Category Archives: Book and Podcast Reviews

I am Nobody’s Nigger by Dean Atta is the debut collection of his poetry.  I’ll be honest, I haven’t finished reading it yet. I read a couple of the poems every day. More than that, and I’m afraid my brain might explode–these are THAT good!  This is the first time I’ve been compelled to write a review prior to finishing the book.

Dean is British, male, brown skinned, and gay. Many of his poems deal with one or more of these topics. And when they don’t, they are certainly from his unique point of view.  I am none of these things. Yet each of his poems speaks to me. While they are about his individual circumstances, they have universal appeal.  Themes of sex and sexuality, identity (as an individual, a citizen of his country, and a member of a larger global community), education, rights and responsibilities, and the larger social condition feature prominently in his work.

As a poet myself, I struggle daily with trying to find the words to express my own inner turmoil as I make my way through this life. I found myself saying, “Yes!” out loud as I read some of these. He so eloquently hits the nail squarely on the head. Some of them are intimate. All are special.

I first found Dean’s work on the Indie Feed Performance Poetry Podcast.  He performed the title poem and I was completely blown away. He has a number of videos on YouTube and has free albums available at BandCamp.

Here’s the description of this volume from Dean’s site:

Revolutionary, reflective and romantic, I Am Nobody’s Nigger is the powerful debut collection by one of the UK’s finest emerging poets. Exploring race, identity and sexuality, Dean Atta shares his perspective on family, friendship, relationships and London life, from riots to one-night stands.

If you haven’t already guessed, I am a huge fan of Dean’s work. These poems are phenomenal when performed but more importantly, they stand up on their own alone on the page. So well, in fact, that I have to limit myself to just a few at a time…savoring them slowly before moving on to the next.

Salsa Nocturna by Daniel Jose Older

This review is long overdue. I didn’t keep track of how many books or stories I read or listened to in 2012; but this book was one of my favorites. The only stories I loved more, or read more times, were ones I worked on as editor.

This is an interconnected series of short stories by Daniel Jose Older. Besides being a writer, he’s a musician, song writer (both with Ghost Star), and paramedic. He calls New York City home and the love he has for the city, as well as her inhabitants, is evidenced in every word. And those words….swoon. His prose is tight, full of imagery, and wonderfully evocative.

Usually after I finish reading something, I archive it immediately because my kindle has WAY too many things on it waiting to be read. This book is the exception. I’ve read the entire thing twice and some stories more than that. If I had to pick a favorite, it would probably be Magdelena. Or the title story. Or maybe The Collector… See, this is why I keep going back to re-read them.

I suppose I should try to explain the premise of these stories. They are a mix of ghost stories: the supernatural, urban fantasy, and crossing between the worlds of the living and the dead (the dead have their own bureaucracy, if you didn’t already know). There are multiple main characters and the stories sort of oscillate between them. Some are creepier than others (like those damn dolls), some made me cry, and some made me laugh out loud.

His words mambo, pulling you in close to dance you through the story until you are left gasping for air at the end, wondering what just happened and so glad it did.

You can get your copy here. His accidental poem (taken with permission from a tweet of his) is here. And, you can read his blog here.

The title of this podcast is very bad advice.  Do not beware the hairy mango; embrace it in all of it’s strange goodness.

Matthew Sanborn Smith combines flash fiction with what at first listen sounds like the stream-of-consiousness ramblings of the criminally insane in itty-bitty episodes (4-7 minutes) that pack one hell of a punch.  The stories are massive mashups of bizarro, fantasy, science fiction, satire, humor, and just plain silliness.  There is lots of potty humor, sexual inuendos, foul language (or fowl language, who knew ducks talked that way?), puns, and play-on-words ridiculousness.

As someone who normally mainlines podcasts, I’ve had to change my listening behaviour with this podcast.  It has quickly become my favorite mental floss to clean out the detritus left behind in my grey matter by some of the other podcasts I listen to that make me think too much.  This is not a podcast that you will want to listen to all 137 (and counting) episodes at one time.  It’s too high energy, too insane for that.  Instead it is perfect as is…just one or two episodes at a time.  It is like podcast chocolate…so amazingly wonderful a bite or two at a time.

Meanwhile, there have been a lot of episodes that I listen to repeatedly.  For silly stuff, these bits of flash fiction are well crafted and I want to go back to get all the tasty bits I miss in the first listen.  The style is minimalist.  This is not flowery prose and fear not, no adjectives were wasted in the writing here.  This is definitely an acquired taste; but it quickly becomes an addiction.

There are things in life that I love to indulge in.  Things like chocolate, scotch, and hairy mangos.

I read and re-read my thoughts on Steve Parrish’s podcasts. I decided to re-do this review as a result. I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned in the process of attempting to write this is that my first instinct (to only write reviews for things I absolutely love) was right. I tend to run hot and cold with just about everything so when I don’t completely love something I can be overly picky and sometimes downright nasty in my criticism. That’s why I try to avoid criticizing things publicly. I am not a very objective person and that’s not fair to who or what I’m talking about.

The short review is this: if you like dark and twisted horror/fantasy start with Chicken Pi and go from there.

I was asked by S. Lawrence Parrish if I would give a listen to any or all of his podcast fiction. This was the first time anyone has approached me like this and I have to say that it felt pretty awesome to have someone say they wanted me to review their work. I’m not sure how he’ll feel now that I have listened and have finally made up my mind to write a review.

Parrish has three works available for free as podcast fiction at Podiobooks.com: Shape Shifters, Shat, and Chicken Pi. Technically, this is three reviews in one;  I started with Shape Shifters…

To summarize Shape Shifters I would say take your average werewolf story and add some erotica. The erotica was my favorite part of the story.

I had two major issues with the presentation of this story. The first is the way the story is divided not just into chapters but into numbered sections within those chapters. I heard the numbers one through four so often through the podcast that I had no idea where I was in the story. It would have been better to just leave them out and read straight through. The second thing that made this podcast less enjoyable for me was the sound effects.  Simply put, they were too much and too loud.

I think the two negatives cancelled out a lot of good here. I probably would have enjoyed this a lot more otherwise. I’m not a huge fan of werewolf stories but this one was different enough to hold my attention.  It was entertaining enough for me to say give it a listen and see what you think, or, even better, give it a read and then let me know what you think of the story itself.  Shape Shifters is Parrish’s first self published novel (he has been published in many online zines).

Shat was next…

I’m not usually a fan dystopian tales… I read the review on Podiobooks where someone had a tough time with a sodomy scene… I gave this a try anyway knowing that I might be put off by parts of it…

I didn’t make it past the ten minute mark.

This isn’t necessarily a reflection of the writing or the writer…this just wasn’t for me. I’m going to leave it at that. A part of me thinks a ‘real’ reviewer would still have listened to the whole thing and then given their assessment. The fact that I couldn’t do that has a lot to do with why I don’t think I want to do any more reviews.

I did go on to listen to Chicken Pi. Actually, I’m still listening. I have the last two to go at this point. I decided to do the review now because Chicken Pi is an ongoing collection of short stories. I will continue to listen to these and anything else Parrish puts up for our listening enjoyment.

These shorts are categorized as dark, twisted horror. There is truth in advertising here. I still wish he’d tone the sound effects down a bit; they need to sit just under the narration in terms of audio levels for my taste. But aside from that, these are some seriously messed up stories that I have for the most part enjoyed.

On the whole, if you like dark and twisted (and I mean violently and disgustingly at times) you should give Steve Parrish a listen and a read. For me, he’s hit or miss, but that makes sense considering my preferences. I know many folks who should love his stuff. At the very least, give him a try.