Category Archives: Books

Peter S. Beagle’s Return

As you’ve no doubt heard many times here at GMR, there is something unique about the writing of Peter S. Beagle. There’s a “can’t quite put your finger on it” quality that is, perhaps, equal parts simple, uninflected narration, universes … Continue reading

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Peter S. Beagle’s Giant Bones

Peter S. Beagle does not do sequels. He says. He is also one of the two fantasy writers I know who quite blithely admits that his universe-building is more than a little haphazard, just enough to hang the story on. … Continue reading

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Andrew Cartmel’s The Run-Out Groove (The Vinyl Detective #2)

The second in the Vinyl Detective series, The Run-Out Groove is as much shaggy dog story as it is detective novel. Yes, there’s death, attempted murder by burning alive, and all sorts of other dark and violent goings-on, but the … Continue reading

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Andrew Cronshaw’s On the Shoulders of the Great Bear (Otavaisen Olkapäillä)

I posed a question to my Portland, Maine, radio audience (I have a weekly show on WMPG) a few years ago concerning the relationship of music and climate. I asked listeners if they thought the sound of any indigenous music … Continue reading

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Joan Greene’s A Chicago Tradition: Hotels and Hospitality; A Chicago Tradition: Marshall Field’s Food and Fashion

Many people don’t realize that Chicago is a major destination for tourists: in the summer, particularly, you are likely to run into people from almost anywhere strolling through the parks, shopping on Michigan Avenue, or investigating our museums and art … Continue reading

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John W. Stamper’s North Michigan Avenue; Jay Pridmore’s Soldier Field

One of the things about living in Chicago — or anywhere, for that matter, I guess — is that unless you take the time to play tourist in your own city, there are things you miss. Particularly in Chicago, which … Continue reading

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Patricia A. McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld 

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld was the first book by Patricia A. McKillip that I ever read. Two things struck me about it: it was different than any other fantasy I had read to that point, most of which were … Continue reading

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Diane Wynne Jones’ Fire & Hemlock

It’s a good solid book with memorable characters and an engrossing plot which got read in one rather long sitting on a cold, rainy afternoon late in October. Several pots of Earl Grey tea and a number of the Kitchen’s … Continue reading

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Kirin Narayan’s Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothill Folktales

Kirin Narayan is an anthropologist who collected these stories in an extended series of interactions with Urmila Devi Sood, a Hindu Indian woman from a the small town of Kangra. Narayan maintains the careful structure of scientific “field work” in … Continue reading

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Ian McDonald’s Cyberabad Days

Tammy Moore oenned this review. In Cyberabad Days, author Ian McDonald returns to the technologically brilliant, parched and i-Dusty India of 2047, an India first visited in his award-winning novel River of Gods. The seven stories collected in this volume follow … Continue reading

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