Broken Sleep by Bruce Bauman Other Press, 2015 656 pages – Other / Amazon Bruce Bauman’s Broken Sleep is a titanic, post-punk mosaic of history, art, philosophy, myth, family, politics, war, peace, illness, sports and, of course, rock and roll. Oh, and the Nazis. Let’s not forget the Nazis. Aside from that, it’s also the only book in the history of literature to open with an assisted suicide presented as a public art installation…
hen you think of Bruce Wayne you probably see a millionaire who’s secretly a vigilante, a man who dons a mask and fights crime in the cover of night. A man who has sacrificed a life of normality, and sometimes has to drag his own reputation through the mud, in order to become the protective watcher of the night. But I see it another way. Bruce Wayne doesn’t become Batman, I believe it’s the other way around. Bruce Wayne is dead. He…
Sonnet: Inflammation Sometimes someone gets cut & the wound blossoms From infection. There are so many germs & bacteria— Enough to go crazy, at least. I’m lucky not to be afraid Of the dentist or needles or death, but I am really scared Of skittering things, like rats or the toy in Kafka’s “Cares of a Family Man.” I’m scared of space and rain— Or TOO much inflamed tissue—things out of control. More people or things than I can…
URSULA or UNIVERSITY by Stephanie Young Krupskaya Books, 2013 188 pages – SPD / Amazon 1. “Feminization of the problem of lived time” -Myung Mi Kim. 2. I started writing this review of Stephanie Young’s URSULA or UNIVERSITY in the middle of wild or unforgiving Florida July. “I have to begin with this failure. This thing that failed” (January 2011). I was still looking for a teaching job / still living off $$$ I saved doing…
Like other bookish types, I ended up an English major in college. Many of my fellow English majors wanted to teach, but that didn’t appeal to me at all; the thought of speaking in front of large groups of people terrified me. I’d picked English purely because I enjoyed reading novels, and if I could get a degree out of it, all the better. That said, the practical side of me had potential careers in mind; although teaching was out, since I loved…
This is the eleventh installment of Entropy’s “Month in Books” feature. Holler over to Jenny (jenny@entropymag.org) if you are a small press and would like to see your new releases up on the monthly page. In the meantime, plenty to be thankful for this month as you cozy up to friends, family, or even just a really swell cat (or pup!). Action Books This Blue Novel by Valerie Mejer, translated by Michelle Gil-Montero 140 pages…
“This time, the crumbling empire is the unassailable global economy, and the brave new world of consumer democracy being forged worldwide in its name. Upon the indestructibility of this edifice we have pinned the hopes of this latest phase of our civilisation. Now, its failure and fallibility exposed, the world’s elites are scrabbling frantically to buoy up an economic machine which, for decades, they told us needed little restraint, for…
Image Credit: Desert Heat – Spock and Kirk by Gayle Feyrer SLASH: a genre of fan fiction that (typically) imagines queer relationships between presumably straight characters. Increasingly slash refers to ‘shipping’ characters (imagining them in relationships) regardless of sexual orientation. For this month’s Sunday conversation, a number of us converged to consider the teeming terrain of slash fiction. Over the space of a week, we…
Photo Credit: Pattie McCarthy Note: In 1912, Philadelphia’s transit commissioner, A. Merritt Taylor, proposed a comprehensive subway plan to serve the transit needs of the entire city of Philadelphia. Only two of the proposed subway lines were ever completed: the Market-Frankford line (1922) and the Broad Street line (1938; extended slightly in 1956 & 1973). Plans for other lines were revised/revived over the years but ultimately…
My parents took me to my first concert, Prince at Madison Square Garden, when I was two years old. My mom took me to see Bruce Springsteen whenever he played in the tri-state area. There is nothing quite like being surrounded by tens of thousands of people singing along to a song to get a little girl hooked on live music. As a teenager, I waited all night for Bruce tickets, but I also loved hardcore/punk/ska shows at tiny venues all over New…
Featured Image Credit: City on Acid by Ms. Phoenix, via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) When I was eleven years old I bought Beastie Boy’s License to Ill on cassette with my birthday money. I spent weeks on end in my bedroom listening to it on repeat, playing Gumshoe and Punch-Out. Once I memorized the lyrics, I began deciphering their meaning. In nineteen eighty eight my mother was the closest thing I had to the internet. I remember reading her…
1. Batman (No. 495, June ’93, DC) – Doug Moench, Jim Aparo & Bob Wiacek The caped crusader is turning 75 years old this week. DC is celebrating the character’s anniversary with a short by the talented “Batman: The Animated Series” animator Bruce Timm; “Batman Strange Days” is to air this Wednesday at 6:30 PM on the Cartoon Network. All of the fanfare got me thinking about my own adolescent…
Although the books I’m forever meaning to read are piled high already — these towers of tomes that will one day most likely crush me — there are still more books I’m gearing up for. Here are nine titles I’m excited for in Publishing World F/W 2014. 1. NO BRASS, NO AMMO by John Sheppard (Moon Cove Publishing – Coming out in late summer) 2. GEEK SUBLIME: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra…
1. Civil War II (No. 4, Sept 2016, Marvel) – Brian Michael Bendis, David Marquez & Justin Ponsor If your favorite comic book movie this year was Captain America: Civil War, you’ll want to try Marvel’s ongoing big event series Civil War II. The drama thus far: Faith in an emerging superhero’s seeming ability to see into the future has sparked a division between two of Marvel’s most charismatic heavyweights…