notanotherbookreview

Bamboo Dart Press consistently delivers the unexpected and brilliant in form and content. Of these delectable slender volumes by Peter Wortsman, the editors explain, "The poems are condensed and diverse, reflecting the mind of a poet and collage artist. Paintings, also created by the author, are interspersed among the poems."  For the first time, these books are offered internationally. Sets of four or two are available."Bamboo Dart Press explains the latest book in the series.   What We Leave Behind , Peter Wortsman’s fourth book of cut-ups, he lets the words run wild, in some cases, as in French poet Guillaume Apollinaire’s  Calligrames  (1918), letting words break ranks and dance on the page; in other cases, coupling word and image; and finally, succumbing to the lure of the visual in collages in which words play a subordinate role or disappear altogether. If, as this book’s first poem maintains, “we know each other from what we leave behind,” Wortsman write...

“Censorship had raised gossip to the level of official communication.” 1933: The Year the Nazis Seized Power" by Philip Metcafe.0\--  The Gossip Columnist, Sunday, April 22 , 1945    It's been a strange experience, reading this book at this time in the United States. It's arrived as democracy is under daily assault in Congress and the streets of our cities. Processes similar to those used by the Nazis have been echoed in our news headlines, attacks on our institutions, including press repression. I asked Martyn Burke , author of the new novel, THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST (1/27/26 DarkSpur Press), the following question:          Q. What is there from your own experience that you brought into the story of The Gossip Columnist? A. "In totalitarian societies I’ve seen the terror and the crushing of moral guidelines, and always there is the question you ask yourself: “How did it get to this?” I spent a lot of time researching the step-by-step descent o...

PUB DATE TODAY! THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST By Martyn Burke, BOOK TRAILER, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_iEHvbUe6Y Burke manages, with impressive literary artistry, to shed some light on a historical conundrum:   How did such unabashed   savagery spring from such a famously refined national culture? A stunning novel crackling with historical insight ”  -- Kirkus Reviews FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE “Gossip long ago became the only truth we get. After the Nazis took over, I had to write my newspaper column in a kind of code.” –THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST.   MARTYN BURKE’S THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST EXAMINES WHAT HAPPENED IN 1933, WHEN CENSORSHIP RAISED GOSSIP TO OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION.  Based on historical fact, THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST, is set in Berlin--from the depraved and hedonistic days of Weimar Germany to the end of WW2. The Nazi infatuation with power had degenerated to a sexual circus in the 20’s and 30’s. Bella and Karin, two sisters about ten years apart...

NOVELS WHERE TIME IS POROUS  DAYS AT THE TORUNKA CAFE By Satoshi Yagisawa Satoshi Yagisawa's DAYS AT THE TORUNKA CAFE ( November 2025 Harper Perennial ) also looks at a cultural artifact that is out-of-time, in this case, not a person, but a place in  modern Tokyo, Japan. Like his previous book, Days at the Morisaku Bookshop, the Cafe, on a narrow side street, is an unexpected place, known to locals and the "initiated." It is a place "where the passersby are more likely to be local cats than tourists." Who goes there and why? There's no profit motive in the location, no advertising, what's the attraction? Fabulous perfect coffee, each cup individually milled, after customer selection, for a customer's taste. Aromas are mesmerizing, the cafe owner's satisfaction a visible smile. Oddly, the cafe owner's teenage daughter, Shizuku Tachibaba, hates coffee and never drinks it. A hidden mystery of the Cafe. The owner himself, seems too relaxed, ele...

I REGRET ALMOST EVERYTHING , a memoir by Keith McNally, the restaurant entrepreneur behind Odeon, Balthazar, Lucky Strike, One Fifth ( to name a few) was always thinking about the next restaurant before the one in process was finished.  In his excruciatingly honest and darkly funny memoir, McNally examines his seemingly "accidental" life, where little was expected of him. Born an average "bloke" to a working class family in Britain, he didn't excell in school or sports and wasn't suited to "trade."He did possess an insatiable curiousity about the world outside his insular  neighborhood. It was no surprise, when like many kids he left school at 16 to "work." What his family, who might have objected, didn't know was that he found work as an actor, playing boy roles in a variety of  plays and theaters. He was good enough to attract the attention of New Wave playwrights, like Alan Bennett ( The Madness of King George, The History Boys).  ...

  The SECOND CHANCE CONVENIENCE STORE is a novel about a convenience store that's a million-copy international bestseller from Korea. Unless a Noble-winner, books from Asia aren't often translated for our audiences. Because of the bestseller status, I cynically expected this story to be simple, sentimental, outside our sophisticated book culture of ideas and bestselling romantasy novels. Yet the characters and setting are so unexpected, real and heart-rending, it nullifies our western cultural expectations. Stories of  "second chances" are rare, especially if failure involves "cliches"--addictive behaviors, homelessness, mental illness or other misfortunes better left to the Salvation Army. We may be subconsciously superstitious; a "cross-your heart "prayer (there but for the grace of God/chance go I), when we pass unfortunates in the street or drop a dollar in a plastic cup. Korea isn't all that different. Like us, they are believers in the ro...