You may remember Dave Holmes as the guy who came in second place in MTV’s first Wannabe a VJ contest to Jesse Camp, but managed to walk away with a job at the network anyway. I certainly remember him from those days, when his affable demeanor made him a lot more accessible than anyone else … More Party of One: a Memoir in 21 Songs, by Dave Holmes: Book Review
If you’re looking for a book that will make you incredibly mad at the healthcare system, this is the novel for you. If you’re already mad or have been burned by America’s healthcare system, there’s a chance this novel could be a fist-pumping endorsement of your experience–except how could a novel about a young mother … More Alice & Oliver, by Charles Bock: Book Review
“History is the error we are forever correcting.” The Tsar of Love and Techno is a series of interlocked stories spanning generations in Russia, Siberia, and Chechnya. It starts with a bang, telling stories of a Soviet censor who paints his brother, who was executed and whose existence was wiped out by the government, into … More The Tsar of Love and Techno, by Anthony Marra: Book Review
“The human eye senses movement before all else.” There’s a downside to writing a novel that hinges on some mysterious past event. On the one hand, if you don’t provide any answers your audience will be frustrated and rake you over the coals for lacking closure. On the other hand, oftentimes the answers never live … More All the Birds, Singing, by Evie Wyld: Book Review
“Love of life is born of the awareness of death, of the dread of it.” This book is lucky I didn’t throw it across the room in frustration. In fact, the only reason this didn’t become the third book in history to hold that dubious distinction is that my husband was asleep in bed next … More The Spy Who Loved Me, by Ian Fleming: Book Review
Just like last time, this one is easy because the short story “Quantum of Solace” has absolutely nothing to do with the film adaptation aside from the title. The plots have no intersection, no similarities, and the only character who appears in both is James Bond himself. Let’s take a quick look at how they … More James Bond in Quantum of Solace: Book vs Movie
This is super easy because the short story “From a View to a Kill” has absolutely nothing to do with the movie “A View to a Kill.” They basically just coopted the title, dropped the word ‘from,’ and called it good. There are literally no similarities between both other than that title and the presence … More James Bond in A View to a Kill: Book vs Movie
This comparison is actually going to be easy, because unlike the adaptations we’ve already covered For Your Eyes Only took its inspiration from a short story. In order to flesh out the plot a bit, producers decided to fuse “For Your Eyes Only” with another story from the same collection entitled “Risico.” Let’s take a closer … More James Bond in For Your Eyes Only: Book vs Movie
Goldfinger is perhaps James Bond’s most popular adventure on film, but you may remember that the book left me cold. To be honest, I also find the film to be dated and silly, so I happen to go against popular opinion there. For the most part, the film adaptation stays fairly true to the book. … More James Bond in Goldfinger: Book vs. Movie
“It’s just that I’d rather die of drink than of thirst.” SMERSH, the Soviet spy organization that was the main villain in the early Bond books, has died an alarmingly sudden, anticlimactic death. Based on an actual organization whose name was coined by Josef Stalin himself, SMERSH had been officially shuttered in 1946, long before … More Thunderball, by Ian Fleming: Book Review
Supposedly Fun 