Sue Perry's Blog: Required Writing, page 24

Concert Review: No Name #1, A Celebration of the Life and Music of Elliott Smith, Largo at the Coronet, Aug 6, 2013

I’m a writer and I love words. I savor the well-strung phrase wherever I find it – a book, stage patter, a movie, an ad, a blog. Song lyrics shape and define me. Early Springsteen’s meandering stage monologues could be my version of a religious experience. Given all that, you’d think I’d be crazy for […]

Book Review: “Ghost Moth” by Michele Forbes

4 STARS Written with insight, grace, and truth, this evocative novel does a wonderful job capturing the workings of this family, its time and place (Northern Ireland, deep in the midst of “The Troubles”, 1960s-later), and the past that haunts them. The change of pace at the end was unnecessarily dragging, in my opinion, and […]

Insomnia Ain’t All Bad (And Don’t Forget the Rorschach)

One of my least favorite traits: when I get overloaded and face an upcoming crazy day at work, sometimes I can’t sleep. So here I am, 2:42 a.m., alarm set for 7. Full moon tonight on a warm and bright night. These photos are shadows of tree leaves, cast by moonlight on my car hood. […]

Book Review: “The Flamethrowers” by Rachel Kushner

2 STARS If I had not received a free copy in exchange for a LibraryThing review, I would not have finished this book, which frustrated and ultimately bored me. Kushner has the chops to be a spectacular writer and does much stylistic muscle-flexing but all the disparate components of this book remained just that. Maybe […]

Why Go To College?

I’ve always loved school, as I recently posted. My college days were a fantastic, ne’er-dupulicated experience: I got exposed to new ideas, unimagined worlds; I had tons of fun and many of my college friendships have persisted for decades. I ended up with a double major and two minors but I remember so few of […]

Goodbye Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard is dead at 89.  His books will live much longer. There was no one like him. Fortunately, he was prolific. The NY Times posted an Obit worth reading.

The Sound of Two Hands Limping

 Okay, whose brilliant idea was it to set a deadline for my retyping* of ?Was It A Rat I Saw?, my psychological thriller involving real-life split brain research, animal rights, and a love quadrangle? I had a plan is to publish each of the four sections of ?Rat?, chapter by chapter, to this blog during the four weeks […]

The Gull, the Rocks, and the Sea

I don’t like seagulls much, but this one did nothing offensive during the brief time we were together. Anyway there can’t always be pelicans. These photos show a glimpse of beach at San Clemente, CA, where it is always this beautiful. (This week’s Photo Challenge wants to see one image shot two ways.)

Squadron Overhead

Readers of this blog with good memories know that I love pelicans.  At the beach this weekend (San Clemente, CA – can’t you tell from the photo?) I managed to snap a fast-moving squadron as they passed overhead.

Book Review: “The Healer” by Antti Tuomainen

4 STARS A man searches for his missing wife as the world falls apart. This is one time when an Early Reviewer program brought me a book I enjoyed without reservation. I completely believed this dysfunctional, damaged world (here focussed on Finland), spiraling toward ecological apocalypse, and I got sucked into the story. The characters […]