The Little Room

The Book Pile: Spook Country

2008-07-15T16:56:54Z

I never read William Gibson until his previous book, Pattern Recognition. That book was Gibson's first foray into writing about modern times. I became a fan instantly. It was a brilliantly written book, and Spook Country is no different. The two...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Book Pile: 1 Dead In Attic

2008-07-02T15:11:00Z

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? Chris Rose is a columnist for the Times-Picayune. His book 1 Dead in Attic is a collection of his post-Katrina columns. The city he describes in this book is a battered, broken city, but we all kne...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

10 in 6: The Best Music of 2008(So Far)

2008-06-26T17:39:20Z

Brighter Than Creation's Dark -- Drive-By Truckers The Midnight Organ Fight -- Frightened Rabbit The Odd Couple -- Gnarls Barkley For Emma, Forever Ago -- Bon Iver Parc Avenue -- Plants and Animals Real Emotional Trash -- Stephen Malkmus and Th...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

2008-06-18T14:27:21Z

The idea of a grass-based farm has intrigued me ever since reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. A large portion of the book covers Pollan's experience at Joe Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia. I knew moving to Minnesota would place m...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

A Book Pile Two-Fer: The Omnivore's Dilemma and Run

2008-06-10T20:00:06Z

I've finished two books since my last update. Ann Patchett's Run and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. The premise of Run is simple. One evening the former white mayor of Boston is leaving a political rally with hs two adopted black son...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Clipped: Bill Gross

2008-05-24T13:44:31Z

Jon Taplin pointed his readers to Bill Gross's June 2008 Investment Outlook. This quote calls out the American people and our presidential contenders for fooling ourselves. What this country needs is either a good 5¢ cigar or the reincarnation of...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Song of the Moment

2008-05-17T18:08:31Z

This song has been putting a smile on my face with every listen. Sure, Frightened Rabbit aren't the first band to explore loneliness, horniness, or emptiness in song, just like they aren't the first set of siblings to decide to jam together, but...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Book Pile: City of Saints and Madmen

2008-04-13T21:05:38Z

A blurb of on the back cover of City of Saints and Madmen describes the work as a tapestry. There is no word more fitting for this book. The city referred to in the title is Ambergris, and rather than tell the story of Ambergris in a traditional...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

So The Mix Might Glow

2008-04-02T02:10:01Z

Perhaps you've heard of Muxtape, the latest darling of the musically inclined web crowd. It's a neat interface for sharing your music, mixtape style. The last mixtape I made was for a girl in a Mississippi city three hours away from my home in B...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Song of the Moment

2008-03-25T02:12:21Z

Like a distant Canadian cousin of Blitzen Trapper, this three-piece spins shaggy songs into expansive, genre-bending symphonies. And though last year's too-brief With/Avec EP hinted at Plants and Animals' expansiveness, it didn't fully prepare ...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend