Interesting Books: Reviews & Discussions

Hanif Abdurraqib's They can’t kill us until they kill us. A book for a generation.

This makes the fourth in over a year of attempted reviews of They can’t kill us until they kill us by Hanif Abdurraqib, not for difficulty understanding but seeking a starting point. Perhaps more than the book, Abdurraqib is the best beginning since we travel his life as a poet, culture, and music critic. These occupations carve honesty’s treacherous path, and walking with him shares this danger for needing to open yourself to the truth. As...

If We Break” By Kathleen Buhle: The Intersection of Patriarchy, Christianity, & Privilege

There are moments reading If We Break when Kathleen Buhle irks with such passion you may want to reach into the pages, shake her by the shoulders, and scream, “Would you please wake up and do something about your husband!” There are moments you will roll your eyes and sigh at the grotesque privilege the novel effuses. There are moments you will grit teeth, expecting her to spiral deep into Al Anon's Twelve Step pseudo-religion...

Micro God & the Fall of Western Civilization

Contains Spoilers: Read the book first. As a harsh critic of genre fiction and even harsher critic of the genre writers, I found many of my criticisms validated by the novella, Micro God by K.R. Martin. Martin is a book critic on YouTube whose review of an indie author’s book, first caught my attention. This thorough, funny review sent me searching Amazon for the indie author and to learn if Martin published books. The discovery...

Necrophilia, Penis Fencing, & Fratricide

Discovering the article “Local Man Refuses to Accept Gay Penguins” by Alex Cooper brought much enjoyment that forced the purchase of his book The Mating Game. The book proved an equally pleasurable experience, not unlike watching Animal Planet mate with E-harmony to produce a mutant reminiscent of Gary Larson’s Farside. Unique, fun, and educational, The Mating Game is a must for the animal lover’s library. The well-edited book contained a few forgivable, minor errors making...

Sex Cult Nun: The Unwisdom of Faith Jones

Reluctance failed to steal the reading felt owed to Faith Jones after an unkind discussion of her TEDx. Now, Sex Cult Nun leaves an undesired compulsion to review, feeling disappointed and disturbed by this writing disaster. Torn between culprits, I settle on both publisher and writer sharing the blame for a book filled with just terrible writing that lacks substance. Just Bad Writing Publishing reached a new low with the haphazard editing and total lack of respect given to this...

Stuck In Neutral” by Terry Trueman

Terry Trueman’s award-winning teen fiction novel Stuck in Neutral exemplifies the negative impacts of categorizing fiction. The book easily falls into the adult literary fiction category being thematically superior to most teen books dealing with dating or bullying issues. Mentioning this issue is important because the book doesn’t receive enough credit or audience, despite winning awards. Certainly, I would not have read this book since I rarely peruse children or teen literature except when coming...

Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings

Lending copies of the Book of Five Rings to people across the years resulted in subsequent repurchases of the beloved novel. The theft and willingness to repurchase copies speak to the book’s strength, having purchased the sixth, final, unstealable digital eBook. As a martial arts and philosophy enthusiast, I continue to find value in Stephen Kaufman’s interpretation of this book since its discovery in 1996, spurring many recommendations to fellow readers. Hanshi Kaufman 10th Dan...

The Laughing, Unreliable Narrator: Charles Bukowski’s “Factotum”

Factotum (Fair Use) My editor friend says Charles Bukowski is an easy target for haters, and I agree after reading some of the approximate 70,000 Goodreads’ comments and reviews characterizing Factotum as “smut,” “misogynistic,” or “the writing of a nasty drunk.” I cannot deny these descriptors, but even positive reviews often erroneously depict Bukowski as a rebel or nonconformist hero who relentlessly pursues booze and sex while rejecting work. Factotum’s winding path through drinking, sex,...