by Jan Bear | Jan 25, 2016 | Reading
I recently watched the Mansfield Park movie, made in 1999. As standalone entertainment, it was OK: entertaining and emotionally moving with a dollop of social consciousness.But it had been a long time since I had read the book by Jane Austen, and there were a few...
by Jan Bear | Jan 18, 2016 | Reading
Steve Theme’s memoir, Asphalt Asylum: The Dark Roads to Light is a moving and thoughtful adventure story about a young man who leaves home to fight the darkness he sees growing in himself.As a 19-year-old in 1978, Steve struck out from Seattle, Washington, heading...
by Jan Bear | Aug 30, 2014 | Reading
Neil Gaiman is a mystical portal where folk stories and mythology come pouring into our present literature. Everything from Norse (and other) mythologies (American Gods) to the land of nightmares (Coraline) flows through his rich imagination. In Anansi Boys he goes to...
by Jan Bear | May 26, 2014 | Reading
I’ve wanted to read Three Men in a Boat ever since I first read Connie Willis’ funny time-travel novel, To Say Nothing of the Dog, which is the subtitle of this book. Three Men in a Boat is an episodic journey of three men in flannel and boaters traveling...
by Jan Bear | May 26, 2014 | Reading
In The Maze, a man’s near-death experience throws him into a psychological-spiritual-symbolic labyrinth that calls into question everything he’s been and whether it’s worth it to him to be something different. Jamie Burroughs is a man whose moral needle points to the...
by Jan Bear | May 26, 2014 | Reading
Martin Roth’s Prophets and Loss is a deep character study wrapped in an intriguing mystery. Who can you trust? is the question that runs through the story, with twists and turns on the question in every chapter. Even Johnny Ravine isn’t quite sure he can...