I like Patton Oswalt. I appreciate his appreciation of things. He is a nerd; he knows how to be a fan. His standup can be biting, but is not devoid of wonder, awe, of fully investing in something. He loves good standup, he loves funny people, he loves cinema. In Silver Silver Screen Fiend, Oswalt relives the mid-90s in a memoir that ties together his early creative career and his concurrent obsession with film. He divides segments of his early years as different Night Cafes, […]
The Greatest of These is Love
Scary Close is about a lot of things. It is part memoir, part relationship advice, part cognitive-behavioral therapy. All of it speaks to how life is better lived together than alone, and how love is king. The author, Donald Miller, is most famous for Blue Like Jazz, a book that was published more than a decade ago. In Scary Close, Miller talks about the celebrity and pressure that came with the book, and the paradox of isolating himself to write books about community and love. […]
He’d been tested in ways most never would; he felt good about the score.
Marcus Sakey writes my favorite subgenre of leisure fiction – the elevated airport thriller. An airport thriller is an entertaining action/thriller novel that you would find in paperback form in any American airport. The elevated airport thriller has more panache than the average entertaining read. In The Blade Itself, Sakey gives the reader characters with depth and some hold-your-breath moments, and he does it with flair. “Everybody always goes down on the last job. You know why? Because if they don’t go down, they do […]
“I didn’t want an obvious life.”
Manifesto by Anonymous
When I was twenty years old, I remember becoming infatuated with anonymously publishing a mission pamphlet or manifesto and leaving it all over my university’s campus. I wanted to rouse the well-meaning but wrong-living people around me to Life. I wanted to tear down everything that made me angry. I wanted the injustices and stupidities that I saw in American life to make everyone angry. I thought that I was meant for more; I thought that everyone was meant for more. Those pamphlets or manifestos […]
Desolation! Pink dragonflies flitting above the graves.
YOLT is the 12th of Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. It is the final book of the Blofeld trilogy. Ian Fleming’s James Bond series is available to borrow for free for Kindle owners with Amazon Prime. Since I enjoy free things and the James Bonding podcast, I’ve been slowly reading through the series for a year or so. It is difficult to discuss the Bond books without talking about the movies or the author, Ian Fleming because they are all interrelated. To avoid those discussions, any […]
Half Angels vs. Half Angels (With Pictures)
Full disclosure: I’m a member of the Christian Comics Arts Society, which is a “network of Christian fellowship for comics fans, pros, and amateurs”. Another member wrote this book and provided me with a free copy in exchange for a fair and honest public review. As an aside, members write biblically or theologically themed comics and also secular comics that may or may not have anything to do with theology or certain worldviews. I wanted to enjoy Nephilites because the concept is interesting and recently popped […]