Jason Pettus's Blog, page 49

The "CCLaP Weekender" for May 30th is here!

This week's edition of our new e-magazine, The CCLaP Weekender released every Friday morning, is now online for your free downloading pleasure. It features a new piece of original fiction by local author Matt Rowan; a photography feature highlighting the work of Scottish artist Bryan M. Ferguson; and our usual look at the upcoming week of local literary events happening all across the city. Use the links below to access it right now.

Right-click here for PDF / Voluntarily donate 99 cents
Onlin...

The NSFW Files: "Matriarchy: Freedom in Bondage," by Malcolm McKesson

(Once a month through 2013, CCLaP staff writer Karl Wolff investigates literature of a more carnal kind with The NSFW Files. Despite being erotic, is there literary value to be found? For all the essays in this
series, please click here.)





Matriarchy: Freedom in Bondage
by Malcolm McKesson
Review by Karl Wolff

Personal History: And here we are at the penultimate entry in the series. Although this entry will be a perfect lead-in to the last entry, Lost Girls, by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie.

I hav...

Book Review: "Aaron's Leap" by Magdaléna Platzová

(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 12 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.)



Aaron's Leap
By Magdaléna Platzová
Bellevue Literary Press
Reviewed by Madeleine Maccar

Magdaléna Platzová's Aaron'...

CCLaP Podcast 113: Joseph G. Peterson

It's Monday Tuesday, which means it's time for another episode of the CCLaP Podcast. Today, it's a one-hour talk with local writer Joseph G. Peterson, a former zinester and now novelist whose newest book is the social-realist hangout story Gideon's Confession. Also featuring the music of Elizabeth Rose and THUMPERS.

Links to the things and people mentioned in today's episode:
Joseph G. Peterson
Gideon's Confession
Storyhead / Factsheet 5
Beautiful Piece
Inside the Whale
Wanted: Elevator Man
Jimmy's W...

The "CCLaP Weekender" for May 23rd is here!

This week's edition of our new e-magazine, The CCLaP Weekender released every Friday morning, is now online for your free downloading pleasure. It features a long interview with local author Giano Cromley (which originally ran in audio form at our podcast last month); a photography feature highlighting the work of Russian artist Masha Demianova; and our usual look at the upcoming week of local literary events happening all across the city. Use the links below to access it right now.

Right-cli...

It's release day for "Love Songs of the Revolution!"

Exciting news around here today -- CCLaP's fourth original book of 2014 has just been released! It's called Love Songs of the Revolution by a Los Angeles writer named Bronwyn Mauldin, and is a real departure for us; it's our first-ever spy thriller, as a matter of fact, although with this being CCLaP, you can rest assured that it's an unusually literary, unusually intelligent spy thriller, something much more along the lines of John Le Carre instead of Tom Clancy. But here, I'll just let you...

The CCLaP Weekender for May 16th is here!

This week's edition of our new e-magazine, The CCLaP Weekender released every Friday morning, is now online for your free downloading pleasure. It features a new piece of fiction by local author Thomas Simmons; a photography feature highlighting the work of Italian artist Tiberio Frascari; and our usual look at the upcoming week of local literary events happening all across the city. Use the links below to access it right now.

Right-click here for PDF / Voluntarily donate 99 cents
Online versi...

Book Review: "Above All Men," by Eric Shonkwiler

(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.)



Above All Men
By Eric Shonkwiler
Midwest Gothic Press
Reviewed by Karl Wolff

Set in a post-collapse America only...

CCLaP Rare: "Portnoy's Complaint" by Philip Roth (1969), First Edition First Printing

(CCLaP is now selling rare and unusual books through the main website, shipped to customers through USPS Priority Mail and with full refunds always guaranteed. To see the latest full list of volumes for sale, please click here).

Portnoy's Complaint
By Philip Roth (1969)
First Edition, First Printing

DESCRIPTION: So out of all the intellectual novels of the countercultural era (being defined here as the decade between Kennedy's death and Nixon's resignation), which is the singlemost important of t...

All Who Wander: "The Fall" by Albert Camus

(Throughout 2014, CCLaP cultural essayist Madeleine Maccar is looking at the classic definition of the "hero's journey," as seen through a series of international texts that she is reading in English translation. For all the essays in this series, please click here.)



The Fall
By Albert Camus
Vintage International
Review by Madeleine Maccar

There is a degree of self-aware humility I've come to expect from my heroes that Albert Camus's Jean-Baptiste Clamence doesn't immediately personify in his firs...