Nicholas Bruner's Blog, page 8

What I’m Reading: The Jalakh Bow

This time around I read the The Jalakh Bow, by Jamie Edmundson. This is the third book in the four-part Weapon Takers saga–I’ve also reviewed the first book in the series, Toric’s Dagger, and the second book, Bolivar’s Sword. I think it’s a good...

What I’m Reading: Blood, Iron, and Gold

Blood, Iron, and Gold, by Christian Wolmar, is a straightforward history of the railroad. It’s thorough and clear, with a minimum of editorializing, content to be simply a lucid survey of a somewhat niche subject. I know right now that not a lot of...

Scary Movies: The Bad Seed

Okay, here’s the review of our final film of this year’s horror movie season: The Bad Seed, from 1956. In keeping with this year’s theme, Creepy Kids, this one features the creepiest kid of all. More plausible than Damien, more murderous than Danny, Rhoda...

Scary Movies: Return of the Vampire

As usual, we have a bit of a horror movie overhang now in November, with a couple movie reviews I still need to wrap up. The movie this time is 1943’s Return of the Vampire, starring Bela Lugosi. After an unpromising start, it turned...

Brother Flute Out Now!

An old man’s secret will alter the course of Aku’s life forever… The ink on his mother ink tattoo is hardly dry when Aku makes a disappointing discovery. Disappointment leads him to make a rash, dangerous decision. When an old man with a bad...

Scary Movies: The Shining

The movie this week is Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, which I haven’t seen since high school and have wanted to see again for a long time. Upon rewatching, I think what makes this such a popular horror movie is how its ambiguities lend themselves...

What I’m Reading: Sworn to the Gods

Sworn to the Gods is a fantasy romance by Lexi Caine. I came across it as it was listed on Amazon as an “other books you may like” for one of my own fantasy books. This struck me as odd, as fantasy romance and...

Scary Movies: Sixth Sense

Last time, we did I Bury the Living, which started off great but totally flubbed its ending. Here, with the Sixth Sense, the 1999 film directed by M. Night Shyamalan, we have a movie that stuck the landing as well as any horror movie...

What I’m Reading: The Authentic Adam Smith

The Authentic Adam Smith: His Life and Ideas by James Buchan is an erudite but straightforward biography of Adam Smith. I was a bit worried at first that it would be partisan and revisionist, because the book cover claims Smith and his theories have...

Scary Movies: I Bury the Living

This is one I saw about fifteen years ago and wanted to watch again. It’s amazingly well-made for a low-budget B-movie from the 1950s, but totally wusses out on the ending. This review will have spoilers of this sixty-four year old film, so don’t...