To use a trite, overused, but descriptive phrase, Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman is a page turner. Once I picked up the novel and began reading it, I didn’t want to set it down, no matter how tired I felt, how hungry, how many other things I needed to do, and how many other pastimes I...
Though I’ve lived in Washington State my whole life–except for a two-year sojourn in Denver–and though I had visited Seattle several times, even lived in Seattle for a couple years, I have never been up in the Space Needle. Do locals ever do the tourist things for their cities? Deciding to amend this oversight,...
Halfway through Stephen King’s It, I realized that I find neither clowns nor balloons scary, and since they’re the principle devices King use to suggest the supernatural, that aspect of the novel failed to scare me. But It isn’t about clowns or balloons. It is about childhood fears, both real and imagined, and how we...
Anyone who knows Classical music knows Maurice Ravel’s Boléro. Of this piece, Ravel called it a composition with “no music in it.” Since I never studied music, I don’t know what to make of this quotation, but I do know that I love to turn the lights off, pour a glass of wine, sit on...
If I close my eyes, I thought, I’ll die. I forced my eyes to stay open and I stared at the monitor. It was a beautiful image. I couldn’t read or understand it–that required a medical degree–but I knew it showed my heart, and I could see that it still beat. My left hand...
Lee Child has made a name for himself writing the Jack Reacher novels, about an former military police officer who turned quasi-private investigator in civilian life. Years ago I read Tripwire, the third Jack Reacher novel. I found it entertaining, but not much else. It’s the type of novel we think of as a...
Looking from the outside, Seymour “Swede” Levov has the idyllic America life. He runs a glove factory that has been in his family for generations, and he’s married to a former Miss New Jersey. They have a daughter, Merry, who, despite her stutter, grows to become a passionate dissedent. They live in rural New...
Tom Holland is Peter Parker; Tom Holland is Spider-Man. From good writing to compelling performances to exciting set pieces, Spider-Man Homecoming gives us several reasons to love it. But the top reason, the number one reason, is Tom Holland. Like no other actor I’ve seen, he owns this role. Since 2002 there had been...
Dead people should stay dead. Please don’t misunderstand me or quote me out of context. I’m no fan of death. I want people to live long and satisfying lives. But once someone dies, he should stay dead. It seems a lot of trouble happens on the silver screen when the dead comes back to...
In her review of Wonder Woman, Grace Randolph of Behind the Trailer referred to a new feminism that elevated women without vilifying men. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Emma Watson’s Belle in Beauty in the Beast, Randolph says, represent this new feminism, and she craves to see more representations in popular culture. Methinks Sofia...
