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March 8, 2011 in Books, Fiction | Permalink
About Me
Reading
- Anonymous: The Poetic Edda [BIO]
Listening
- The Decemberists: "Begin the Begin" [BIO]
Writing
- Wheatyard
(Kuboa Press) - "Prague, Oklahoma"
(Daddy Cool: An Anthology of Writing by Fathers For & About Kids) - "Pursuit"
(Skive) - "Mahalia"
(Midwestern Gothic) - "Tangled in Wishes"
(Journal of Microliterature) - "The Last Final Copy"
(On the Clock: Contemporary Short Stories of Work) - "Conned and Bruised"
(A Twist of Noir) - "One Son Resists"
(Green Lantern Press) - "Clean and Bright"
(Joyland) - "Button"
(Shoots and Vines) - "Alleys Are the Footnotes of the Avenues"
(Shoots and Vines) - "Moonlight"
(decomP) - "Quit These Hills"
(Big Pulp) - "Mercy Day"
(RAGAD) - "Deep in the Northwoods"
(Wheelhouse Magazine) - "Howard Holds Court"
(Birmingham Arts Journal) - "Waiting On a Train"
(RAGAD) - "Power"
(The Clarity of Night) - "Guaranteed"
(Spillway Review) - "Big Question"
(Boston Literary Magazine) - "This Time"
(55 Words) - "Immortality"
(THE2NDHAND) - "Freewheeling"
(Dogmatika) - "The Fixer"
(Gapers Block) - "Ralph's Last Call"
(The Angler) - "Can't Be Happy Today, But Tomorrow"
(Skive Magazine) - "Mighty Casey"
(Zisk) - "Ectoplasm"
(Storyglossia) - "Captions Without Photos"
(Gapers Block) - "Blown"
(Writer's Resource Center) - "Have A Pleasant Commute On Metra"
(This is Grand) - "The Retreat"
(monochrom) - Published Here:
"The Copper Responds"
"One Evening in St. Paul"
"The Lovely Miss Underwood"
"Insomnis"
"We Do Not Approve"
"The Ghoul's Evening Visit"
Various Microfiction
More Me
- Photo Gallery
- Old Home Page
- Email Me: pete_anderson [at] comcast [dot] net
My Women
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- Brown Bear Software
- Beth Janicek
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- Bookslut
- Maud Newton
- Return of the Reluctant
- Bookninja
- Books for Breakfast
- Ben Tanzer
- Nick Ostdick
- Richard Grayson
- What To Wear During an Orange Alert?
- Murmurings to the Masses
- bighappyfunhouse.com
- Fading Ad Campaign
Distant Worthies
- Last Plane to Jakarta
- Ben Katchor: Hotel & Farm
- The Onion
- Salon.com
- Center for American Progress
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- Tom Tomorrow - This Modern World
- Ted Rall - Political Cartoon
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Search Site
Recent Reads
- Jonathan Messinger: Hiding Out
Enjoyable story collection which could have used more grit. -
- Matt Bell and Josh Maday: Dancing on Fly Ash: One Hundred Word Stories
Microfiction pieces that intrigue but don't quite fully connect. -
- Knut Hamsun: Tales of Love & Loss
Fascinating early stories from the Norwegian master. -
- Patrick Michael Finn: From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet
Joliet stories that hit you in the gut, and the heart. -
- Various Writers: Hair Lit Vol. One
Solid, fun, often touching collection of stories about hair metal songs. -
- Marilynne Robinson: Housekeeping
Good but not classic novel burdened by overwritten and digressive prose. -
- Anton Chekhov: The Duel
Priviliged but unhappy people take personal honor to its extreme. -
- Hans Keilson: Comedy in a Minor Key
Subtle but affecting portrait of a marriage, war and human compassion. -
- William Butler Yeats: The Wind Among the Reeds
Early collection of poems from the Irish master. -
- Samuel Beckett: Endgame
Bleak and quietly profound. -
- J.P. Donleavy: The Ginger Man
Loathsome protagonist, meandering narrative, overwritten prose. Mediocre. -
- William Trevor: Cheating at Canasta
Lovely, quiet yet powerful collection of stories about people who are lonely but often not alone. -
- Kurt Vonnegut: Armageddon in Retrospect
Funny, angry, incisive stories and essays about war, peace and humanity. -
- Elizabeth Crane: You Must Be This Happy to Enter
Mediocre collection of overly clever stories. -
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Haunting novel of grief, longing and reaching across time. -
- Margaret Atwood: The Penelopiad
Disappointing retelling of the classic Ulysses and Penelope myth. -
- Jeff Sypeck: Looking Up: Poems from the National Cathedral Gargoyles
Entertaining, lively collection of traditional poetry. -
- Ben Tanzer: This American Life
Funny collection of monologues and stories. -
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Tense, biting story of family and retribution. -
- Mike Royko: Sez Who? Sez Me
Funny, witty, skewering collection of Royko columns from the 1970s and 80s. -
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Fine narrative of romantic tensions, slightly undone by a melodramatic and unrealistic ending. -
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Haunting tale of childhood secrets and learning to grieve, and learning to live on. -
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Sobering portrait of a failing marriage, marked by frustration, heartbreak and temptation. -
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Prodigal son returns home to a hostile welcome. -
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Fine stories with all the satirical wit and social commentary you would expect from Lewis. -
- Kingsley Amis: Lucky Jim
Wry satire of midcentury British academia. -
- Nick Hornby: Juliet, Naked
Pop music and failed relationships - but still a letdown. -
- Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day
Lovely, quiet, dignified portrait of an English butler and a vanishing way of life. -
- Joe Meno: Office Girl
Deceptively light narrative that runs much deeper than it seems. Nicely done. -
- Richard Wright: Native Son
