Notes of a Defeatist

Every summer my friends and I venture down to Chicago for the Wizard World Comic Con to gorge ourselves on all the pop culture we can find. Without fail every year a good amount of time gets spent checking out the DIY projects of many of the creators in Artist Alley.

The talent pool is [...]

[Read more →]

A lost world, forgery, Norse mythology, ninjas, a celebration and a murder mystery are all apart of Dustin Long’s first novel Icelander, which was published by McSweeneys earlier this year. It has been aptly called “A Nabokovian goof on Agatha Christie; a madcap mystery in the deceptive tradition of The Crying of Lot 49; The [...]

[Read more →]

My first encounter with Colby Buzzell was “The Making of the 21st Century Solider”, an exerpt Esquire ran from Buzzell’s popular blog. What started as a few minutes of late night before bed reading turned into eagerly awaiting the next installment each month. Last fall,Colby Buzzell’s book My War: Killing Time In Iraq was published [...]

[Read more →]

One Sunday wandering through Harry W. Schwartz Bookstore, this caught my eye.

“Davidson…smudges the line between comedy and horror, cruelty and mercy. His remarkable stories are challenging and upsetting… Don’t look for comfort here.” –Chuck Palahniuk

Praise by Palahniuk always gets my attention.

Additional raves by the likes of Bret Easton Ellis, Thom Jones, and Clive [...]

[Read more →]