Nicholas Bruner's Blog, page 15

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my daughter and ranking them. We watched three episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories: Concept/Plot/Characters (4 points), Tone (1 point), and The Twist (2 points).

The episodes this time were all from Volume 43 of the DVDs, and are a pretty interesting mix. We get the Twilight Zone’s pilot, one of its all time classic...

What I’m Reading: Ecclesiastes

There are a few things I try to read on an annual basis. During baseball season, I always try to read a baseball book. Every year, I try to read at least one history book, one work of classic literature, and something by or about the ancient Greeks. And during Lent, I try to read something biblical, whether an actual book from the Bible, or a book on a biblical topic. I’ve kind of fallen down in this area the past couple years (okay, full disclosure: I just checked, and the last time I wrote som...

What I’m Reading: Mexican Gothic

One of my reading goals for 2021 is to read more horror, and so when Amazon recommended Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, I ordered a copy. I didn’t realize until I did a little research today for this review that MG is actually a bit of a phenomenon–a best-seller, and apparently it will soon be a mini-series on Hulu. Well, I can see why, because it’s a fascinating and entertaining novel. It’s something of a haunted house tale, told with a lot of panache.

Mexican Gothic is the story of...

What I’m Reading: A Wealth of Pigeons

A Wealth of Pigeons is a new book of New Yorker-style cartoons by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin) and actual New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss. Apparently, despite his long career in stand-up, sketch TV, movies, even novels (and more), Steve has always been impressed or perhaps intimidated by cartoonists, and their ability to capture a funny idea in a single panel.

Thus, in this book, he collaborates with Harry Bliss in an attempt to conquer this final frontier of comedy. I have a coupl...

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my daughter and ranking them. We watched three episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7.

Both the episodes this time were from Volume 29 of the DVDs.

A Nice Place to Visit (Season One, 1960)
Rocky Valentine is a street thug shot by the police after robbing a jewelry store. He blacks out in an alley, and when he wakes up, he finds a well-dressed gentleman named Pi...

What I’m Reading: All the Light We Cannot See

My suspicion is that Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See, thought of Saint Malo first. Saint Malo is a walled city on a promontory along the French coast, jutting out into the English channel, and known as the “jewel of the Normandy coast.” In 1944, it was the last German-held city in Normandy to surrender to the Allies, and as a result, it was the victim of an extensive bombing campaign that destroyed nearly all of the city’s historic buildings. Much of the novel’s action takes...

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my daughter and ranking them. We watched three episodes this time and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7.

The episodes this time were from Volumes 5 and 29 of the DVDs.

A Penny for Your Thoughts (Season Two, 1961)
This was an interesting one. Hector Poole (played by Dick York, who would later play Darrin on Bewitched), is a young bank clerk who tosses a coin into a newspaper vend...

Ranking the Twilight Zone

I’m watching all the Twilight Zone episodes (that I have on disk) with my daughter and ranking them. I’ve previously ranked episodes here, here, here, here, here, and here. This time out, we watched three episodes and, as ever, I’m running them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7.

The episodes this time were from Volumes 5 and 29 of the DVDs. I didn’t mean to have a theme this week, but I guess all the episodes seem to be about children in danger or trouble.

Long Distance Cal...

What I’m Reading: The Scam List

Oh, now this is an entertaining book. I’m not sure if it’s good for you, exactly, but it’s definitely entertaining. The Scam List, by Kurt Dinan, follows Boone McReedy, a seventeen-year-old whose dad is in jail for running con jobs, and who fears he’s on the same course.

Boone likes to drink at the Underground, a bar in his small Ohio town that doesn’t check his fake ID too carefully, where he can flirt and make out with girls with, let’s say, less than stellar judgment. But what he likes mos...

What I’m Reading: Indian No More

Indian No More is a middle grade novel credited to two authors–Charlene Willing McManus, who conceived and wrote early drafts of the book, and Traci Sorell, her friend, who finished the book after McManus died in 2018. McManus was an Umpqua Indian from Oregon, and the events in the book are loosely based on her own childhood, while Sorell is Cherokee.

The book follows Regina Petit, who’s probably around ten years old in 1954 when the government “terminates” her tribe, the Umpqua, on the Grand...