Poem: Bridge
Bridge By Patrick T. Reardon My first job landed on me like a ton of children on my four-hundred-and-twenty-eighth day. It began with my brother. Two sisters followed. [...]
Book review: “Dancing with Langston” by Sharyn Skeeter
Carrie’s husband Bill doesn’t make an appearance in Sharyn Skeeter’s Dancing with Langston until near the end of the novel. And, when he does show up at the Harlem [...]
Book review: “The Escape from Five Shadows” by Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard was in his early 30s and still learning his craft when, in 1956, he published The Escape from Five Shadows. Missing is the snappy dialogue that [...]
Book review: “The Law at Randado” by Elmore Leonard
The 29-year-old Elmore Leonard had been a professional writer for just three years when, in 1954, he published his second novel The Law at Randado. It’s a book that displays [...]
List: Ten albums
I just finished one of those challenges on Facebook, this one wanting me on consecutive days to post an image of an album that influenced my musical taste, without [...]
Book review: “The Art of Guido Cagnacci” by Xavier X. Salomon
Xavier X. Salomon ends his short, beautifully produced, extravagantly illustrated 2016 book The Art of Guido Cagnacci by quoting two words from a letter that two Italian luminaries exchanged nearly [...]
Book review: “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie
On the surface, Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel The Satanic Verses is about two highly controversial verses that may or may not have been in Qur'an. Certainly, that’s what got Rushdie [...]
Book review: “Everest 1953” by Nick Conefrey
The scribbled telegram text, sent by messenger from the top of Mount Everest, was bleak — but also a bit odd. Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned yesterday stop [...]
Poem: Lamentation
Lamentation By Patrick T. Reardon Let Israel now say, let Aaron now say, give thanks, mercy endures, mystery forever his majesty. Bulleted chaste gazelle, backyard cement, [...]
Chicago history: Seven Chicago Books by Non-Chicago Authors
When you’re looking for a good novel about Chicago, you’re most likely to turn to those writers identified as Chicago writers, such as Saul Bellow (The Adventures of Augie March) [...]