Unfortunately, all of it is bad ( Read more... )

1. The Damnation Game by: Clive Barker (R)
2. Lonesome Dove by: Larry McMurtry (HR)
3. Lives of the Monster Dogs by: Kirsten Bakis
4. In the Lake of the Woods by: Tim O'Brien (HR)
5. The Count of Monte Cristo by: Alexandre Dumas (HR)
6. The Andromeda Strain by: Michael Crichton
7. The Wild Palms [If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem] by: William ( Read more... )

Recently the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy came to my attention. I had noticed the books sitting atop the New York Times Bestseller List for the past few weeks, but I knew nothing about them. However, as references to the books mounted on the internet and television, in newspapers and magazines, I grew curious to see what all the fuss was about. ( Read more... )

My mother's surgery went well. The cancer was still contained within the inner walls of her uterus and not as far along as initially feared. The doctor said that if the cancer is going to reappear elsewhere in the body that it usually happens within the first three years. My mother will have regular check-ups during that period of time. As of right ( Read more... )

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, but there's been too much other shit going on. Now we're three months into the year. I'd go into more detail about each book, but my memories of some of these are already hazy.

16. East of Eden by: John Steinbeck
17. Blaze by: Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)
18. The Things They Carried by: Tim O'Brien ( Read more... )

Two weeks ago my grandmother passed away. She had been battling throat cancer for the last three years or so. She took a turn for the worse a couple of weeks prior to her passing, was hospitalized and eventually placed in hospice. She was 76 ( Read more... )

1. The Lie by: Chad Kultgen--- Kultgen's debut novel, The Average American Male, is one of the funniest books I've read, so I was looking forward to reading his second effort. The Lie gets off to a good start, but eventually becomes far too repetitive and kind of dull, which is saying something considering how much sex and debauchery is in this ( Read more... )

A few years ago I wrote a story called "A Cure for Writer's Block." It was basically just an essay on writer's block and the whole "write what you know" philosophy, but written by a crazy psychopath who had just killed and raped a little girl. The story has always been one of my personal favorites, largely because it was the first time I ever ( Read more... )

During the summer of 2006 (holy shit, has it really been that long ago?), I decided to write a novel. Unfortunately, I was only experienced with short stories, and I underestimated how much planning and pre-writing goes into the process. A couple of months into the novel I realized that I was already approaching a dead end. The story had no focus ( Read more... )

15. Anna Karenina by: Leo Tolstoy--- I've wanted to read this for awhile, but I've always put it off due to its daunting length and less-than-exciting synopsis. Surprisingly, however, I found myself unable to put it down once I started reading it. With Tolstoy, it isn't about what these characters do, but why they do it. It's an examination on ( Read more... )