Re: Medium Raw

I like Anthony Bourdain, but for about a week, it seemed like he was turning up on just about every show I listen to for an interview about his latest book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. His rant about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of […]

Reading Frank McCourt

Way too long ago, I heard a great interview with Frank McCourt which made me want to read Teacher Man. He told how he noticed that the most creative writing he was getting out of his students were their excuses. So he assigned them to write excuses for great historical figures. I guess I’m not […]

Re: The Latehomecomer

From the opening fable about babies falling from the sky to be born as Hmong people, to the death of the family matriarch, in simple and affecting prose, Kao Kalia Yang tells the stories of her parents, her childhood, and her grandmother in The Latehomecomer. The early chapters about her parents are so vivid, it’s […]

Re: Papa Was A Farmer

In Shambling Towards Hiroshima a friend of the hero’s girlfriend was the screenwriter, Brenda Weisberg. In this world, she wrote for 15 years for such stellar studios as RKO, before she rejoined her family in Phoenix and married a jeweler, Morris Meckler. She continued to write and was active in the Phoenix Little Theater. But […]