Category: Books
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Recent reads
Some thoughts on the books I’ve read over the past two weeks: 1. [easyazon-link asin=”0385533853″]Robopocalypse: A Novel, Daniel H. Wilson[/easyazon-link] – a fast paced science fiction thriller, where, in the future, mankind’s robots rebel. Told from the perspective of a handful of characters, Robopocalypse begins Archos gaining sentience and killing his master. From there, a […]
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Review: The Terror by Dan Simmons
Terror by Dan Simmons Dan Simmons attempts to write a supernatural, horror, historical novel version of Moby Dick. Where Melville’s monster was an albino whale stalking Ahab’s Pequod, Simmons conjures up a mythical beast that roams the Arctic Circle slowly picking off the crew of the HMS Terror and Erebus frozen in ice. And like […]
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Review: Tina Fey – Bossypants
Tina Fey brings clever wit and charm to her memoir, Bossypants that tells of her growth as a creative individual. This creative individual is also a confident woman, business woman, mother, daughter, wife, keen and self aware of the life she lives. All these roles culminate as she recounts the perfect storm of getting Oprah […]
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Review: Looking for Calvin and Hobbes – Nevin Martell
Nevin Martell writes reverently of Bill Watterson in Looking for Calvin and Hobbes. The far reaches that Martell goes to find out who Bill Watterson really was, took him into the world of cartooning and going into the depths of Bill Watterson’s past. Numerous cartoonists were interviewed: Jim Davis, Bill Amend, Lynn Johnston, Stephen Pastis […]
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Swamplandia – Karen Russell
Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! feels like a collection of short writing exercises that were combined to form some sense of a novel. The prose is colorful, descriptive and imaginative, so much it reaches eccentric, teetering on contrived to tell a story of innocence lost. The Bigtree clan lives on an island within the Ten Thousand Islands, […]
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Vanishing America – Michael Eastman
Michael Eastman’s book, Vanishing America, is a warm, visual elegy to small town America and vintage pop culture. Theaters, signs, stores and other everyday interactions are shown in rich detail with saturated colors. The collection is curated across 10 sections: theaters, churches, hangouts, doors, signs, stores, services, automobiles, hotels and restaurants. Each section is reverent […]
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Designing a Photograph – Bill Smith
Designing a Photograph: Visual Techniques for Making Your Photographs Work by Bill Smith takes a designer’s view of to a photograph. Visually, what makes something interesting or engaging, and apply it to a photograph. Smith makes the argument of knowing how to pay attention to groups of visuals. These visuals include: Figure ground selective focus […]
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The Cypress House by Michael Koryta
The Cypress House by Michael Koryta blends the supernatural with noir in a southern gothic, depression era binding. Arlen Wagner and Paul Brickhill were headed to the Florida Keys by train to work on Depression era public works projects when Wagner, a weary WWI vet, sees death in the eyes of those on the train. […]
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The Tao of Photography –
Tao of Photography: Seeing Beyond Seeing by Philippe L. Gross, S.I. Shapiro applies Zen concepts to photography, interspersed with quotes and anecdotes from photographers that were well known for their visionary approach to what they took pictures of. Each section contains principles, applications of the principles and suggested assignments one can do to apply the […]