Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 43
December 10, 2014
December 9, 2014
That time Lost in Space was picked for the POP CARTOGRAPHY: A Bookish Gift-Giving Guide by Ryan W. Bradley under the category "For parents who know you never figure it all out and that’s okay" and we got all swoony.
Quite swoony we are. And quite fine company it is. So please do hit it, it just might change your life.
December 8, 2014
December 7, 2014
This Book Will Change Your Life - Excavation by the Wendy C. Ortiz.
We suppose we might have experienced Excavation by the Wendy C. Ortiz as a fever dream regardless of a week interspersed with travel, work, read, and whatever tangled knot of an east coast flu strain we have battled with for almost ten days now. Assuming of course, that you embrace the idea of a fever dream as something both intense and confusing. Which is not to say Excavation is confusing in the sense that the story of a young woman, in this case very young, near tween young, and the male predator who knows her, understands her vulnerabilities, and seeks to groom her, isn't a story we hear all too often these days. However, to read the story in the form of fragments being lifted from Ortiz's memory and reformulated as story. As an exploration of her understanding about what went down, and the role she played in it, then and now, and all points in between. And as presented not as a survival tale, but more as this is how it was, and this is how it is, matter of fact, but no less intense, or confusing, in terms of what it may of meant to her then, and certainly means to her now. Well, that is something different. Something absorbing, and a story that in Ortiz's hands, and searching mind, is likely to not only change your life, but ensure that Excavation can't easily be put down, much less forgotten, as the days pass, fever dreams or not.
December 6, 2014
Daddy Cool Holiday Special there is.
For real. And for a mere $8.00 through December 15th at that, yo. We know, right?
December 5, 2014
Quite excited we are to announce that Lost in Space is Lit Reactor's January Book Club Selection. Quite appreciative too. And filled with joy. We don't want to overlook that.
Quite excited, and you can join us for the month and talk Lost in Space, which would rock, and most certainly change our lives.
December 4, 2014
Parker Stevenson, crushes, and "The Big One" we are at The Weeklings.
Truth. We are so Parker Stevenson, quite crush, and yes, failure too, at The Weeklings. And big thanks to the Sean Beaudoin for that. Excerpt? Word."IT’S NOT CLEAR that it was a crush, not by any standard definition I was accustomed to at that time anyway:
See person I’m attracted to.
Find them funny or mysterious, both maybe.
Try to figure out ways to be near them.
Soak-up their energy, and possibly consume them, if not physically, than metaphysically.
The feeling will be unrequited of course, at least initially. That’s certainly my experience.
The feeling will also be followed by a crippling desire that dogs me throughout the day, leaving me restless at night, and unable to sleep, with little likelihood of that changing.
So maybe I am incorrect, maybe it was very much like the crushes I was accustomed to. Maybe what was different is that this crush was not only unattainable, but male. Though not unattainable because said crush was male, though that was different than my standard crush, but because said crush was Parker Stevenson, and how was that going to work?"
December 3, 2014
December 2, 2014
This Book Will Change Your Life Two Small Birds Tweet hype moment Take I.
Dave Newman is one of the best Pittsburgh writers. @BenTanzer writes a nice review of his new book "Two Small Birds" http://t.co/GAEoBbST5C
— T.C. Jones (@swoosh_2007) December 2, 2014
This Book Will Change Your Life Two Small Birds Tweet hype moment Take II.
@BenTanzer on one of the best books of 2014, Dave Newman's TWO SMALL BIRDS. If you haven't read Newman, you need to. http://t.co/EAE3KQSDcA
— William Boyle (@wmboyle4) December 1, 2014