More polemic than novel, contrived narrative in service of the author's grand message. -
- Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment
Slow, ponderous, verbose, endlessly digressive. Not a classic. -
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Uneven debut novel of a lonely, lost old woman. -
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Good, but not completely convincing study of Elliott Smith's great album. -
- Ryan W. Bradley: Prize Winners
Crisp, quick and obsessed with sex. -
- James Joyce: The Dead
Excellent, atmospheric story of long-ago Dublin life. -
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Chaotic, propulsive, contemplative, visceral, devastating. Brilliant. -
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Funny, imaginative, thoughtful monologues from Chicago's famous and infamous. -
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Brilliant fictional biography of an artistic genius. -
- Ben Tanzer: My Father's House
Emotionally moving story of coping with grief before loss has even occurred. -
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Lovely novel of loneliness, longing and regret, and two vivid characters whose lives briefly cross, with only one emerging unscathed. -
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Strong 1955 short story anthology - Algren, McCullers, Wolfe... -
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Memoir of the first twenty years of the pioneering Chicago settlement house, by the great social reformer. -
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Great subject matter, less than great presentation. -
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Solid story collection of lonely lives. -
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A hitman's compelling tale and surreal fate. -
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Weird and wonderful graphic novel from the best one going. -
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Grim, joyless yet quietly powerful story of memory and revenge. -
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Delightful tales of Eastern European Jews of a now-distant yet vivid past. -
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Stimulating discussions on literature and humanity. -
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Thoughtful, philosophical, funny and tragic novel about the power of the written word. Stunning. -
- Alan Heathcock: Volt
Strong, sometimes brutally real collection of short stories set in small-town America. -
- Thomas Hardy: Jude the Obscure
Love versus marriage, happiness versus obligation, scholarship versus real life. -
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Suburban story cycle of mostly empty lives. -
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Fine but overlong story of ambition, resignation and redemption. -
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Funny, thoughtful novel of looming fatherhood. -
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Quietly intense, impeccably narrated, simply beautiful. -
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Passionate book-length essay on writing, artistic freedom and championing the downtrodden. -
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Beautiful prose doesn't quite save the structural and narrative flaws of this otherwise promising novel. -
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Interesting memoir of the longtime Chicago journalist. -
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Dysfunction and corruption reign in a forlorn Colorado town. -
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Tense, disturbing thriller of political extremism and one man's fight for survival. -
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Entertaining satire of religious ambition and hypocrisy - but more of a polemic than a novel. -
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Innovative, fun collection of found poetry, all created by blacking out newspaper articles. -
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Lust, murder and dark hilarity consume a fictional Arkansas town. -
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Boy meets girl, heartbreak unexpectedly does not prevail. -
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Wonderful collection of short stories, originally published as newspaper columns. -
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Terrific collection of novellas, short stories and satirical essays. -
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Fine collection of the final essays of the great humorist, along with twelve classic Mr. Dooley columns. -
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Strong, sharply-written debut about three intersecting lives in Budapest. -
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Lively, compelling, indispensible oral history of Americans talking about their jobs. -
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Magnificent epic of South Dakota pioneers. -
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Modern, flowing verse interpretation of the great epic poem. -
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Whitman's love song to America, best enjoyed in small doses. -
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Long, plodding disappointment. -
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Good but less than essential novel of African tribal life, tradition versus modernity. -
- READINGS 2001-11
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Member since 07/2003
