Bookman 📚

@bookman.bsky.social

1633 Followers 965 Following

Been reviewing books for more than 40 years (Booklist, the Winnipeg Free Press, others). Former radio playwright. Bookseller. Amateur smart-ass, hoping to turn pro. Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.

Cover of Them, by W.H. Chizmar.

Poster for World Without End (1956).

Maple the Goldendoodle, lookin' cute.

Poster for the unrated version of 2023's Toxic Avenger.

Cover of Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel.

Cover of DVD set of the Airport movies.

The Sandbaggers title card.

Cover of Split Screen by Lee Goldberg.

Rubbish story from a rubbish FB page claiming renewal of Clarice, which was cancelled several years ago.

Bringing Spamalot, the musical based loosely on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, to the Broadway stage was no easy feat. But it was worth it: the production, written by Python’s Eric Idle and scored by John Du Prez, was a spectacular, Tony Award–winning success. Idle kept a diary, recording the joys, frustrations, and unexpected moments of discovery that came with the process. It is published here exactly as he wrote it: a contemporaneous record of Spamalot’s creation, and it is quite simply wonderful. Spamalot’s success was far from a certainty; Idle had serious doubts from time to time, as did director Mike Nichols. The book takes us through the writing, casting, and staging of the production. We also get to know Idle himself, an immensely talented man who would draw on ever-dwindling reserves of creativity and courage to overcome one stumbling block after another. This is so much more than a making-of book; it’s also a portrait of Eric Idle in the kind of detail that a more traditional memoir of Spamalot’s creation might not have provided.

Cover of Idle in Provence.

Weezer live

Poster for Meteor (1979).

Poster for The Swarm (1978).

Ned Beatty, Christopher Reeve, and Stacey Keach in a scene from Gray Lady Down.

Maple looking at a bunny out the front door window.

Cover of The Calamities by Chuck Wendig.

Poster for The Rocketeer.

Poster for Send Help

Poster for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

Feed, the first volume of the Newsflesh series.

Cover for Robert J. Sawyer's Ghosts in the Machine.

Promo image for 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.

Cover of Voyage of the Damned.

Maple, flopped out.

Poster for Hollow Man.

Fackham Hall poster

Cover of Not a Word by Linwood Barclay

Snow-covered front yard.

Seaweed ball on the beach.

Maple sitting cutely.

Columbo with extended forefinger near man's nose.

Tiny hole, the size of a pin prick, through which my new stents were installed in my heart.

Maple shoulders-deep in today's snow.

NS Power's explanation for a power outage: transmission interruption.

Cover of Adam Roberts' The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo.

Cover of The Snow by Adam Roberts.

Cover of Butcher's Moon by R. Stark

Cover of Rio Youers' What They Did.

Maple the Goldendoodle with his ass pointed at the wood stove.

Cover of Salt by Adam Roberts.

Cover if At a Loss For Words by Carol Off.

Cover of Michael Shermer's vitally important Why People Believe Weird Things.

Cover of Michael Tomasky's Killing Baby Hitler.

Wreath with ornaments from Trek and Wars.

Cover of Sadie Hartmann's Feral and Hysterical.

Space: 1999 Eagle model kit.

Fire extinguisher sign with F missing.

Sleepy Lemon kitty with upside down head.

Oreo and Lemon.

Cover of Sarah Weinman's Without Consent.

Lasagna noodles

Rant from Trump claiming the World Series is rigged "probably by the Dems and the mafia."

Conjoined carrots in sexy-leg pose.

Oreo, Lemon, and Maple.

Oreo the cat and his paws.

The cast of Leverage.

Final scene of Newhart, in which it is revealed the entire series was a bad dream experienced by Dr. Bob Hartley.

Walter Matthau in final moments of The Taking of Pelham 123.

My horror-themed Hawaiian-style shirt.