L.S. Popovich's Blog

A great bedside companion book for weighing down your overburdened nightstand. Good for audiobook as well, for picking up at random places. Amusing musings, profound quotations, and rambling essays on odd and useful topics.Montaigne retired at 38, which in the 16th century was old, and decided he would do little else but read and write. […]

Ultimately a pointless book, unless you desire to imagine alternate perspectives in a vague way.   You will never be a badger, so what does it matter what a badger thinks when it chews on earthworms? It may help you empathize with badgers, but you don’t need this book to tell you to empathize with other […]

A gratuitous lump of a novel about an amorphous entity that prefers to appear as a clown in order to torment kids and vulnerable adults, often but not always murdering them in the most shlocky ways imaginable.  The main characters are kids for a lot of the book, and when we see their adult selves, […]

QSC’s output is typically speculative.  His stories do not fit into typical categories otherwise. This rare edition includes some gems. For the first 3 tales, I was not enthralled. I found them lumbering, dreamy, wistful. They take place in Britain. A lot of the extraneous description and interior monologue might’ve been cut out. He tends […]

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Gender swap of the typical hitchhiker’s abduction fear response.Uncouth otherworldly behavior.Dehumanization, objectification, it’s all about perspective.What is human?What monsters lurk beneath our fleshy exteriors?Two is a crowd. Who would search for you if you got into the wrong car? Anyone?This narration may get under your skin. – where we are […]

Why I hated this movie and recommend it to everyone. Like the miracle mile race in 1954, The Miracle Mile film is remembered for a reason. Like proverbial frog sitting in a boiling pot, you won’t realize the extent that the stakes are heating up until it’s reached a fever pitch. The convincing acting and […]

An eclectic collection by a master of the short story form, thankfully rescued by Snuggly Books from its former out-of-print state. The Introduction constitutes a tenth story in the volume, relying on the supremacy of the anecdote to elaborate the author’s mindset. The final section ‘About the Stories’ can be said to fulfill multiple purposes, […]

Whatever forms D. M.’s stories assume, whatever mantles of obscurity they adorn, they remain an inspiration. In the Hieromantic Mirror, we are introduced to a sultry protagonist engaged in more investigations of the uncanny and underlying uncertainty of societal constructs. Like most of his characters, she is a seeker after the profound.Esoteric board games may […]

Taking inspiration from Icelandic sagas, mixing in old-fashioned atmospheric horror tale aesthetics, as well as provincial, unsettling conversations at far-flung cafés, the reading experience may be enhanced if you enjoy the work of Bulgakov and Flaubert. The Sad Eyes of the Lewis ChessmenFlaubert’s AlexandrineThe Leviathan at RifskerThe Son’s CrimeBilly Goat BluesThe BannaðThe Farewell LetterThe Woman […]

Where Magic Goes to Die Wish is everything that Disney left on the cutting room floor. It’s the viscera that Walt Disney scraped off the bottom of his foot and tossed into the dustbin. Nothing works in this film. The characters, the plot, the animation, the music, and the comedy lack redeemable qualities. Nostalgia is […]