The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne Notice the novel is titled “Life and Opinions….” not… Read more Tristram Shandy
Author: Rick
My life-long passion is in the arts: music, theater, visual arts, and literature. I graduated from Cal Arts in 1985 with a degree in music composition. After a career in Human Resources with the AIDS Project Los Angeles and as a parish minister for Unitarian Universalist churches in the Los Angeles area, I retired in 2025 and pursued my artistic work: drawing, painting, composing, and creative writing.
Notes from Underground
Notes from Underground by Feodor Dostoyevsky I’m reading some of the selections in a book I’ve had on my shelf… Read more Notes from Underground
The Death of Ivan Ilych
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy I read Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice last week. The edition I… Read more The Death of Ivan Ilych
Quatrefoil
Quatrefoil by James Barr James Fugate wrote Quatrefoil, under the pseudonym James Barr, in 1950. It’s not a great novel.… Read more Quatrefoil
Death in Venice
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann After reading Memories of My Melancholy Whores (Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 90 year-old man, 14… Read more Death in Venice
Lolita
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov One of the greats. And one of my all time favorites. I’ve read the book three… Read more Lolita
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez This is the last work of fiction published by Marquez. It… Read more Memories of My Melancholy Whores
I am Michael Alago
I am Michael Alago: Breathing Music, Signing Metallica, Beating Death by Michael Alago with Laura Davis-Chanin Michael Alago is one… Read more I am Michael Alago
Shuggie Bain
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart “Shuggie” is Hugh Bain, a boy growing up in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1980s. Clearly,… Read more Shuggie Bain
The Great Eastern
The Great Eastern by Howard A. Rodman An ingenious and very fun book bringing 19th century fictional Captains Ahab and… Read more The Great Eastern