danielshankcruz

Real Books Forever! or, Just Say “No” to ebooks

There is a fascinating and disturbing article by Ken Auletta in this week’s (June 25, 2012) New Yorker about the current legal face-offs between amazon.com and six large publishing companies in the U.S. (Random House, Penguin, Macmillan, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster). Basically, Apple created a deal with the publishers to fix their ebookContinue reading “Real Books Forever! or, Just Say “No” to ebooks”

Theodora Keogh’s The Fascinator

Theodora Keogh’s 1954 novel The Fascinator is a stylistic departure from many of her other novels in that it follows numerous characters closely instead of one or two, and in that the climax occurs on the very last page rather than allowing room (sometimes too much room) for a denoument. The book is a slow,Continue reading “Theodora Keogh’s The Fascinator”

Euro 2012 Quarterfinals Preview

The first round of Euro 2012 ended today with England beating Ukraine 1-0 and France losing to Sweden 2-0. England thus advance to the quarterfinals as the winners of Group D with France in second. The English victory was a stereotypically English display–defend, defend, defend, and score on a set piece. Wayne Rooney had a goodContinue reading “Euro 2012 Quarterfinals Preview”

Euro 2012: The Somewhat Surprising “Group of Death”

Euro 2012’s Group B, the “Group of Death,” concluded today with Portugal and Germany notching 2-1 victories against Holland and Denmark, respectively. Germany very impressively took the full nine points to win the group and Portugal finished second with six, with their only loss 1-0 to the Germans. Portugal have looked better every match theyContinue reading “Euro 2012: The Somewhat Surprising “Group of Death””

Books Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh

Keogh, Theodora. The Fascinator. New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1954. —. My Name is Rose. 1956. New York: Signet, 1958. —. The Tattooed Heart. 1953. New York: Signet, 1954. Theodora Keogh is my latest literary obsession, so I’ve been buying her out-of-print books on amazon.com as I find them (several of her novels haveContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Theodora Keogh”

Euro 2012: Group A Craziness

Euro 2012’s Group A ended today in surprising, fairly exciting fashion. The Czech Republic beat Poland 1-0 and Greece did the same to Russia, so the Czechs won the group with six points and Greece finished second with four points because their victory today gave them the tiebreaker over Russia, who also ended with four points.Continue reading “Euro 2012: Group A Craziness”

Euro 2012: The Situation After The Penultimate Group Matches

With only one set of first-round matches left, Euro 2012 is shaping up as a very exciting tournament. Only two teams, Ireland (who I picked to get to the second round, oops!) and Sweden, have been eliminated, and no team has guaranteed a berth in the quarterfinals, which means that all eight final group gamesContinue reading “Euro 2012: The Situation After The Penultimate Group Matches”

Books Acquired Recently: Giannina Braschi

Braschi, Giannina. Empire of Dreams. Trans. Tess O’Dwyer. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. —. United States of Banana. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. —. Yo-Yo Boing! 1998. Trans. Tess O’Dwyer. Las Vegas: AmazonCrossing, 2011. I hadn’t heard of Giannina Braschi until about a month ago when I received an email from amazon.com in my school account (notContinue reading “Books Acquired Recently: Giannina Braschi”

Euro 2012: The First Round of Matches

All 16 teams have now played one match at Euro 2012, and it has been a rather entertaining tournament thus far. Here are some thoughts on each of the groups: Group A Poland were lucky to escape with a draw against Greece in a crazy match that saw both sides reduced to ten men andContinue reading “Euro 2012: The First Round of Matches”

Theodora Keogh’s Meg

I just finished reading Theodora Keogh’s 1950 novel Meg, which is about the eponymous protagonist’s struggles with her entrance into womanhood in the year before she turns thirteen. I am generally not a fan of books that are primarily about children (two major exceptions are Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and MiriamContinue reading “Theodora Keogh’s Meg”