Reviews and Comments

A 600+ page tour de force of historical fiction. A real education on the lives of immigrants from all over Asia and beyond during the tumultuous period of 1968-1977. Each year features a new cast, but they all revolve around the I Hotel in SF’s Chinatown. Wisened old timers mix with idealistic and determined twenty somethings, on a quest to protect what’s theirs in a land where the cards are stacked against them. Really engaging. An important read.

A quick, short read. Mostly transcripts of conversations, plus a few short essays. The conversation with Dan Ellsberg and Ed Snowdon was pretty riveting. Thumbs up.

Essays and conversations in which Roy and Cusack reflect on their meeting with Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden in 2014.

Very much looking forward to this one.

This yearly collection of award-winning poetry, fiction, essays and memoirs is always a great read.

This copy of Amy Beal’s history of American experimental music in Germany was owned by Tom Verlaine. I purchased it from a Brooklyn book store. :-)

This copy of Garcia Lorca’s poems was owned by Tom Verlaine. I purchased it from a Brooklyn book store. :-)

Another set of semi-autobiographical stories originally published in one magazine or another. I find Joan Didion’s writing to have a mysterious pull on me. Almost mesmerizing in its phrasing, its stories pulled from her life, about things both mundane and surreal. I found this set to be slightly less compelling than that of Slouching Towards Bethlehem, but I was grateful to read it nonetheless.

One of the key scholars of the Intellectual Left in Britain, Stuart Hall wrote on culture, class, race, representation and politics.

I adore her writing. Really looking forward to this one.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. I think her argument has value, which is to say that the Left tends to leave stirring the electorate’s passions to the far right, which is why they sometimes have difficulty getting people to the polls. At times, I felt that her phrasing was overly formal and it made me feel like I was taking a graduate course in Political Science. At other times though, the text was more accessible and enjoyable. Overall, a good introduction to her writing.

Mouffe’s latest is a call to combine the struggles against authoritarianism with the struggle to save the planet. A new author for me. Looking forward to it.