notanotherbookreview

  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...

With an economy of space and words, Rebecca Solnit's essays often encompass complex issues not easily defined. Her new book ,  NO STRAIGHT ROAD TAKES YOU THERE :  Essays for Uneven Terrain (Haymarket, 5/13) explores   the organic process of life and change.   The introduction ,  In Praise of the Indirect, the Unpredictable, the Immeasurable, the Slow, and the Subtle , explains the book's intended for "anyone considering history, power, change, and possibility." This is Solnit territory, where you meander through her visions, revisions, and conclusions--which felt "right," though could be a surprise. In "Tortoise at the Mayfly Party, she sums up the approach, "I try to see the long trajectory of events leading to the present moment, because it is this time to see change. To understand change is essential to understanding politics and culture, let alone trying to participate in it. The short view generates incomprehension and ineffectuality. Event...

  In  M agician and Fool,   the first book of Susan Wands' Arcana Oracle Series ,   the Golden Dawn organization's main purpose was to  acquire magical knowledge. The Victorian era of science and invention included magic as a field of exploration for educated young men. They wanted to harness the forces of nature through hidden knowledge. In reality, there was a historical Golden Dawn organization. And magical knowledge, in Wands' fantasy novels, creates forces that shapes the fates of historical characters, in theater, art, and politics.  For them to succeed in  Emperor and Hierophant , book three of the Arcana Oracle Series , they must go beyond their mastery of magical knowledge to become masters of themselves. In this novel, Pamela Coleman Smith is on tour with the Lyceum Theatre in Manchester, England, when she is suddenly kidnapped by a mysterious force and incarcerated in a stone prison. When she learns that Henry, the director and leading light...

               2 from BAMBOO DART PRESS Diaries and Letters shows the constricting space of pandemic-era living.  With the addition of writing around each drawing, artist TM Givens creates a thick boundary that encases the artwork in an unesay narrative. The words are descriptive, the observations mainly hopeful, the frustration real and persistent. By incorporating writing into this series of drawings, Givens offers insights into daily life in a turbulent time.--from the introduction to Diaries and Letters                                           **********  From: Still Playing with Words, --An Impromptu Prologue                Words belong to no one. They are all robbed, orborrowed if you prefer, from the babble of our contemporaries and the bibles of our forb...

  " WOW! THE POSSIBILITIES JUST KEEP GOING AND GOING. I had no idea there was so much variety in flexagons! Quite an impressive book. This book goes into amazing depth in the incredible variety of flexagons. There's something for everyone: if you just want to make cool gadgets, there's clear instructions (and downloadable templates) for a wide variety of shapes, but for those who want to go deep, the mathematics of flexagons are also presented, rich and rewarding. Be forewarned, though: they're addictive." - -Robert J. Lang, physicist, virtuoso origami artist, and master of origami mathematics, theory, and real-world applications WHAT ARE FLEXAGONS?                     Flexagons are fascinating, origami-like puzzles folded from strips of paper that you  flex  in various ways to reveal previously hidden portions of the flexagon. Flexigon shapes are found in machine designs, jewelry.  I lov...

"... the precedent set by the Founders demands that we examine history to understand the deep sources of tyranny, and to consider the proper responses to it. Americans today are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to facism, Nazism, or communism in the twentieth century. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so." --Tim Snyder "Mr. Snyder is a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present." --The New York Times This little book of 126 pages succeeds in connecting our time with what went before. In short essays astute, wry and instructive, it lets you know what has happened, where we are and what one person of conscience can do. Here are snippets from Topics.  1. DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. 2. DEFEND INSTITUTIONS Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by action on their beha...

                               Colored Television and Pride and Prejudice I read  Colored Television by Danzy Senna and  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin for two different book groups. It was surprising that the plots of these books, a hundred years apart, seemed to hinge on similar status codes. Though the personal stakes were different.  The Bennett sisters, Elizabeth and Jane, heroines of Pride and Prejudice,  navigated the Bristish aristocracy's marriage market, while Jane and Lenny, the talented African American couple in Colored Television  chased careers in Los Angeles' media markets. Both sets of contenders must crack social codes to gain entry, aware that perceived status can make or break their future prospects. Indicators of status for both included desirable neighborhoods and residences, clothes, physical attractiveness, well-born or estimable fri...

Multicultural Children's Book Day passed my reviewer info to Gea Meijering, author of  a useful amusing book about Kees, a kid who can't write two pages in four hours. His best friend, Pete, knocks out his essay in a half hour and is ready for outside fun and games, pranks and adventures. Pete and him are a team! In 4th grade, they had to make a paper mache volcano. Kees made the volcano and Pete wrote the journal. But in 5th, last year in elementary school, there's more writing to be done "separately". Kees knows he's falling behind in his classes. He dreads being called-on to read. He tries to decipher a paragraph two pages ahead, and hopes for a picture to help him make sense, but then stutters amid laughter, though there's Pete's encouraging "thumbs up." Dyslexia is the issue. The two friends have fun doing what they do best, that's not sitting in class. Kees knows he can build things, figure out ways to navigate his issue, like weari...