There’s a fantastic story by Bryan Curtis on grantland.com about Marv Albert’s childhood preparations to become a sports announcer here. It’s essential reading for anyone who cares about sports media. I knew that Albert was quite young when he began calling Knicks games, but I didn’t realize he began when he was only 21! IContinue reading “Marv Albert!”
Author Archives: danielshankcruz
Books Acquired Recently
Atwood, Margaret. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. 2011. New York: Anchor, 2012. I ordered this book at Rocky Mountain MLA last month, and it arrived yesterday. I enjoy Atwood’s fiction and her germinal book on Canadian literature, Survival, and I have been reading more and more science fiction (the “SF” of theContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Books Acquired Recently
Cortázar, Julio. Hopscotch. 1963. Trans. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Pantheon, 1966. I will be teaching Ana Castillo’s The Mixquiahuala Letters next semester, and its blurb claims that it is inspired by Cortázar’s novel. So I thought I would read it as research for teaching Castillo. Hopscotch is nearly 600 pages long in the edition I bought,Continue reading “Books Acquired Recently”
Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton
I just finished reading Salman Rushdie’s new memoir Joseph Anton, which is primarily about the years after the fatwa was issued against his life in 1989 in response to the publication of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie writes eloquently about his most depressing emotional moments during the thirteen years when he had to live under police protection, but he also offersContinue reading “Salman Rushdie’s Joseph Anton”
Book Acquired Recently: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Amis, Kingsley. Lucky Jim. 1953. New York: New York Review, 2012. I first became interested in acquiring this novel after reading a post about it at A Little Blog of Books and Other Stuff. Shortly thereafter, I saw that New York Review Books had just come out with a new edition. I love NYRB’s booksContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis”
Thoughts on Chelsea-Manchester United: Reds Lucky Yet Deserving
Manchester United’s 3-2 win at Chelsea today involved some beautiful soccer and quite a bit of controversy in the second half. Here is my take on the three crucial officiating decisions midway through the second half when the match was tied 2-2: 1. Branislav Ivanovic’s red card for taking down Ashley Young was the correctContinue reading “Thoughts on Chelsea-Manchester United: Reds Lucky Yet Deserving”
Books Acquired Recently: Desk Copy Edition
Baldwin, James. Another Country. 1962. New York: Vintage, 1993. I will be teaching Baldwin’s and Castillo’s novels in my Introduction to Literature course next semester. Another Country has been one of my favorite books since I first read it three years ago, and I have finally decided to teach it despite its length. At 436Continue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Desk Copy Edition”
Alfred Slote’s Jake
There’s a new short film on grantland.com by Jonathan Hock about Alfred Slote’s children’s novel Jake, with a great introduction by Bill Simmons here. Like Simmons, I read Jake and one of Slote’s other novels, Hang Tough, Paul Mather, over and over as a boy. They were perfect because they used baseball, something which IContinue reading “Alfred Slote’s Jake”
Book Acquired Recently: Juan Pablo Villalobos’s Down the Rabbit Hole
Villalobos, Juan Pablo. Down the Rabbit Hole. 2010. Trans. Rosalind Harvey. New York: Farrar, 2012. Last night I attended a reading by the Mexican novelist Juan Pablo Villalobos (who was educated in Spain and now lives in Brazil), his first ever in the United States. He read from Down the Rabbit Hole, a 70-page novellaContinue reading “Book Acquired Recently: Juan Pablo Villalobos’s Down the Rabbit Hole”
Richard Hugo’s Poetry
I just finished reading through Richard Hugo’s Selected Poems, and the collection is an excellent one. I love the sense of place in Hugo’s poems, whether he is out in nature fishing, or sitting in a small town cafe, or writing about his travels in Italy, or describing his life in Montana. In “Letter toContinue reading “Richard Hugo’s Poetry”
Daniel Shank Cruz 