"Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America" by Garry Wills
Region: United States
Wills evokes the stink of the corpses, some barely covered at the time of this historic dedication: A nurse shuddered at the all-too-visible "rise and swell of human bodies" in these furrows war had plowed.... ... more
Views: 739"Transformations II: Understanding American History Through Science Fiction" Edited by Dan
Region: New York
I found this absurd book in my garage, and read it mostly because it's very light to carry on the bus. (It's designed for witless high school students, and has questions after each story such as: 1. How do the cha... more
Views: 1083"Poèmes saturniens, suivi de Fêtes galantes" de Paul Verlaine
Region: New York
Verlaine offers numerous gardens, women, mandolins, troubled skies -- but I have never had the feeling so strongly in a book of poems (possibly augmented by the language being not mine) that the apparent "plots" were irrel... more
Views: 803Morandi
Region: New York
Morandi was the first artist to express the solemnity of vases. He chose his subjects with extreme care. They had to look almost like chess pieces. His empty bottles and cubes are entirely useless, arranged unnatu... more
Views: 683"Viva la Difference: Poetry Inspired by the Painting of Peter Saul"
Region: New York
First of all, notice that the third word of the title lacks an accent mark, rendering it English rather than French. This book (magazine?) (anthology?) has a simple plan: to show a single painting by a single artist -- Pet... more
Views: 741"Prater Violet" by Christopher Isherwood
Region: New York
Prater Violet is the best book about being Jewish (except perhaps for Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl...) Also, it's the finest Isherwood work I've read, and I'm a lover of his words. A Single Man and A Meeting b... more
Views: 745"Not the Same Tramp You Dumped: Poems by Andy Doyle"
Region: New York
I gave a reading at a bookstore in Ithaca, New York, and a smiling fellow approached me, shook my hand and gave me this short book. (I hate the term "chapbook," which is entirely too 18th-century for our current world. We ... more
Views: 748Weegee: Murder Is My Business [International Center of Photography]
Region: New York
Weegee's tenure as a crime photographer was relatively brief -- only 11 years. He was uneducated, in almost every sense, but also smart. In this show, we see him see him gradually discovering that photography is art. One s... more
Views: 1225"Sexuality and the Psychology of Love" by Sigmund Freud
Region: New York
I noticed that I privately referred (in my own thoughts) to Sexuality and the Psychology of Love as "that Shakespeare book." Why Shakespeare? Freud teaches us to notice such errors. Gradually I realized: I confused Shakesp... more
Views: 1287Shakespearian Prophecy*[*Concerning Mitt Romney]
Region: New York
Bain will be the bane of Mitt's campaign. more
Views: 818
Member Since: December 2006
Location: New York
Rating:
# of Articles: 246
Website: www.softskull.com
Sparrow avoids refined sugar and National Geographic magazine, but he enjoys all jokes, including:
Tourist: Excuse me, but do you have a pumpkin patch?
Farmer: Why, do you have a leaky pumpkin?
His latest book is America: A Prophecy -- The Sparrow Reader (www.softskull.com).
Contact Reporter
