Clik here to view.
The Minnesota State Fair
The Agriculture Horticulture building at the Minnesota State Fair, August 28, 2026. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor) It’s the end of August, which means it’s time for one of my favorite things: the Minnesota...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf (1929)
Since Virginia Woolf’s domination of The Guardian’s list of the 100 best novels of all-time—she scored 5 books on the list—I’ve thought “I should read more of her work.” I picked up A Room of One’s Own...
View ArticleBook Review: My Impressions of the Wolfe Family and of Maxwell Perkins, by...
William B. Wisdom is an important figure in Thomas Wolfe studies, as it was Wisdom that purchased Wolfe’s papers and manuscripts after Wolfe’s death and donated them to Harvard University. Two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: The Table Talk of Thomas Wolfe, by William B. Wisdom (1988)
The Table Talk of Thomas Wolfe is a slim volume, written by William B. Wisdom and published by the Thomas Wolfe Society in 1988. Among Thomas Wolfe fans, William B. Wisdom is an exalted figure. It was...
View ArticleBook Review: Thomas Wolfe, by C. Hugh Holman, University of Minnesota...
American author Thomas Wolfe's status in American literature was at a high level in 1960. That year, when Wolfe was profiled for the University of Minnesota's "Pamphlets on American Writers" series,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bob Horner 1958-2026
A week ago, I started reading Robert Whiting's book You Gotta Have Wa.Published in 1989, the book is an examination of baseball in Japan, and how American players adjusted to playing in Japan. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Movie Review: Farewell, Friend starring Alain Delon and Charles Bronson (1968)
Charles Bronson and Alain Delon. This picture just radiates coolness.If you put French icon Alain Delon and American tough guy Charles Bronson together, you would expect some serious fireworks on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Movie Review: Sweet Smell of Success, starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster...
Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster in Sweet Smell of Success, 1957Sweet Smell of Success, starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster, is a classic film noir portrait of New York City in the 1950’s. Despite...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Bloom County the Complete Library Volume 1: 1980-1982 (2009)
When I was 7 years old, in 1988, I could open the funny pages and read Peanuts, by Minnesota’s own Charles Schulz, Garfield, by Jim Davis, which was permeating pop culture in a way few comic strips...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Movie Review: Le Cercle Rouge, starring Alain Delon and Yves Montand,...
Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1970 heist movie Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle) is often described as a masterpiece of French crime cinema. Le Cercle Rouge stars Alain Delon, Yves Montand, Gian Maria Volonte,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Meeting Miss Scarlet
My favorite movie of all-time is the 1985 classic Clue. I’ve seen it more times than I can count, and it’s been my favorite movie since I was a kid. Watching and re-watching it on VHS was a core...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki...
Haruki Murakami’s novel Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage was first published in 2013, and in an English translation by Philip Gabriel in 2014. The novel tells the story of Tsukuru...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Clock Without Hands, a novel by Carson McCullers (1961)
Clock Without Hands, published in 1961, was Carson McCullers’ final novel. McCullers died in 1967, at the young age of 50. Rheumatic fever had weakened her heart, and it was clear from early in her...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Reflections in a Golden Eye, by Carson McCullers (1941)
Carson McCullers burst onto the literary scene in June 1940, with the publication of her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. McCullers was only 23 years old when the novel was published, and she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers (1951)
Carson McCullers’ novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe was first published in the magazine Harper’s Bazaar in 1943, then collected in a 1951 book that also collected McCullers’ other novels as well....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: The Member of the Wedding, a novel by Carson McCullers (1946)
The Member of the Wedding was Carson McCullers’ third novel. Published in 1946, the slim volume tells the story of Frankie Addams, a precocious 12-year-old who is obsessed with her brother’s upcoming...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Movie Review: EPiC-Elvis Presley in Concert, Directed by Baz Luhrmann (2025)
While director Baz Luhrmann was researching his 2022 biopic about Elvis Presley, titled simply Elvis, he discovered numerous rolls of film that were shot for the 1970 documentary Elvis: That’s the Way...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Novelist as a Vocation, by Haruki Murakami (2015, English...
The Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has had a long and successful career since publishing his first novel in 1979. Murakami seldom makes public pronouncements, but in 2015 he published a book about...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Album Review: Northbound to Finch, by Maria Kaushansky (2025)
Northbound to Finch is the debut album from talented jazz pianist Maria Kaushansky. Released in October of 2025, the album features 9 of Kaushansky’s original compositions, along with 6 alternate takes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book Review: Attack the Lusitania! by Raymond Hitchcock (1979)
Attack the Lusitania! is a historical novel written by Raymond Hitchcock. The British passenger liner RMS Lusitania was one of the fastest and most luxurious ships of its day. The Lusitania was...
View Article
![[-100%] Commodity Intelligence – (Android Apps)](http://play-lh.googleusercontent.com/j67-qJvmnn4xnVlYVZ9ZhtZUJIgwjKekJGoKQT6D1KHcWGZxtQaFroummEvwV17na7tyh1pGbbeWCRdWtTKqeg=w950-h950)