Robert R. Mitchell's Blog, page 5

Goodreads Giveaway begins this weekend!

Enter to win a paperback copy of Only Shot at a Good Tombstone and a custom OSAAGT mug from midnight on Saturday, January 18 until midnight on Tuesday, February 18! Five lucky winners will be selected!

Ever wonder how San Francisco became a "mecca" for gay folks?

Do you believe that in government, power always corrupts?

Growing up, did you hang out with the “popular kids” or the “freaks and geeks?”

Have you ever heard a ghost story you really believed?

Only Shot At A Good Tombstone is an unconventional, in-your-face novel built on a foundation of history, myth, philosophy, religion and American pop culture. Time is precious, so entertainment should do more than just…entertain. Read Only Shot At A Good Tombstone and engage with the world around us. We’re all connected and our entertainment should reflect that!

http://www.amazon.com/Only-Shot-At-Go...

Just the beginning...

The Winter by A. Ka

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A. Ka makes 16th century people more human. How? By making them think and talk and act in a direct, “modern” way. I’m not talking anachronisms like Alex Cox’s movie “Walker.” There are no soda bottles or helicopters. I looked up eyeglasses, muskets and the word “weird” in Wikipedia, to whom(?) the story is dedicated and they all existed in the 16th century. What I’m talking about is a modern no-nonsense, agnostic directness like a person stepping on cracks without concern for their mother’s back. What I’m talking about is a narrative with exquisitely simple black-and-white illustrations instead of gold-leaf illuminations; mental processing of challenges without cowering, religious machinations; conversations without endless preambles, prefaces and class-conscious genuflections. Winter’s characters “get to the point” as if heeding the great 19th century misanthrope, Ebeneezer Scrooge, when he beseeched his long-dead partner Jacob Marley, “Don’t be flowery, Jacob! Pray!” The colorful characters in Isaac The Fortunate are endearing and engaging without being flowery. They also have swagger. Swagger that a 21st century reader can appreciate. Swagger and smirks and squints and gawking and beautiful dangerous women tilting their heads just so. Frankly, that is enough for me but there is far, far more. Let’s be direct: Isaac the Fortunate (Part I) – Winter is mandatory reading. And this is just the beginning.



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Gritty and Adventurous

Other Systems by Elizabeth Guizzetti

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Elizabeth Guizzetti’s Other Systems is a lean, gritty immigrant’s story that also happens to be a sci-fi epic. And a coming of age story. And a kick-ass adventure. Fortunately, Guizzetti wields the author’s keyboard as deftly as her heroine Abby handles the stick and throttles of a Revelation shuttle, maneuvering through horrific obstacles and accelerating to escape velocity with split-second timing. While a degree in science fiction isn’t a prerequisite for this accelerated course in galactic exploration, the sci-fi intelligentsia will revel in the precision and granularity of Guizzetti’s futuristic universe. Those of us who are mere interns in the genre will be amazed by the mind-blowing new worlds and the fantastic plausibility of it all while we latch onto a gripping story as old as sentient life itself. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath come immediately to mind: folks in dire straits sacrifice everything for the promise of a new, beautiful world and then scrap and fight for their lives when the illusions fall by the wayside one by one. Life is vicious and brutal and even when you finally find folks willing to lend you a hand, you can expect a slap upside the helmet when you screw up. Even hardened veterans struggle to overcome daily challenges but Guizzetti tempts fate with an idealistic, sheltered heroine more comfortable in the safe stacks of a futuristic library than the dystopian streets of thirty-first century Seattle. And yet…deep inside the youngster beats the heart of an explorer whose intelligence and determination grab us by the our environmental suit collar and yank us out of our comfortable twenty-first century world into other systems.



