The Weirdest of the Weird Books Gen-Xers bought at Waldenbooks Go Ask Alice (and Jay) about Satanic Panic If you are a Gen-Xer, at some point you probably ran across Go Ask Alice, with its mysterious cover and author, Anonymous. Go Ask Alice, published in the early 1970’s, is technically a Baby Boomer book. Jay’s …
Lessons in Chemistry is not the best book from a literary perspective, but the story is so engaging that you won’t care. It’s a kind of feminist fairy tale set in the early sixties. As readers, we can see how far we have come from the days that women were suspect for even wanting to …
“Lessons in Chemistry” is about cooking your way out of a “man’s world” Read More »
But what my dumb little teenager-in-the-80’s self didn’t know is that Laurie Anderson was making videos like this while I was watching MTV.
There are many things to like in this book, but you can easily another beach read that is just as enjoyable and a lot more realistic. Don’t waste your precious vacation time.
Deconstructing Netflix’s “The Tinder Swindler” The Tinder Swindler contains dangerous language, but not what you think. I must say that it seems to me that any sensible person, when encountering someone who is blatantly portraying himself as a multimillionaire on social media of any kind begs the question: Why would a person this wealthy be …
Dangerous Language: English as a Blessing and a Curse Read More »
Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads novel is also possibly the greatest name for a church youth groups I’ve ever heard. This is a subculture this man knows about. How many of us were a part of one, at least briefly? I remember it as being just as weird as author Franzen describes it, for just as many …
Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads: Remember church youth group? Read More »
The amazing story that is the basis for Lisa See’s amazing novels.
The people who write children’s literature are wilder than you ever imagined.
This post is part of a month long spotlight on the poet Rita Dove, which we are concluding, fittingly, with poems about aging. They are both included in her collection On the Bus with Rosa Parks. Also don’t miss her new collection, published August, 2021, Playlist for the Apocalypse. Against Self Pity Against Self Pity …
