Thoughts on Living the Life Creative
City of Secrets by Stewart O’Nan (2016) - Following World War II, thousands of Jews fled to Palestine. Brand’s family was killed in Latvia, and he receives a new life through the growing underground in the land they call Eretz Israel. There the fight between the underground and the British authorities draws him in, sometimes... Continue Reading →
Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert (2018) - A book of strange fairy tales written by her reclusive grandmother is the center of young Alice Proserpine’s life. She has never been allowed to read them, and the book itself is almost impossible to find. When Alice realizes that people from the “Hinterland”, the setting for the... Continue Reading →
Recursion by Blake Crouch (2020) - At any moment, we are the shadow cast by our memories. Everything we believe about the world we occupy sits on our memories of what has gone before. Which makes “False Memory Syndrome” all the more terrifying. Is it a disease that attacks the brain, filling it with memories... Continue Reading →
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868-69) – The four March sisters find themselves much reduced in society after a financial issue for their family. Each will find their own way to deal with those challenges from the beautiful and practical Meg to the shy Beth and the artistic and pampered Amy. In the middle... Continue Reading →
Reckoning In The Rubble – My Awakening At the Battle for Mosul by Ash Gallagher (2020) – In the midst of the war in Iraq, war correspondent Ash Gallagher finds a spiritual awakening. Like so many, the fire of humanity’s least humane activity burns away parts of her life, leaving a different person behind.... Continue Reading →
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (1945) – “Cannery Row in Monterrey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.” Welcome to a ragged community that has found a way to care for one another. Mack and the boys are installed at... Continue Reading →
Murder By the Book by Lauren Elliott 2018, Kensington Books – Following the mysterious deaths of her father, and fiancee, Addie Greybourne discovers that an aunt she never knew has left her everything. That includes a family house in a town named for her family. The move seems like a good break with the painful... Continue Reading →
Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan (2012) - Clay Jannon is an out of work graphic artist who stumbles on a job as the night clerk at the strangest bookstore he’s ever seen. It comes with strange customers, stranger books and a mystery that spans centuries. Oh, and he’s not supposed to read... Continue Reading →
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (2006) – Set in China during the Cultural Revolution, a military project sends messages into space in an attempt to contact alien life. The race that hears the message desperately needs a new planet, and Earth looks like an inviting target. George R.R. Martin calls this a “...blend of scientific and... Continue Reading →
Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman (2015) - A collection of short stories by the modern writing master. 24 stories that span many ideas, from a re-visit to his "American Gods" universe, to a script for "Dr. Who". Some have appeared elsewhere, while "Black Dog" (the "American Gods" story) was written especially for the collection. Let's... Continue Reading →
Stories Are My Life 