just driven 900+ miles to reach the (shopping mall) mecca that is St. Louis, Missouri, and leaving Colorado I was tooling along at the wheel of my ultracool Subaru Forester (well, let’s say it’s nicely functional, which isn’t … Continue reading
Posted in books/film, Cormac McCarthy, The West
Tagged Book Reviewing, Coen Brothers, Cormac McCarthy, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction, Kent Haruf, The West
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Goodbye, Colorado, With a Great Horned Owl Sendoff
So it’s not exactly Phillip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus, but yesterday, after a summer of writing/backpacking/river-rafting, I had to leave my beloved Colorado home to head back East, and it was a hectic packing morning. I was rushing about, filling bags … Continue reading
Posted in Birding, books/film, The West
Tagged Birding, Book Reviewing, Good Fiction, Owls, The Bird Saviors, The West, Wildlife photos
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On Kent Haruf's new novel, "Benediction," and Anticipation for the Upcoming New Coen Brothers' Film, "Inside Llewyn Davis"
So Kent Haruf’s new novel, Benediction, came out last February, but I waited until I came to Colorado to buy it, because I know Kent. He lives near Salida, about fifty miles from where my summer (writing) home is, and … Continue reading
Posted in books, books/film, The West, Uncategorized
Tagged Book Reviewing, Coen Brothers, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction, Kent Haruf, The West
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"The Place Beyond the Pines": True Grit or Truly Gritty, With a Nod to Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
So last night I caught the new Derek Cianfrance film The Place Beyond the Pines in St. Louis, once-great Gateway to the West, though the film should more fittingly be seen at a small cinema in New Paltz, New York, … Continue reading
On Reading Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code": Is It Really as Bad as They Say?
So in The Writer’s World (imagine an alternate universe of eggheads, wannabes, dreamers, drinkers, and too-often-self-obsessed thinkers) Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel The Da Vinci Code (2003) has a reputation about on par with Ed Wood movies or, for a more … Continue reading
Posted in books/film, writing
Tagged Book Reviewing, Fiction Writing, Good Fiction, The Da Vinci Code
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