The SunBreak » reading

Glimpses: “electronics on the left – books on the right…”

Chelsea — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:00:04 +0000

We here at Glimpses love a good photo of a library - especially when it involves people using a library! Thanks to new SunBreak Flickr Pool user Lotus21 for her addition.

In Stewart O’Nan’s The Odds, the Drink is Marriage on Niagara’s Rocks

Michael van Baker — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:47:06 +0000

I don't want to quote too much from The Odds, by Stewart O'Nan, because it's a small book, about 180 pages, and his style isn't the pyrotechnic kind that, in a paragraph, leaves you wide-eyed. I'd just end up giving things away. The Los Angeles Times called him "the spokesperson of the regular person," and you can see what they were getting at, but O'Nan's gift is to somehow, through building up the stream of life's matters of fact, surmount them.

For That Night, Town Hall Belonged To John Hodgman & Friends

Margaret Higginson — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:30:38 +0000

John Hodgman is very fond of theatrics. (I know, I know, that's like saying the sun is fond of Denver.) His opening gambit had Sean Nelson (formerly of Harvey Danger) playing the part of John Hodgman, with John Roderick (The Long Winters) on stage as well, guitar at the ready. Suddenly, from the audience: a ruckus! Some random audience member was hollering for Hodgman, the real Hodgman, to get out on stage, already.

Joshua Mohr’s Damascus and Keeping on the Sordid Side of Life

Michael van Baker — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:01:13 +0000

Mohr writes out the sordid heart of San Francisco--specifically, the Mission District--and if you've spent much time by the Bay, you'll recognize that unsettling warm-sewer-whiff-in-the-street urbanity that permeates his books. It's a radical empathy with, or even in preference for, the stinky side of life that, mostly unseen, underlies everything.

Way Out West with The Sisters Brothers (Review)

Michael van Baker — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:22:29 +0000

People are calling the book "cowboy noir," which is close but doesn't quite get to the unique assemblage deWitt has managed. The heart of the book is taken up by the uneasy but close relationship Eli and Charlie have, the sibling rivalry and private judgements. Charlie is the more suited to shooting people remorselessly; Eli is enraged by any attack on Charlie. Yet, except for the slaughter and thievery, they seem like good guys--dogged in their pursuits, tough on a bottle.