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Thank you

Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood by Donovan Campbell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I finished reading Joker One, a Christmas gift from our oldest son, as New Year fireworks boomed and flashed outside reminding me exactly what Donovan Campbell and his platoon were fighting and dying for in Ramadi back in 2004. If you’ve read a lot of the books coming out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you know that the ones written by the embedded journalists are often flashier and more “literary” than the ones written by those who actually did the fighting. Donovan Campbell’s account isn’t flashy or literary. If you’re looking for grand metaphors or awe-inspiring adjectives, you won’t find them in Joker One. And while grand metaphors are rarely constructed by those lacking intellect, we can’t assume that the inverse is true. Campbell isn’t an amazing writer but he is extremely intelligent, brutally honest, succinctly eloquent, unfailingly perceptive and courageous. Out of the many harrowing accounts of combat emerging from our most recent wars, Joker One is one of the most effective when it comes to communicating the unique hell of urban warfare and the immense burden of leading youngsters into battle. Grateful civilians like me will not find a more insightful guide to this alien world.



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A Risk Worth Taking

A Rough Deliverance: Collected Poems 1983-2013 by Nancy Bevilaqua

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Almost by definition, good poetry requires vulnerability. Vulnerability inherently involves risk. It is tempting, at first blush, to suspect that a writer who is admittedly only a “sporadic” poet would be foolish to publish 30 years of poetry, let alone 30 years of poetry with intensely confessional content. After all, one of the benefits of becoming a professional is leaving your “early work” behind and reveling in your success, right? While each reader of A Rough Deliverance will judge for themselves whether the risks Nancy Bevilaqua undertakes in this endeavor are reasonable and efficacious, no one reading her engaging and intriguing Preface can argue that she is anything other than fully aware of both the gravity and potential pitfalls of this self-described “mystery tour.” She knows exactly what the hell she’s doing.

While there is definitely a discernible maturity of vision, voice and technique in her more recent works, do not skip the early stuff: the very first poem, The Act, in fact is both as passionate and stirring as you’d expect and surprisingly sophisticated in its execution. Similarly Bevilaqua’s sixth sonnet, Daddy Shows Up in a Dream as a Drunken Sailor, is remarkably direct with an almost epiphanic clarity. The Monkey Tree, Billie Holiday c. 1940, all the Holding Breath poems and Maadi Gedida are especially compelling highlights of the rest of the work. By the end of the collection, you realize that Bevilaqua’s early works are more like U2’s Boy or Nirvana’s Bleach than the sitcoms or toothpaste commercials of a now famous movie star. The risk was well worth taking. In total, A Rough Deliverance is a solid and moving collection.




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Andromeda Ale?

Insomnium #3 Trial by Water by Zachary Bonelli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


SPOILER ALERT. Beer is older than written language and it’s reassuring to discover that in Insomnium #3 – Trial by Water not only will it survive into the late 21st century but will also exist in alternate realms like Blame Outward Justice Inward. Life in Nowhere is bewildering to say the least but Zachary Bonelli weaves enough of these familiar elements into the story that new ways of breathing, thinking, communicating and adjudicating can be processed and appreciated for what they have to teach us both about the future and our own contemporary realities. Not only is it easier to accept spontaneously generating gills with a brew under the belt, it is the comfort of a cold beer with a friend that enables Nel to formulate a strategy to defeat the seemingly insurmountable onslaught of the aptly named ward’s cryptic, draconian judicial system. A compelling courtroom drama ensues that owes as much to Perry Mason as it does to sci-fi legends like Phillip K. Dick.



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Review: Just Deceits - A Historical Courtroom Mystery

Just Deceits by Michael Schein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In 2007, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. commented that Americans are “the most entertained and least informed people on the planet.” The best part about Michael Schein’s remarkable work of historical fiction, “Just Deceits – A Historical Courtroom Mystery,” is that it accurately informs and compellingly illuminates in an entirely entertaining fashion. As we all know from everyday life, a good story only goes so far: the telling of the story will determine whether we listen attentively or pretend to get an important phone call and walk away. Schein is a superb storyteller: he reveals key elements judiciously, includes the right amount of detail, explains when necessary and lingers when you need a little more time. His writing is equally impressive. His prose is crisp and clear, dialects are gracefully represented and descriptions are clever, understated and steeped in the period. Readers are simultaneously happy for his guidance and glad that he remains just offstage in the shadows, focusing our attention on the characters and story. This is more than a story, however, it’s our heritage; and Schein brings to late 18th-century America what Upton Sinclair brought to early 20th-century America, an open mind and a journalist’s willingness to follow darkened forest trails, stray into the slaves’ quarters and disappear into the muddy, vulgar chaos of the green. He reveals what he finds there, whether ugly or inspiring. It is this focus on truth that reveals the true heroes both in real life and in stories like Just Deceits. It is a gritty, unflinching and moving story of Americans in a very young country dealing with challenges as old as humanity itself.



