Tag Archives: nonfiction

Gail Holst-Warhaft’s Road To Rembetika

Judith Gennett wrote this review. Sometime during the late nineties our radio station in Texas received an archival rembetika CD from Rounder Records. It all sounded Greek to me, but then I began to read the lyrics. Pick-pockets, jail, knife … Continue reading

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Jeff Evans’ Midsomer Murders: The Making of an English Crime Classic

As I noted in my review of the first set of Midsomer Murders DVDs, which Acorn Media has released here in the States: Midsomer Murders series is based on the novels by Caroline Graham, with scripts written by some of … Continue reading

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Christyne Berzsenyi’s Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry With Resistant Responders

Christyne Berzsenyi’s Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry With Resistant Responders looks at the classic series in a detailed analytical light. Books about Columbo are nothing new, but the depth of this book serves well to prove that the series can … Continue reading

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Brian Murphy’s The Root of Wild Madder

It’s hard to miss the design on the dust jacket of this book. It’s a wraparound photograph of a Persian carpet, cropped so that the selvedges line up with the top and bottom edges of the jacket and the fringes … Continue reading

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Merritt Ruhlen’s The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue

Being the purist that I am, I wince when people talk about the evolution of this, the evolution of that – evolution has nothing to do with automobile design or cell phones or political systems. It is, however, a legitimate … Continue reading

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William E. Deal’s Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan

If the title sounds daunting, don’t be worried. William E. Diehl’s Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan is a well-organized and eminently usable reference to the history, arts, and customs of Japan from 1185, the beginning of … Continue reading

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Various Authors on Where Writing and Gaming Meet

My recent nonfiction reading has tended to be driven by the fact that as a writer and gamer, I’m always looking for new tools to put into my virtual toolbox. Here’s three recent reads aimed in that direction. Beating the … Continue reading

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David Peterson’s The Art of The Mouse Guard: 2005 – 2015

Without doubt, the Mouse Guard series is one of the best illustrated graphic novel series I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience. It certainly ranks up with Bill Willingham’s Fables, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and G. Willow Wilson’s Air for creating … Continue reading

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Audrey Isabel Taylor‘s Patricia A. McKillip and the Art of Fantasy World-Building

We’ve reviewed damn near every book that Patricia A. Mckillip has published over the many decades she’s been writing. Indeed the editing team is updating the special edition we did on her so that it can be republished this Autumn, as … Continue reading

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Alan Trist and David Dodd’s The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics

I’m Uncle Sam that’s who I am / Been hidin’ out in a rock and roll band — ‘U.S. Blues’ by Robert Hunter What’s your favourite Dead song? Do you have a fair idea of what the lyrics for that song … Continue reading

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