What makes the good horror story? I always thought that ghost tales told around a fire or in a dark room pretty much covered the genre. That it would be the suspense and mind-boggling monsters that gave people nightmares. ‘The Blacksmith’ by Susan Shultz is about love, heartbreak, blood, and murder in graveyards. It’s a […]
Today would have been Zora Neale Hurston’s birthday. If you haven’t read anything by Hurston, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” is a good place to start. I read this novel in high school and still remember the main character, “Janie Crawford”. She is born and lives in Eastonville, Florida. It’s where Hurston herself grew up […]
If I were to ever choose a favorite book, this one would be among the top contenders. The prose is eloquent and raw. It can be simple and complicated at the same time. (It’s extremely quotable.) Much of the story is told through twins — children trying to understand the way the world works, and later […]
There’s no doubt that life can be strange, difficult and confusing but Kurt Vonnegut —a veteran, writer and political dissident — knew that art has the potential to alleviate some of the burden. I’ve read interviews where he claimed that artists have little effect in the wider scope of the world but in his writing […]
I dropped Elsewhere by Richard Russo into the “return here” slot at my library the other day with some hesitation. My shabby bookmark sat more than halfway to the end of Russo’s memoir but I really could not go on. It’s rare that I stop reading a book, even if I’m bored. I anticipate that […]
Photo taken in the late 19th century by Matthew Brady // via Wikimedia. Come, said my Soul Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,) That should I after death invisibly return, Or, long, long hence, in other spheres, There to some group of mates the chants resuming,(Tallying Earth’s soil, trees, […]
Cancionilla del primer deseo En la mañana verde, quería ser corazón. Corazón. Y en la tarde madura quería ser ruiseñor. Ruiseñor. Alma, ponte color de naranja. Alma, ponte color de amor En la mañana viva, yo quería ser yo. Corazón. Y en la tarde caída quería ser mi voz. Ruiseñor. ¡Alma, ponte color naranja! ¡Alma, […]