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Entertaining Enough
Most top critics seem to like Caught Stealing, a dark comedy crime thriller written by Charlie Huston, directed by Darren Aronofsky, and set in the late 1990s New York City, but I expected, or wanted, more. Henry “Hank” Thompson, a functioning alcoholic bartender, and former high school baseball phenom, who relocated to NYC after losing…
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Encore or Expected?
This week is my first week of retirement, and I’ve been wondering for the last nine months or so what comes next. I certainly understand the appeal of a leisure life. I also believe that I have ten or more potentially productive years. Some suggest that an inevitable professional decline starts sooner than most think…
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More Like a Summer Slurpee
NPR critic Maureen Corrigan suggests that El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott (2025) is one of the better summer suspense novels, but I think it barely qualifies as a beach read. Harper, the youngest of three Bishop sisters, is invited by her older sisters Pam and Deb to join a female financial club that seems…
“There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.”
–Nikki Giovanni