Bird Cloud is the name of a bit of property that Annie Proulx bought in Wyoming. Here she plans on building her dream house. Clearly she never got around to watching the brilliant Cary Grant film called Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House-or she would have known what to expect. As it is see falls in love with a bit land and decides to buy it and build a home there. A comedy of errors ensues. But this is Annie Proulx, author of the brilliant Shipping News, in which she manages to squeeze in the history of newspapers, boats, and…
Category: audio book
Lost by Gregory Maguire
Several years ago I was reading a book on writing. I used to do that rather a lot. This particular book had a series of exercises in it. A writing book that tells you to actually do something is the best kind in my experience. One of the exercises was to tell a story from the point of view of the villain, to make the villain a sympathetic character. I wrote a story about The Wicked Witch of the West. As is the case of many writers such as I myself, I did not follow through on this story and…
Carpe Demon by Julie Kenner
Reader Laura Hicks gives Julie Kenner’s Carpe Demon a light and airy read. She was clearly more impressed with the comic aspects of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom than the more serious ones. The story was a bit silly, would it have been better with a more serious reader? AudioFile seemed to think so. I think a good reader can improve a book, but in the end, it still comes down to the written words they are reading. I always liked Buffy The Vampire Slayer-I was not a fan of the movie, but the television series. I loved the whole set…
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessel is a challenging book. The story of a Father and Daughter who move around the country a lot and have the richest, fullest intellectual lives this side of Professor Higgins chatting away with a second, younger, female Professor Higgins with side commentary provided by Sherlock Holmes. If I had not listened to Emily Janice Card’s brilliant audio book version, I doubt that I could have plowed through this baffling and brazen bit of business. I used to read a lot of books on writing. Mainly on writing Science Fiction. I whipped out…
Steve Martin Born Standing Up
Boy, those French, they have a different word for everything.-Steve Martin I listened to the Audio Book version of Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up-read by the author. The pieces of Steve Martin’s life are told in a simple, clear manner, with the occasion bit of silliness toss in for good measure. Steve Martin is no longer a stand up comic. We knows this because every time he is interviewed for anything, he asked-So when are you going back to Stand Up? This question is always greeted with a pained/shocked expression and a simple answer-Never, I will never do Stand Up…
Alien Voices-The Invisible Man
Alien Voices is a group of former Star Trek actors still trying to pump some money out of the fast drying Star Trek well. For the most part, I have no problem with that. If I had been smart enough to link myself to Star Trek somehow, I would still trying to make money from it as well. Several years ago Malcolm McDowell starred as a bad buy in Star Trek Generations, easily the worst of the Star Trek movies. After filming he was interviewed and said it was fun, but he sure as hell wouldn’t be doing any conventions…