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Meditations on Writing no. 1
Meditations on Writing no. 1 I’ve felt some anxiety lately over the quality of my writing. Maybe I rely too much on quotation, too much name-dropping…. Perhaps I need to focus more on personal...
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Evil Elvis
This is one of Rod’s better columns in a while. But there are things one can be nit picky about, such as when I read: There is a certain sort of tiresome person who, whenever you bring up the steep...
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Meditations of Being a Writer no. 02
As a writer, I read something and hope to get something out of it: new ideas, ways of thinking, better understanding—I hope to get something. Nine years before Edward Young (1683–1765) penned his...
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The Dangers of Being an Eternal Student
THE DANGERS OF BEING AN ETERNAL STUDENT: MEDITATIONS ON BEING A WRITER no. 3 Recently I came across an interesting passage from Ivan Illich (1926–2002) writing in 1973 on how to balance learning...
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Gogol, Dolly, and George Sessions Perry
Until recently, I’d never heard of George Sessions Perry (1910–1956), even though for the past several years I’ve made my way to his hometown of Rockdale, Milam County, Texas to eat barbeque and...
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Heidi and Bluejays
Recently, I read for the first time Johanna Spyri’s (1827-1901) Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre (Heidi’s Years of Wandering and Learning) (c. 1880) and its sequel Heidi Kann Brauchen, Was Es Gelernt Hat...
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Heidi and Sidney: Two Views of Arcadia
The title character of Johanna Spyri’s (1827-1901) Heidis Lehr– und Wanderjahre (Heidi’s Years of Wandering and Learning) (c. 1880) and its sequel Heidi Kann Brauchen, Was Es Gelernt Hat (How Heidi...
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Arcadia and Middle-Earth: Prose Plus Poetry in Sidney and Tolkien
After finishing C. S. Lewis’s (1898–1963) English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama) (1954) last autumn, I was curious to then read Sir. Philip Sidney’s Arcadia (1580): a strange...
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Duke Spooks: a Review of “Ghostly Tales of Mississippi” (2018)
Except for most of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s work, some Hardy Boys, and a little Dick Tracy, a sprinkling of Edgar Allen Poe and Alfred Hitchcock mysteries series, and a couple of Goosebumps books—I...
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Short Story Review: “The Bayside Blonde” by GD Dess
[Prefatory note: Here at Bookbread I’m starting a new series, one where I will review short stories I’ve read. I’ll try to review one at a time (in about one paragraph), but possibly intersperse those...
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Short Story Review: “Earning Disapproval” by Shashi Bhat
Sashi Bhat’s short story “Earning Disapproval,” published in The Puritan magazine (Winter 2019), is a story that focuses much on an abundance of detail. This surplus renders for readers something...
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Rereading “Slaughterhouse-Five”
I first heard of the book Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) when, as a kid, my siblings and I would often watch a VHS copy of the film Footloose (1984) that makes mention of the book at the film’s beginning....
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Short Story Review: “The Disappearance” by James Hatton
[Prefatory note: Here at Bookbread I’m starting a new series, one where I will review short stories I’ve read. I’ll try to review one at a time (in about one paragraph), but possibly intersperse those...
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Short Story Review: “Hunger” by Susan Neville
I don’t want to go too much into summary and specifics of plot when discussing Susan Neville’s short story “Hunger,” (Missouri Review, Winter 2017). The title speaks enough for itself in that regard....
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Short Story Review: “Plastics Factory” by Zheng Xiaoqiong
Short Story Review: “Plastics Factory” by Zheng XiaoqiongTranslated by Isabelle Li Zheng Xiaoqiong’s short story “Plastics Factory” (Sydney Review of Books, February 2019) is a strange work of fiction...
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Pity for Poverty
[The following was a major cut made to a book review I’ve submitted for publication. But I find the cut interesting enough.] Even if we approve of a person who, from a sense of duty in charity, is...
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5 Short Stories to Occupy Your Attention
Here are five short stories I’ve recently reviewed: “The Bayside Blonde” by GD Dess, New Pop Lit.(psychological thriller, dreamlike) “Earning Disapproval” by Shashi Bhat, The Puritan(coming-of-age,...
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Short Story Review: “A Morning Swim” by Robert Garner McBrearty
Robert Garner McBrearty’s short story “A Morning Swim” (Missouri Review, Winter 2017) is an example of master craftsmanship of a prose storyteller: (1) its opening paragraph immediately sets up one of...
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Five Books With Old, Interesting Covers That I’ve Recently Read
View this post on Instagram Recently read (c. 1964) A post shared by Christopher Landrum (@bookbread2) on May 9, 2020 at 5:05pm PDT 1. There was a passage in the appendix to this book that reminded...
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Short Story Review: “Animation” by Chris Dangle
I once knew a writer in the mid-80s, one of nondenominational Christian songs, and about the only lyric I can now remember (for I was then but a child) is “my life’s a vapor.” This writer was in his...
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