Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts by Donald Barthelme

I've been slowly becoming a bigger and bigger fan of Donald Barthelme over the last couple years. When I was first exposed to him in McSweeney's issue 24 I didn't get him and like him very much. Since then I keep running across him in anthologies and the new yorker fiction podcast as authors particularly love him. They've definitely convinced me, I'm officially in awe of his works. This collection I found at a local used book store and couldn't believe how anyone could get rid of it. The collection of short stories included 3 that I had read before, The Indian Uprising, The Balloon & Alice all of which I liked the first time and love now that I've reread them. Even though they're very different stories, I love the surrealness of The Indan Uprising & The Balloon. The Indan Uprising is a story that seamlessly switches between a fort being sieged by Native Americans & the story of a rocky relationship in current times. The Balloon is about a giant balloon that the author creates and places in Manhatten. There are breakdowns of it that do a much better job than I ever could about it being a metaphor for Bathelme's writing, all I can really say is that it's fantastic. Another story I really liked was Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowning that has a little extra significance as it was published only a few months before his assassination.

Movie Review: Les Miserables

I saw Les Miserables a couple days ago and loved it. I'd never seen the musical, didn't know the music much and only had a little knowledge about the story itself so I was excited to see the movie with no expectations. The story is set in 19th century France at the time of Napolean's defeat at Waterloo and revolves around an ex convict Jean Jaljean played by Hugh Jackman. He is pursued by a lawman Javer payed by Russell Crowe. All the actors were fantastic but especially those tho and I hope they get rewarded with at least Oscar nominations. Sasha Baron Cohen & Helena Bonham Carter where also amazing playing a couple of crooks and provided some of my favorite comic relief scenes in the movie. The music was fantastic, the action well paced and as I mentioned all the acting was fantastic. Sad at times, funny at others I absolutely loved it and would highly recommend seeing it.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

This book is a collection of short stories was a fun, light read with tons of stories & poems. I've always been drawn to Neil's style and creativity which is fully on display here. Quite a few of the stories are him playing around with legends, fairy tales & other well known story lines. To me those stood out as some of the best in this collection. Overall I liked this book, enjoyed it but wasn't blown away by it. I'd recommend it but not over American Gods, Good Omens or Neverwhere.

Zoetrope: All-Story Vol 16 No 2

This issue of Zoetrope was another good issue. As part of their normal format there are new stories and the last story is a classic one that has been turned into a movie.

Hallelujah, Family! by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
This story is about multi generations of dysfunctional family told in short bullet points. It was kind of hard to follow at first but when I straightened out who was who really liked it.


Extinct Anatomies by Daniel Alarcon
Loved this short story about a man who while overseas, got dental work done by his cousin. In order to distract himself from the pain he had vivid sexual fantasies with the dental assistant.


Short Life Of Trouble by Sam Shepard
Fantastic little play between 2 long time musician friends one of them interviewing who I assume to be the more popular musician. Great dialog and read really well.


The Plum Tree And The Hammock by Janet Frame
This story is about 2 family neighbors and a plum tree with the roots on one side and the best fruit leaning over the fence into the neighbors property told from the point of view of one of the young daughters. It brings up a good point, who owns a tree with roots on one side of a property line and the majority of the branches on the other?


We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
This classic was the inspiration for Total Recall and was amazing. The twist at the end was so good and I never saw it coming although in hindsight I probably should have. It's the second Philip K. Dick I've read in Zoetrope and it's convinced me I need to buy a book of his collected short stories. His imagination and storytelling skills are crazy good.


Art by Sfaustina
I'm not sure what I think about the art, here a couple good examples from the magazine

East, West By Salman Rushdie

East, West by Salman Rushdie

This is the first book I've read by Mr. Rushdie and enjoyed the collection of short stories. It's organized by having 3 each under the sections East, West and East, West. I've always thought of Salman as one of the great intellectuals of our day so I was pleasantly surprised by some playful stories. All of them were deep & often profound but they were all fun in their own ways. I loved the story The Prophet's Hair a story surrounding the luck that falls on whoever owns a strand of hair of the Prophet Mohammed. Another one of my favorites was Chekov And Zulu as spy story and he left what I think is the most profound story for the end The Courter. Great collection of stories!

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore

This is the second book I've read by Christopher Moore and while this one wasn't quite as good as Lamb but it was still great. It's a story revolving around impressionist artists living in Paris in the late 19th century. The book includes a lot of full color pictures of paintings done by characters in the novel and in some cases the paintings themselves play a part in the plot. I won't give away any more of the plot and will only say that the book is hilarious from start to finish. During dinner last night I was getting quite a few looks from other patrons as I kept laughing out loud.

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

I've been a fan of Makkai's short stories since I first encountered her work in the 2008 Best American Short Stories anthology. I was excited to see that she had published her first novel and even more excited when I saw that she was going to be in town at Longfellow Books to do a reading & signing this Thursday. The book is about a young children's librarian who accidentally kidnaps her favorite patron, a 10 year old boy when he runs away from home and she puts off driving him back home until it's a little too late to not be considered kidnapping. Loved the story, it had a lot of themes interwoven in the book that came together nicely, had very poignant moments and hilarious moments. It was extremely entertaining even when dealing with some serious issues. The reading was amazing, I love to hear authors read their own books as it gives an insight into how they wanted it to sounds. Rebecca is upbeat, gregarious, smart, funny and charming. Absolutely loved it and she signed my Best American Short Stories 2010 that already includes signatures by Karen Russell, Jennifer Egan & Richard Russo. I was lucky enough to have a quick chat with her when she signed my book and got laughing pretty good, so happy I got to go to the event and read the book!