Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. At least that’s how I feel today. This is the day to do what we should do every day: give thanks, acknowledge our blessings, live with gratitude. Marcus Aurelius begins Book One of Meditations with a gratitude list. Specifically, he thanks people who taught him Read more…
May 23, 2008 “Snuff” by Chuck Palahniuk Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times. Cassie Wright is about a porn superstar in the twilight of her career who decides to go out with a bang, so to speak, by setting a world record for serial fornication on film. “Six Read more…
Welcome to this special coronavirus quarantine edition of my blog. While this post lacks my usual book and movie recommendations, there are some life lessons with levity. Decades ago, Kurt Vonnegut said, “How should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we Read more…
Happy Thanksgiving. Christmas is coming. ‘Tis the season for gratitude and books. Books are, of course, the best gifts. While a bottle of single malt Islay Scotch is nothing to scoff at, liquor is still second to literature. I’m defining literature broadly to include “the entire body of writings of Read more…
It’s summertime, and the livin’ is busy. Chelsea, Sloane, and I have been all over the county, from the Gig Harbor Maritime Parade to Meeker Days in Puyallup to the Buckley Log Show. We appreciate seeing friends everywhere we go. Pierce County is big, diverse, and friendly. I appreciate every Read more…
The Keep Our Prosecutor Kickoff Concert with The Beatniks is Saturday, April 14, at 6 pm. Join us, thanks! Tacoma Mayor Woodards will welcome the crowd, Detective Ed Troyer will serve as Emcee, and The Beatniks will rock the Landmark Temple Theatre in Tacoma! We expect musical guest stars as Read more…
Happy new year! I’ve updated my “Have a Pleasant New Year” article, a precursor to my “Zen Lawyer” column. I hope you experience plenty of pleasantness this year. Chelsea, Sloane and I are always enthusiastic about the spirit of adventure and growth inherent in a new year. Possibilities. If you are Read more…
Happy Thanksgiving! “Gratitude is not only the greatest of all the virtues, but the parent of all others.” Marcus Cicero Ladenburg, Strickland, Lindquist. Sounds like a law firm, but it’s actually the co-authors of an editorial on Tacoma, the city we are grateful for. We compare Tacoma’s past reputation with Read more…
Sunday, July 19, 1992 “Rich Kids” by Robert Westbrooke Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Los Angeles Times Book Review You will probably not be shocked to learn that the children of rich movie-industry parents are likely to grow up spoiled, unhappy and mentally unhealthy. Robert Westbrook brings personal experience to the Read more…
Monday, September 27, 1993 “Fan Mail” by Ronald Munson; Dutton $21, 309 pages Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Los Angeles Times Joan Carpenter is an anchorwoman. Her stated ambition is to be rich and famous. The Watcher is a fan. “Fan Mail” is a creepy book about their symbiotic connection. When Read more…
Sunday, February 13, 1994 “Pool” by Ajay Sahgal Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Los Angeles Times Book Review, Front Page “Pool” is one of the most authentic Los Angeles novels you are likely to read and the beauty of it is that not a single moment is set in L.A. Emery Read more…
Entertainment & the Arts: February 5, 1995 ”Scorched Earth” By Stuart Stevens Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times War, Ernest Hemingway once observed, is the best drama. War without guns is called politics and it is – or ought to be – a close second for dramatic value. Read more…
January 7, 1996 “One Night Out Stealing” by Alan Duff Reviewed by Mark Lindquist New York Times Book Review In ”Pulp Fiction” and ”Get Shorty,” John Travolta defines the current pop culture image for hoods: hip, clever if not bright, and effortlessly charming. The hoods — or ”crims” — in Read more…
June 30, 1996 “The Runaway Jury” by John Grisham Reviewed by Mark Lindquist New York Times Book Review In his latest novel, John Grisham returns to his favorite theme: cleverness prospers. He’s also still hooked on the idea of the underdog who cons the evil cabal and scores big. “The Read more…
July 21, 1996 “Outrage: Five Reasons Why OJ Simpson Got Away with Murder” by Vincent Bugliosi Reviewed by Mark Lindquist New York Times Book Review Most prosecutors in the United States believe they could have done a better job of trying the O. J. Simpson case than Marcia Clark and Christopher Read more…
Entertainment & the Arts, July 23, 1996 “Outrage: Five Reasons OJ Got Away with Murder” by Vincent Bugliosi Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial To The Seattle Times Most prosecutors in America thought they could have done a better job of trying O.J. Simpson. Vincent Bugliosi actually could have. The onetime prosecutor Read more…
February 23, 1997 “The Clinic” by Jonathan Kellerman Reviewed by Mark LindquistNew York Times Book Review This is the 11th novel in a series featuring Alex Delaware, a psychologist who solves crimes simply by being smart. He also chats with a lot of interesting people. The plot in this latest Read more…
Entertainment & the Arts, Sunday, February 28, 1999 “South of the Border, West of the Sun” by Haruki Murakami Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special To The Seattle Times This is a Japanese novel that feels as American as the movie “Casablanca,” which it brings to mind in both tone and plot. Read more…
Entertainment News: Thursday, May 20, 1999 “Music for Torching” by A.M. Homes Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times A.M. Homes’ fifth book is daring, original, smart and artful, yet does not quite work as a novel. Paul and Elaine, the lead couple, were first featured in Homes’ short Read more…