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And here we go!

Insomnium #2 Unnatural Desire by Zachary Bonelli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The first interracial kiss on American television occurred 45 years ago last month on Star Trek. While many “classics” of literature are unknown to today’s American high school students, many are familiar with George Orwell’s 1984. While there is no Sci-Fi regulatory board requiring the genre’s authors to illuminate contemporary social issues via futuristic fiction, it is a bully pulpit from which many very enduring cautionary tales are spun. In the second installment of Zachary Bonelli’s compelling serial, Insomnium, social commentary is seamlessly interwoven with plot and character development. We know now that not only do we care about the story and the characters, we care about values and humanity (no offense intended to the other non-human fantastic creatures of Nowhere).



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Good for what ails us

Paradise in the Waste Land by T S Eliot

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The April 8, 1966 cover of Time Magazine touched off a firestorm of debate and criticism with the question “Is God Dead?” In the January 22, 2013 edition of the Washington Post, columnist Alexandra Petri asked the same of poetry and touched off some serious whimpering. The fact that you are considering Paradise In The Waste Land with an introduction by Jeremiah Webster indicates that you’re either a poor Googler or are willing to give poetry, specifically Eliot, a chance. The only real question at this point is which of the 4000+ books about or by T.S. Eliot currently available on Amazon you should choose. Whether Petri’s question resonates or you are a true believer quixotically intent on proselytizing the Millennials in your home or classroom, this collection of some of Eliot’s earlier works is the one for you.

Paradise In The Waste Land is a thoughtful selection of essays, short fiction and of course poetry, including The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, two must-haves. The real differentiator, however, is the introduction by Jeremiah Webster. As a member (or hostage) of the Twitter-centric society in which Alexandra Petri and the rest of us exist, you will need to justify the time and effort spent reading Eliot. Webster’s apologia, titled “Modern Mandrake: Reviving the Poetry of T.S. Eliot,” provides that justification and much more. His discussion of Eliot as a “Modern” poet both establishes the historical context of his work and lays the foundation for his pertinence to 21st century readers. In the course of proving his thesis, that “Eliot’s poetry deserves a new readership,” he addresses Eliot’s numerous critics; reminds us that a modicum of patience will be required since the Moderns’ poetry is characterized by “encyclopedic breadth;” and provides the Millennial prerequisite for everything, the “WIFM” (What’s in it for me?). Webster’s introduction is compelling, erudite and like his estimation of The Waste Land, a “much needed corrective.”




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Bless them both

There are few drives I enjoy more than the one between Colfax and Washtucna. Either direction. Doesn't matter. When I hit this stretch of the Palouse Scenic Byway Wednesday afternoon, the sun was smoldering behind enormous clouds, the cattle were standing stoically beneath the red, miniature mesas and I found myself behind a couple in an old Buick going slower and then faster and then slower again. They looked "older" and the man in the driver seat had his arm stretched out across the top of the bench seat toward a woman whose shoulder he tapped occasionally to indicate a particularly beautiful view. He was rubbernecking like crazy and folks intent on getting West were passing him in rapid succession. When it was my turn, I looked at my speedometer and looked at the river curving slowly through the grass and sagebrush and decided that I'd pretend like my '98 Expedition didn't have it in her to pass the two (not far from the truth). I backed off and enjoyed the drive and the people passing us three old fogies until Washtucna where they turned south. They turned left in Washtucna! No one turns left in Washtucna on a Wednesday evening unless they're locals. I don't know who they are but bless them both for living in God's country and still being so goddamned awe-struck that they can't maintain a steady speed.