Stuff Jay Is Reading
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This week, I reread one of my favorite novels from one of my favorite writers: The Cry of the Owl by Patricia Highsmith. I spent much of 2025 picking novels off my shelves here in Mexicali. My goal was to read 50 novels in 50 weeks. I’m glad I did. They all seemed to be…
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I don’t know much how other people choose their books. I never hear it come up in everyday conversation. I’m sure many book readers go to their own secret websites and podcasts. I DO. Choosing the right book is a big deal for me. As I get older, I have difficulty squeezing my reading…
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Does anyone ever ask how you choose the books you read? Probably not. Sadly, over the last forty years or so, I have seen a gradual decline in reading. NO INTEREST. That’s not news, but that’s not GOOD. I’m an ENGLISH TEACHER. When I ask my students where they find their books, they tell…
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In every beginning writing class that I’ve ever taken, I hear the advice, “Write what you know.” This sounds good, but it doesn’t always work. Often, you get so close to your subject, you can’t see the forest from the trees On the other hand, you can try to distance yourself from your subject…
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I know Chrissie Hynde from the seventies. In her Pretenders song, “Up the Neck,” Chrissie belts out, “Lust turns to anger, a kiss to a slug…” Up until then, I don’t think I had every seen a woman like that on stage before; in front of the band, her guitar slung low across her hips,…
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Earlier this month I read a memoir about alcoholism that included the life and struggles of legendary playwright Tennessee Williams. The book, called “The Trip to Echo Spring,” written by Olivia Lange, shed light on hardcore drunk writers that despite their addictions were somehow able to produce some of the most brilliant literature we…
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I’m not sure WHEN or HOW it happened, but at early age, I became drawn in, sucked in, to the books written by boozy, drug-addled authors. For me, this may have been in high school, and I didn’t even drink or smoke. At age 16-17, I probably got turned on by Stephen King’s strange,…
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Patricia Highsmith has always been one of my favorite novelists. I count more than 12-15 of her books on my shelves: novels, short-story collections, biographies. I began with her novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, maybe forty years ago. I can’t remember if I read it in college or after, but it just may be…
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I wish this wasn’t the case, but I found it nearly impossible to write about T.J. English’s historic account of Havana in the 1950s without mentioning Godfather 2. I mean T.J. certainly does. I’m talking about Mafiso Meyer Lansky’s birthday party atop the Hotel Nacional, the most prestigious hotel in all Havana. This actually happened,…
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If someone asked me how I would classify Rachel Kushner’s novel The Flamethrowers, I just wouldn’t know what to say. It’s not the kind of book I can easily group with other books on my shelves here in Mexicali. I mean Rachel K is all over the place with this one. From the beginning…