Entertainment News: Sunday, August 15, 1999 “Not Ready for Prime Time” by Brent Askari Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times In his book “On Becoming a Novelist,” John Gardner, the writer and teacher who was a mentor to Raymond Carver among many others, had this advice for writers: Read more…
Entertainment News: Sunday, November 21, 1999 “Soft Maniacs” by Maggie Estep Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times If you like your fiction dark, demented and highly sexed, this book is for you. You may even remember author Magge Estep as the videogenic gamin on MTV’s “Poetry Unplugged,” circa Read more…
Arts & Entertainment: March 14, 2000 “Phoenix: A Brother’s Life” by J.D. Dolan Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times The memoir has become our most abused genre and, mercifully, seemed to have recently reached its high water mark with “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” Dave Eggers’ smart-alecky Read more…
Arts & Entertainment: Sunday, June 25, 2000 “War Boy” by Kief Hillsbery Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to The Seattle Times This energetic and ambitious first novel is narrated by Radboy, a 14-year-old deaf skateboard punk. “Storytellers lie,” he warns us right away, then proceeds to tell as much truth Read more…
Arts & Entertainment: Sunday, July 2, 2000 “Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man” by Joseph Heller Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to The Seattle Times Joseph Heller died in December 1999, at the age of 76, just after finishing this novel, which was presciently designed to be his Read more…
Arts & Entertainment: Sunday, October 15, 2000 “Ready, Okay!” by Adam Cadre Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to The Seattle Times Someone had to do this. Ever since the Columbine High tragedy, I have been waiting for an author brave enough or shameless enough to write an adolescent novel that Read more…
Arts & Entertainment: Sunday, June 10, 2001 “Glue” by Irvine Welsh Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to The Seattle Times Irvine Welsh is best known to the mainstream as the man who wrote the novel that the movie “Trainspotting” was based on. In the “rave” culture, he is revered as Read more…
Arts & Entertainment: August 16, 2001 “Heavier Than Heaven” by Charles Cross Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to The Seattle Times Rock biographies became a publishing phenomenon after “No One Here Gets Out Alive,” the Jim Morrison biography, became a New York Times best seller in 1980. For those of Read more…
July 28, 2001 “How to Be Good,” by Nick Hornby Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to the Hartford Courant Fans of Nick Hornby’s first novel, the decidedly hip and male “High Fidelity,” initially may be perplexed as to why Hornby is now writing about humdrum grown-ups from a female point Read more…
Entertainment & the Arts, Sunday, October 6, 2002 “Lullaby” by Chuck Palahniuk Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times Ranting against consumerism and all the noise of the material world may seem passe, but what doesn’t these days? Chuck Palahniuk’s novels are here to say that alienation and despair Read more…
Entertainment & the Arts, October 17, 2002 “Porno” by Irvine Welsh Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to The Seattle Times Irvine Welsh’s first novel, “Trainspotting,” was an international best seller and a cult-classic movie. His witty twisted take on the youth culture of Edinburgh was daring and original. Sales have Read more…
John McGrath wrote a good story about an unusually entertaining Continuing Legal Education class featuring sports, law, and life lessons. In summary, be cool. Mary Ann Gwinn, the blessed Books Editor for The Seattle Times, put together an honorable tribute for the 40th Anniversary of Elliott Bay Books in Seattle. Read more…
Entertainment & the Arts: Sunday, December 28, 2003 “Still Holding” by Bruce Wagner Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times How much hypocrisy, insanity, neediness, dysfunction and delusion can an author stuff into a novel of just under 300 pages? If the author is Bruce Wagner and the subject Read more…
Entertainment & the Arts: Sunday, March 27, 2005 “The Disappointment Artist” by Jonathan Lethem Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to The Seattle Times “These confessions have started to bore me,” Jonathan Lethem writes toward the end of “The Disappointment Artist,” a memoir thinly disguised as a collection of pop-culture essays. Read more…
Entertainment & Arts: Friday, February 16, 2007 “Ten Days in the Hills” by Jane Smiley Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Special to The Seattle Times Hollywood has bedeviled novelists since its inception. Jane Smiley, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, is yet another example. Smiley’s strengths are many, she is smart, insightful, observant, Read more…
April 27, 2007 “Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey” by Chuck Palahniuk Reviewed by Mark LindquistSpecial to The Seattle Times Journalists often lift technique from novelists, and sometimes novelists return the compliment by imitating the documentary style of nonfiction. In “Rant,” Chuck Palahniuk adopts the oral biography format used Read more…
Foreward to the German edition of “Never Mind Nirvana” Mark Lindquist never makes anything up except names. He writes down his life. Not to know his other books and to start with “Never Mind Nirvana” is a little bit like opening a biography somewhere in the middle and starting to Read more…