Books | Thursday, November 18,2004

Winged messenger: Going postal with Terry Pratchett

Please allow me to introduce Mr. Moist von Lipwig, hero of Going Postal, Terry Pratchett's latest novel in his Discworld series. But before we go any further, a confession: I am a Pratchett lat

Books | Thursday, November 4,2004

The first George W.

By Corrine Frisch

First initial, last name. More than six feet tall. In his early 20s he made a name for himself in battle, but accounts of his heroism would later be questioned. Well-born, he nevertheless incre

Books | Thursday, October 28,2004

Unwrapping herself and finding the heart within

By Corrine Frisch

The last poem in Springfield poet Siobhan Pitchford's new book, Through the Longing Daze, employs a pun in its title: "At Daze End." The poems preceding it are much concerned with the comings a

Books | Thursday, October 7,2004

An eye for detail brings old Decatur to life

By Corrine Frisch

One hundred years ago, you could get more than a drink of water on Decatur's Water Street. As Dan Guillory notes in Decatur, a photographic history of Springfield's neighbor to the east, the th

Books | Thursday, September 2,2004

Before and after the fall

By Corrine Frisch

"Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on, testing that strange little tug at his shoulder blade, and think of that first flawless moment over the lawn of the labyrinth. Think of the diff

Books | Thursday, August 12,2004

Rally ’round the books, boys

By Corrine Frisch

"'Arbolist' ... Look up the word. I don't know, maybe I made it up. Anyway, it's an arbo-tree-ist, somebody who knows about trees." -- President George W. Bush, USA Today, Aug. 21, 2001 Little

Books | Thursday, July 22,2004

Paging Elvis and other rock & roll fantasies

By Corrine Frisch

Did King James I commission Shakespeare to translate the Psalms for the now-famous version of the Bible? A case is made for that transaction in R. Gary Patterson's new book about rock & rol

Books | Thursday, July 1,2004

Remembering what it means to be human

By Theodore Haddin

No one who reads the remarkable new poems by John Knoepfle can fail to be touched by their penetrating strength. If poems from the sangamon (1985) brought history up out of the Midwest, this on

Books | Thursday, June 24,2004

The politics of war

By Corrine Frisch

Political potboilers have always scored high on summer-reading lists, and Bush's War for Reelection: Iraq, the White House, and the People seems to qualify. Written by investigative reporter Ja

Books | Thursday, June 3,2004

A capital crime in the capital city

By Phil Funkenbusch

In her last book, Nine Nights on the Windy Tree, Martha Miller introduced Bertha Brannon, a Springfield lawyer who finds herself involved in a mystery. It was a good read, and I was looking for