It is 1939, just prior to the outbreak of World War 2. A young Australian woman and her baby make the near impossible journey to Armenia to find the baby’s father. It is a journey based on love, and romantic…
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A Review of Screenteen Writers by Christina Hamlett
A Review of Screenteen Writers by Christina Hamlett By the end of this book, readers should have a nicely paced, ready for submission screenplay, along which a much better understanding of what it takes to produce, and sell a screenplay.…
A Review of The Empty Cafe by Michael Hoffman
All Hoffman’s stories show events occurring on a plane different from the one that we occupy. And they concern truths that have their own imperatives. However much this demands of the reader, this strange world is in the hands of…
Interview with Anthony Bourdain
A Cook’s Tour talks about the pleasures of talking about himself, about being accepted as a guru by the business community, context and memory, the perfect meal, Vietnam, and more.
Interview with Chad Hautmann, author of Billie’s Ghost
The author of Billie’s Ghost talks about his his novel, his research, the process of getting published, about the relationship between teaching literature, and writing it, and his big literary influences. Interview by Magdalena Ball Magdalena: Tell me about the background…
A Review of Billie’s Ghost by Chad Hautmann
Chad Hautmann has chosen a difficult subject for this book. A story of the pain and heartache at the loss of someone we love and the long road back to life among the living. He does this with gut-wrenching descriptions…
A Review of A Cook’s Tour by Anthony Bourdain
Does the idea of eating a still beating cobra heart and following it up with a blood chaser appeal to you? How about a potentially deadly puffer fish? Lamb gonads? Tete de veau (sweetbread stuffed calves face)? An old rubbery iguana? Birds nest soup? What about a sublime 20 course meal at The French Laundry in Napa Valley Ca, or roasted bone marrow at St. John restaurant, London. A Cook’s Tour is partly a foodie’s book, covering both the delectable and the disgusting, and it is also a travel book, tracing Boudain’s course through Tokyo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Portugal, Spain, France, Morocco, Russia, Mexico, California, Scotland, and England.
A Review of Abaza by Louis Nowra
This approach frees the narrative from the mainstream pattern of beginning, middle and end. In some ways this is no different from the controlled narrative disclosures of such books as John Banville’s Eclipse or Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. But there is in the case…
Interview with Loubna Haikal, author of Seducing Mr Maclean
In this frank interview with The Compulsive Reader, Loubna Haikal talks about the migrant experience, about the nameless main character of her novel Seducing Mr Maclean, the research she did for the book, about writing with a Lebanese accent, the…
A Review of Seducing Mr Maclean by Loubna Haikal
educing Mr Maclean is full of lush descriptions about Lebanese culture, dancing, music, and in particular, food (you’ll be craving hummous, baclava, and halva for weeks after reading it). It is an enjoyable and funny read which touches on an important…