Legendary historian and author Donald Zagoria passed on at 97 years young earlier this month. He's survived by his son, basketball and tennis journalist Adam Zagoria, and books including Vietnam Triangle: Moscow, Peking, Hanoi. In 1976, Donald had a chance to discuss China on Firing Line with William F. Buckley. Rest in peace, Donald Zagoria.
Alex Kudera’s award-winning novel, Fight for Your Long Day (Atticus Books), was drafted in a walk-in closet during a summer in Seoul, South Korea. Auggie’s Revenge (Beating Windward Press) is his second novel. His numerous short stories include “Frade Killed Ellen” (Dutch Kills Press), “Bombing from Above” (Heavy Feather Review), and “A Thanksgiving” (Eclectica Magazine).
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Friday, September 19, 2025
Do stories have something to say?
“Do stories, apart from happening, being, have something to say? For all my skepticism, some trace of irrational superstition did survive in me, the strange conviction, for example, that everything in life that happens to me also has a sense, that it means something, that life speaks to us about itself through its story, that it gradually reveals a secret, that it takes the form of a rebus whose message must be deciphered, that the stories we live compromise the mythology of our lives and in that mythology lies the key to truth and mystery. Is it an illusion? Possibly, even probably, but I can’t rid myself of the need continually to decipher my own life.”
~~ from The Joke by Milan Kundera
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Thursday, September 4, 2025
Auggie's Revenge and Fight for Your Long Day
affordable copies
Why pay less when spending more is so easy and free? Right. In other words, if anyone would like a shipped paperback copy of Auggie...
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In theory, a book isn't alive unless it's snuggled comfortably in the reading bin in the bathroom at Oprah's or any sitting Pres...
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Reading Little White Duck: A Childhood in China led me to Wuhan, China, a large sprawling city dissected by a huge river that Chairman Mao ...
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It's always a bit disappointing to see these somewhat simplistic articles get a shiny new website when my more developed and nuanced n...
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I'm happy to announce that I'll be reading from " Frade Killed Ellen " or Auggie's Revenge at 3 p.m. as part of an ...
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And, finally, near the end of Journey , Celine arrives at his Slovak beauty, a far cry from the meth-infested psychotic " no-neck Slova...
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Here's another article about American companies recruiting overseas to find capable workers--in this case, in manufacturing jobs. Toget...
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I enjoyed reading Patrick Wensink's article in Men's Health on Christmas tree salesmen , and it also reminded me of the short, spar...
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Here's Dave Newman's essay on trucking, teaching, writing, and surviving in America.
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"The bookshelf was an immediate giveaway — every Weatherman read Malcolm X , the poetry of Ho Chi Minh, Amical Cabral , and Mari Sandoz...
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An excerpt from and a book review of Auggie's Revenge appears in the June 2017 issue of the European academic journal American, Briti...