Jason Pettus's Blog, page 3

Book Review: "First Love," by Gwendoline Riley

First Love By Gwendoline Riley Melville House Reviewed by Jason Pettus Although they're not my favorite types of books, I've been known to enjoy novels that are primarily dense character studies and that contain only minimalist plots; but for me to really get into such a book, it needs to be almost perfectly done, full of such rich and complex characterization that I'm naturally compelled to keep following along, despite the absence of "what happened next" type material, which I usually cons...

Book Review: "The Fall of Lisa Bellow," by Susan Perabo

The Fall of Lisa Bellow By Susan Perabo Simon & Schuster Reviewed by Jason Pettus To be clear right away, Susan Perabo's The Fall of Lisa Bellow is not a crime thriller, despite its salacious premise of a 13-year-old girl who is kidnapped at a convenience store one random day for mysterious reasons; and fans of that genre who are expecting one will be profoundly disappointed by this book, which is why I warn you right off the bat. (Just for one big example, we never do learn the fate of the...

TV Review: "Legion on FX," by Noah Hawley

(CCLaP is dedicated to reviewing as many contemporary books as possible, including self-published volumes; click here to learn how to submit your own book for possible review, although be warned that it needs to have been published within the last 18 months to be considered. For the complete list of all books reviewed here, as well as the next books scheduled to be read, click here.) �� �� Legion (FX) By Noah Hawley (Showrunner) FX (streaming on Amazon and Hulu) Reviewed by Karl Wolff �� Amo...

Book Review: "The Alzheimer's Antidote," by Amy Berger

The Alzheimer's Antidote: Using a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet to Fight Alzheimer's Disease, Memory Loss and Cognitive Decline By Amy Berger Chelsea Green Publishing Company Reviewed by Jason Pettus The more that the science of nutrition becomes a big business, the more we're learning surprising things about nutrition that are causing profound shifts in how we think about the entire subject of healthcare in general; for one example, how the form of severe dementia we call Alzheimer's is more and...

Tales from the Completist: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," by Muriel Spark

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) By Muriel Spark Reviewed by Jason Pettus I recently had the opportunity to watch the movie version of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for the first time (see here for my review of that over at film-nerd social network Letterboxd.com); and I was so blown away by how unexpected, original and surprisingly dark it was, I decided to check out the original novel it was based on from my local library right afterwards. And indeed, the novel is great as well, althou...

American Odd: "Pack of Lies," by Gilbert Sorrentino

A look at peculiar institutions, oddball literary experiments, and reckless rugged individualists. A celebration of American non-conformity. Pack of Lies: a Trilogy By Gilbert Sorrentino Dalkey Archive (1997)* Review by Karl Wolff *Odd Number (1985) Rose Theater (1987) Misterioso (1989) Gilbert Sorrentino (1929 -- 2006) is the undisputed grandmaster of the American postmodern comic novel. I discovered Sorrentino when I read Mulligan Stew, a rollicking epic free-for-all pitting a pretentious...

Book Review: "Korsakoff Blight," by Eddie Wright

Korsakoff Blight By Eddie Wright Self-published Reviewed by Jason Pettus I have a varying amount of tolerance for so-called "bizarro" literature, because of so much of it being so zany and non-narrative, essentially a written version of a cartoon with no stakes or consequences and thus difficult to get engaged in or care about what happens. And Eddie Wright's newest novel, Korsakoff Blight, is a bit guilty of this too; but thankfully he turns in a more grounded story than most other bizarro...

Book Review: "The Inevitable," by Kevin Kelly

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future By Kevin Kelly Viking / Penguin Random House Reviewed by Jason Pettus It was a fascinating experience to read Kevin Kelly's The Inevitable right after tackling Nicholas Carr's Utopia is Creepy , an experience that teaches a lot about why so many other tech writers come and go with the same blazingly fast trendiness of teenage pop singers, while Kelly has been around since literally the 1970s and continues to...

Book Review: "Barney," by Michael Rosenthal

Barney: Grove Press and Barney Rosset, America's Maverick Publisher and His Battle Against Censorship By Michael Rosenthal Arcade Publishing Reviewed by Jason Pettus If there's one person from the annals of 20th-century publishing who deserves to be better remembered than he currently is, that would be Barney Rosset; "founder" of Grove Press (that is, after buying the name from a couple of incompetent academes who only managed to re-release three public domain titles in the two years they we...

Book Review: "Havana: A Subtropical Delirium," by Mark Kurlansky

Havana: A Subtropical Delirium By Mark Kurlansky Bloomsbury USA Reviewed by Jason Pettus Although I enjoyed Mark Kurlansky's newest nonfiction book Havana, I don't actually have a lot to say about it, simply because there's not much to it in the first place; not exactly a travel guide to this capital of Cuba, not exactly a history, and not exactly a memoir, it's instead a curious mix of them all, what you might call a "biographical sketch of a city" in the spirit of Peter Ackroyd's London. A...