notanotherbookreview

       Dream BIG!!   (Why Not?)                                                                                 FINALLY! A  NEW YEAR!! “In an era which has concentrated exclusively on extension of living space and increase of rational knowledge at all costs, it is a supreme challenge to ask man to become conscious of his uniqueness and limitation. Uniqueness and limitation are synonymous. Without them, no perception of the unlimited is possible-and consequently, no coming to consciousness either-merely a delusory identity with it which takes the form of intoxication with large numbers and an avidity for political power” (1960)--C,G, Jung from Memories, Dreams, Reflections  Thanks for visiting this book blog....

REVOLUTIONS WITHIN COUNTRIES, FAMILIES AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT--What's the price and who pays? Intense passions fuel revolutions within countries, families and people. Whether destructive or significant breakthroughs (or both), the costs of such challenges are huge and who pays is significant. 2017's Trumpian  revolution began a spectacle of  "disruption" of government fueled by a populist uprising yet funded by conservative elites. This revolution expanded the privilege of wealthy backers, while targeting the health and financial benefits of poor and working class supporters. Strangely, supporters rallied for fairness and an end to  corruption did not seem to be fazed by this reality.  Was  emotional release, the approval of a powerful figure, satisfaction enough? Personality cults aside, fairness and an end to corruption are eternal cries by revolutionaries seeking to topple the status quo, sometimes with a violence that  destroys civilized life. Does anythi...

https://www.laslagunagallery.com Current Show, Photography, now open to view. Diana's work is a silver gelatin print 15x10 inches.    “Toward the Light, 8th Avenue, 2018", from Diane's series “Ghost Waltz, Volume I: Acquainted With the Night, will be on display in the online exhibition "Photography" at the @laslagunaartgallery, December 3 - 31, 2020 .."                                                                                ***** https://dianarivera.exposure.co/adventures-in-filmgreenwich-village     https://photography.exposure.co/ Return to pre-Covid spring days in New York's Greenwich Village...they will come again but for now there's Diana's photos. Earlier post has excerpts from her Valentino series. For more:  Se...

  Heaventown New York's claim to fame is Saint Billy , a film about  a local war hero, Billy Temple. Starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara, this Xmas favorite has spawned a plethora of tourist traps; a Billy themed museum, hotels, restaurants, boutiques. When veteran reporter Charlie Ginsberg is assigned a "puff piece" on the quaint town in advance of their annual Billy Festival, he's resigned to his fate. While The Word , a news site, offers few challenges, at least he's got a paid trip to a scenic place. He vows to enjoy the view but Charlie can't mothball his brain. Why are there no photos of the real Billy Temple in the museum that bears his name?  What about his accidental" death from the Billy-named bridge? BLIZZARD OF LIES, Howard Rosenberg's entertaining mystery, is both a satirical and earnest look at American values and character.  Charlie mercilessly investigates stereotypes who often are on target and not--including himself. Yes he...

Sean Pravica's 200 stories in HOLD STILL FAST are written in 50 words or fewer.  Instants in time catch the predicament of being human in a world alien and familiar. PELEKINESIS publishes  http://www.pelekinesis.com/catalog/sean_pravica-hold_still_fast.html   Getting Older Again     As a strange joke, she bought her friend a human skull for a birthday gift. She also gave her makeup,to be nice. When her friend opened her gifts, the next step was obvious. She had little makeup left by the end of it, and the skull had a name.   Let   Go  The balloon floated away from her. He lifted her as she cried. She reached her hand up, as though she was close enough to grab it now. He rocked her, said to enjoy watching it, a red dot disappearing. Suddenly, it was like that was its purpose all along.   New Religion She started a dance church in the woods. She used an unoccupied store for service every Sunday. Devotees twisted, leapt, gyrated to whatever ...

  The “good death” may seem elusive, or even impossible, but novelist Alison Jean Lester chronicles just that in her new memoir, Absolutely Delicious: A Chronicle of Extraordinary Dying (Bench Press, 10/22/20).   Lester reports surprising facts:  " My mother, Valerie Lester, died on the morning of June 7, 2019, of metastatic melanoma. I’m driven to write about it because her death was, by all the standards I can imagine, a good one. Not only was the moment of her death good; the weeks of decline leading to her death were good. And not only that; the eighteen months between her first dire prognosis and her death were some of the happiest months of her life. Her final moment was, I suppose, ordinary – she drew a last breath, devoid of drama, when her body could no longer maintain itself.  Her approach to dying, though? That was amazing" Valerie, a Pan Am hostess, met Alison's father on a plane, returning from the first American expedition of Mt. Everest. She later be...

"Wortsman displays a savage descriptive edge, precise and crucial, that is as natural as it is canonically reminescent of the panEuropean urbanism of such writers as Robert Walser and Robert Musil" --Anthony Abbott in  American Bookseller "Wortsman hang(s) with the masters....Dozens of dangling avalanches for people with dreamer's block."--A. Scott  Campbell,  The Boston Phoenix "A fantastic book....Marvelous writing, wonderful craft; and the breath of imagination....(Wortsman) succeeded so well in his craft and art that it reads 'artless' and'spontaneous,' which to me is the highest of compliments.--"Herbert Selby, Jr., author of  L ast Exit to Brooklyn. We have more time to think and seek meanings in our Covid lives. Consider Peter Wortsman's words.  He creates strange universes of human life we think we know, and shows them singular in ways we might never have imagined. Peter Wortsman is the author of novels, books...

Anne Waldman's SANCTUARY (Spuyten Duyvil, spuytenduyvil.net)  is a mind bending book of poems with wonderful collages by T Thilleman. Anne Waldman is an renowned poet and founding member of the "Outsider" experimental poetry community. She has read in the streets, as well as Casa Del Lago in Mexico City, the Dodge Lit Festival in the U.S.A., the Jaipur Lit Festival in India and teaches poetics all over the world. Waldman is an original "Open Field Investigator" of Consciousness.  Among her many books are "Fast Speaking Woman" (City Lights), the P.E.N. Award-winning, Lovis Trilogy "Colors in the Mechanism of Concealment", and her 2018 "Trickster Feminism" (Penguin). An excerpt from a poem in SANCTUARY below.  Her calligraphic design, important to the text of the complete poem, couldn't be reproduced in this blog. I think you get a sense of her dynamic words. More at annewaldman.org. Light Coda Occludes   w ell,...