Archive for March, 2005

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Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005

Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination
by Katharine Harmon
ISBN: 1568984308
Harmon’s interest in maps — as representations of the real and the imagined — spurred her to edit this collection. Sized between a trade paperback and a coffee table art book, the book is full of full-color maps and map-inspired art. Sketches, collages, satellite imagery, [...]

Fluffy, Part One and Part Two

Monday, March 14th, 2005

by Simone Lia
published by Cabanon Press
Fluffy is an almost impossibly cute bunny rabbit, one that speaks, walks on two legs, and can use round-tipped children’s scissors to cut pictures out of library books. Michael Pulcino is Fluffy’s Daddy, but of course not really, as he is a man and Fluffy is a bunny. Not that [...]

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, No. 14

Sunday, March 13th, 2005

Edited by Dave Eggers
ISBN: 1932416129
This issue of McSweeney’s packs many short stories, a few nonfiction pieces, the third act of a play, some letters (including one from an actual Timothy McSweeney), and numerous small illustrations of nineteenth century flying vehicles into a novel-sized trade paperback.
I liked the two short nonfiction pieces by Lawrence Weschler (author [...]

A Thread of Grace

Monday, March 7th, 2005

by Mary Doria Russell
ISBN: 0375501843
I suppose there is no good way to write a novel about Jewish refugees hiding in Italy in during the last two years of World War II without it being a heartbreaking book. If it weren’t hearbreaking, it wouldn’t ring true.
Some of the heartbreak in Grace relies more on the weight [...]

The Tipping Point

Monday, March 7th, 2005

How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell
ISBN: 0316346624
There has been so much discussion about this book and about “tipping points” in general that I finally decided to stop reading things about Gladwell and read his book.
Gladwell has an easy, conversational style and he’s unafraid to repeat himself when driving home a point. [...]