Category Archives: Books

Oh You Roue

‎ “The only horrible thing in the world is ennui, Dorian. That is the one sin for which there is no forgiveness.” Lord Henry Wotton explains to a young Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY

THE BIGGEST BEAR by Lynd Ward

THE BIGGEST BEAR was published in 1952. The illustrated children’s book lovingly described the story of a young boy befriending an orphan bear in the Maine woods. Johnny Orchard’s bear grew to an epic size and ate everything in sight. Faced with the choice of killing his friend Johnny Orchard’s bear is saved by a […]

THE MAGUS by John Fowles

Everyone is planning summer holidays. People ask me where to go, since I have been many places. Camille from the diamond exchange was wavering between Morocco and Turkey. I had been to neither, but heard Morocco was a hassle and Istanbul was a gem on the Bosphorus. “Thanks for the info.” Camilli was the queen […]

NO LAST NAMES by Joan Ellis

I love the cover of this book. A room with a view. 42nd Street or the Barbary Coast in San Francisco. Nothing like the Fortune Club or Lucky’s Bar exist anymore. The author of these books was Julie Ellis. She churned out hundreds of pulp sleaze, supposedly one a week. Acording to vintagesleazepaperbacks.blogspot.com a website […]

MAYBE TOMORROW on Kindle

Several years ago I went to a Nan Goldin show at the Whitney Museum with a Park Avenue divorcee. Claudia came from a good Philadelphia famiily and the black and white photos were a shock to her upper-class sensibilities. “These people look so tragic.” Her assessment of Nan Goldin’s subjects was true, but I knew […]