Job Tyler Leach
I will be selling my book and playing with River Rat Jenkins at Catstock on July 21, 2019! $2 from every book sale will go to the Columbia Animal Shelter. This event will raise funds to support the newly opened shelter. Come out to help the animals, listen to great music, eat some food, and have a blast!
I’m excited to announce that I’ll be participating in the York Book Expo with a few other authors from Sunbury Press. The event was started in 2015 with 85 local authors and an appearance by NY Times bestselling author David Rosenfelt. The expo connects readers with a variety of writers and focuses mainly on local and regional authors. Demi Stevens is the founder and CEO of Year of the Book Press and is the organizer of the York Book Expo. This years event will be held on November 2, 2019. Links: York Book Expo Meet the Authors Year of the…
All the Aliens in the Neighborhood is a collection of short stories from formidable author Donald Dewey. This grouping of stories reminded me a bit of Joyce’s Dubliners, only these are set in Brooklyn instead of the Irish capital. Donald Dewey is an experienced author with the writing chops to handle heavy topics with patience and levelheadedness. I thought The Opals Man impressively displays how a mentally ill person’s behavior can start out as simply a little strange and eventually transition into completely irrational activity as they justify it and let it become their “normal”. The main character, Malek, develops…
John Barleycorn is not only atypical of Jack London’s work, it’s different than most books about drinking or drug abuse. Assumed by most to be an autobiography, John Barleycorn also functions as an in-depth reflection on the lifestyle of a heavy drinker. London got drunk as early as five and seven years old, and that is where his drinking story begins. London tells of his exploits throughout his teenage years and early adult life, including being an oyster pirate, deep-sea sealer, miner, student, and writer. London packed an incredible amount of action into a short life, and John Barleycorn tells…
My only real complaint about this book is that it’s incredibly unwieldy. You’re risking serious bodily harm if you read it while lying down. If you drift off into a nap for even a second, it’s unlikely your arms will support this behemoth. But if you know the Beastie Boys, or read this book to learn more about them, they have never been in the business of practicality. Their music-making process is largely based on thumbing their nose at organization and convention. They obviously approached this project with the same attitude. And, of course, they produced a book with their…
Papst documents an interesting and troubling time in Harrisburg. As a central PA native, it’s obvious the city is still struggling from the effects of the either severe mismanagement or arrogant corruption. I’d say it’s somewhere in between those two after reading, although a case can be made for both. I was fairly young and unaware of these political shenanigans when they were happening. I also lived just far enough away to be pretty insulated from it in my daily life. I only knew that I could see a decline in much about the city nearly every time I visited…
I’ve been lazy about posting reviews of the books I’ve been reading, so I need to catch up a little bit. This post and a few in the future will be about books I read in 2018. Hopefully I’ll catch up to what I’m currently reading sometime this spring. Thanks for reading! Palo Alto Review Palo Alto is a collection of short stories by James Franco. Although not necessarily related to each other, they’re unified in that they all portray the lives of adolescents in Palo Alto. One can assume that the stories are at least partially based on Franco’s…
My debut novel As the Raven Flies is available in multiple spots online.It has been published through the Milford House imprint at Sunbury Press. Please purchase a copy. Don’t forget to leave a review when you’re done reading! Click the logos below to purchase at the Sunbury Press website or on Amazon!
I wanted to read Call Me by Your Name after I watched the movie (directed by Luca Guadagnino) . I was especially interested to check it out after the movie won Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars (screenplay written by James Ivory). The movie was a truly excellent adaptation of the source text. Overall, I enjoyed the movie more than the book, although I did like both versions. As with nearly any comparison of a book and movie adaptation, each has its merits. The following might have some spoilers, or at least information that might make your first viewing/reading less enjoyable.…
I am always impressed by writers who have the ability to record intricate details of their experiences while traveling. I don’t feel like I can write well when I’m on a vacation or some excursion far away. I’m always either doing my best to soak up the experience or resting from the exhaustion of doing just that. I suspect that there are two major reasons that I have not developed the skill to thoroughly document any travel experiences: I’m probably more crunched for time versus writers who are on some kind of writing assignment or simply take longer trips than…