Two or three years ago, while we were on vacation in The Berkshires, we spent a day at the Norman Rockwell museum. It was great. We learned a ton about Rockwell and his life and walked around the gorgeous property where he painted. As an added bonus, there was a special exhibit on display, featuring all (or at least a lot) of Edward Hopper’s Cape Cod paintings. This was particularly eye-opening, as I really didn’t know much about Hopper other than that he painted Nighthawks. […]
The adventures of Daddy and his Little Puss
I love the concept of Joyce Carol Oates. I mean first of all the name! What a splendid name, intricate, commanding with a rhythm like a poem. Joyce Carol Oates cannot be anything other than a writer. And she churns out novels like she’s a novel factory turning sausages into full-blown novels over and over, doesn’t matter what genre, Joyce makes the sausage! But I didn’t like little bird of heaven. In fact it is my first DNF – something I did not anticipate after […]
Probably more like 3.5 stars, but I’ll round up in Bernie’s honor
I’ve been reading and rereading Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr series for years (like, probably close to 20 years — they were on the shelf above Lillian Jackson Braun’s books at my library and I picked them up at some point in middle school when I’d exhausted The Cat Who…) but I’ve never really read anything else by him — although he’s published quite a bit. I saw his name on this story collection, along with some other favorites (Stephen King, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, and Craig Ferguson, […]
More terrifying than reanimated dead people
Well, that was upsetting. I can’t remember the last Oates book I read, but this was a wonderful (and horrifying) way to jump back in. I really don’t want to meet anyone like Q__ P__, ever. We join him mid-narrative, following him just under a year after he is given probation by a judge for pleading guilty to “sexual misdemeanor committed against a minor,” (Q__ P__: “What happened with the black boy was Q__ P__’ s first offense, & a suspended sentence followed no actual […]