Tag: book review

  • New Reviews on Full Stop

    I have been a little delinquent in updating this site over the last few months as I worked on several projects. Some of those project were book reviews. First up, is Selah Saterstrom‘s powerful and eloquent short book, Rancher. Containing one long essay about sexual assault, both in the author’s history and in history more…

  • New Review – Madness by Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué in Rain Taxi

    A few years back, I reviewed the poetry collection Losing Miami by Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué for Terrain.org. The collection was later a finalist of the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Poetry, which didn’t surprise me at all, because the work was outstanding. It was so outstanding, in fact, that when I learned about Gabriel’s new collection…

  • Two Reviews – As You Were by David Tromblay and Alien Stories by E.C. Osondu

    I have been a bit negligent in updating this site over the summer, but I have been writing and reviewing books. David Tromblay’s memoir, As You Were, recounts the author’s abusive childhood and military experiences. The memoir pulls zero punches, describing physical abuse at the hands of Tromblay’s father and grandmother in fairly graphic ways,…

  • New Review – Ctasy, of Shapes Off Shore by John Paetsch

    John Paetsch’s experimental poetry collection, Ctasy, of shapes off shore, (Hiding Press, 2020) reminded me a lot of the Museum of Jurassic Technology on Venice Blvd in Los Angeles. By blending antiquated scientific language and concepts with optical and personal imagery, the poet, like the quirky museum, challenges the ways we make meaning. The book…

  • New Review – Heck, Texas by Tex Gresham

    My review for Tex Gresham’s Heck, Texas is on Heavy Feather Review. You can read this book in a couple hours and it will leave you with years worth of far-out quotes. If you’re a fan of Harmony Korine’s film “Gummo” then this book is for you. Gresham is a keen observer, especially for people…

  • Book Review – Friend: A Novel From North Korea by Paek Nam-nyong and translated from Korean by Immanuel Kim.

    My review of Friend: A Novel from North Korea is up on Full Stop. This novel was written in 1988 by Paek Nam-nyong, a writer living in North Korea and a member of April 15 Literary Production Unit, a regime-sanctioned group of writers tasked with chronicling the saga of the Kim dynasty. The novel has…

  • Book Review – The People’s Porn by Lisa Z. Sigel

    “The People’s Porn: A History of Handmade Pornography in America” by Lisa Z. Sigel offers several chapters, each with a focus on a different aspect of folk art, outsider art, and handmade crafts as they reflect sexuality. It’s my first review of a work of history, but I’ve always been extremely fascinated by material culture.…

  • Book Review – Artificial Gut Feeling – Anna Zett

    My review of Anna Zett’s Artificial Gut Feeling is up now on Full Stop Magazine. From the review: Would an artificial instinct, an artificial gut feeling, be determined by the material form of the gut? For example, the wiring within a computer. Would the conditions of its physical existence define the ways its “body” would…

  • Book Review – Future Tense Fiction – Multiple Authors

    I’m really happy I had the chance to review Future Tense Fiction (Unnamed Press, 2019) for Full Stop Magazine. The collection brought together writers I’m familiar with, like Paolo Bacigalupi and Nnedi Okorafor, and writers who are new to me, like Mark Oshiro and Deji Bryce Olukotun. Of course, my familiarity reveals little about a…

  • Book Review – Kansastan by Farooq Ahmed

    My first review with Full Stop is of Farooq Ahmed’s novel, Kansastan (7.13 Books; 2019). The novel recreates Civil War-era Kansas as Muslim society, with most of the action taking place in and around a rural mosque. They’re going to war with Missouri. The narrator is the most narcissistic scrub of all time and the…