If Chins Could Kill -Bruce Campbell
Don’t worry people, I’m still reading lit fic. But sometimes you just need to sit down and hear Bruce Campbell tell a bunch of stories about the ridiculous shit he’s…
Sarah Vowell’s The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Given recent electoral outcomes, reading essays about American political history probably doesn’t sound particularly appealing, but I found going into This American Life regular Sarah Vowell’s back catalog to be…
Lorrie Moore’s Birds of America
Lorrie Moore is good at writing short stories. This surprises no one, I assume. I had read one or two of her stories in anthologies, but never took the time…
Another Straight White Guy Writer-type in New York featuring Cocaine, or Bright Lights, Big City
Jay McInerney’s 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City has a lot stacked against it. It’s not only a very “New York” story, it’s about a sensitive and artistic yet somehow…
A Book of Uncommon Prayer
Reading Log favorite Matthew Vollmer edited this particular anthology, an artifact that began as a personal writing project and expanded to include the work of many writers. Everything in here…
Tina Fey’s Bossypants
Tina Fey’s wonderful show 30 Rock is one of my favorite TV comedies of all time, and her work on Weekend Update is also a favorite. Since her writing chops…
Book Fight Blurb
I got blurbed by Book Fight! And it's a good one: (more info about Book Fight and their relationship with book blurbs here- https://bookfightpod.com/blurbs/) “Sean VanSickel is like Roadhouse meets Cormac…
On the Edge (Edward St. Aubyn)
Edward St. Aubyn’s 1998 novel rather recently got its U.S. release. I bought this book in Powell’s last year and just now got around to it. I have not read…
Sam Lipsyte’s “The Ask” and the problem with ironic distance
Sam Lipsyte’s novel The Ask is very funny. It’s also sufficiently dark and morbid. And it lacks something that I can’t seem to define, so I don’t think it’s really…
P.G. Wodehouse and the Role of Humor (vs. Comedy)
The writings of P.G. Wodehouse might suggest themselves as antithetical to everything I cherish in literature, but that suggestion would be erroneous. In spite of my rabid disliking of golf,…