Lou Lou Holman, a bitter, chain-smoking, miserly café owner keels over in her own office. Many who knew her think the world is better off without her. But the police suspect foul play, and one of the suspects is Amy Flowers, a soon-to-be ex-employee and competitor of Lou Lou. If she is ever going to […]
A Little Blood in Your Sweet Tea? A Review of Gayle Leeson’s The Calamity Café Read More »
No sport is more romantic than baseball. The pace, rhythm, and progression of the game imitate and distill that of life itself. The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, $26 Hardcover) depicts one life reflected in many, spanning a lifetime of good, accomplished around summers of college
If you love fast-paced joyride reads, you may well set a speed-reading record with Smooth Operator (Putnam, 2016, $28 Hardcover), the new thriller from the author of thirty-nine Stone Barrington novels, Stuart Woods. It is that hard to put down, and moves quickly with short chapters and snappy dialogue. Stuart Woods is massively successful (at
A Smooth Read: A Review of Stuart Woods’s Smooth Operator Read More »
If you have been following my reviews, which mirror almost exactly the contents of my reading list, you may have noticed that I have been reading a number of books written by women, and that appeal mostly to women. I have also recently read a book I despise (not this one — the review will
Nosy Novel: A Review of Kathleen Tessaro’s The Perfume Collector Read More »
Meaning is found in understanding the un-understandable. Amid daily reports of the worst events in our society, we may feel tempted to just tune out. But now and again it is useful to venture deep into a story. Deep enough that it takes a thread of violence in all of its revolting detail, and instead
Book Review: Ice and Bone by Monte Francis Read More »
“High-level lying nevertheless remains the modus operandi of US policy, along with secret prisons, drone attacks, Special Forces night raids, bypassing the chain of command, and cutting out those who might say no.” This is the thesis of Seymour M. Hersh’s The Killing of Osama Bin Laden. Strong words about President Barak Obama. At first
‘A Series of Lies’: A Review of Seymour M. Hersh’s The Killing of Osama Bin Laden Read More »
Lee awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom, November 5, 2007, The White House (Photo by Eric Draper) Sixty years after it was written, Go Set a Watchman was published amid controversy over whether its author, Harper Lee, approaching age ninety, had desired its publication or had been taken advantage
Harper Lee’s Controversial Swan Song Read More »
The story of Lance Armstrong, who was awarded, then stripped of seven Tour de France wins for doping, is as compelling as it was when most of the world, including myself, was blissfully ignorant of his cheating, many of us inspired by his success and comeback. Perhaps now it is even more compelling. Unlike many
Extraordinary Allegations, Extraordinary Evidence Read More »
What if a big-time hotel developer threatened to take over a small-time innkeeper’s quaint New England island, and wound up dead, with the innkeeper left as the prime suspect? This is the subject of Murder on the Rocks (Midnight Ink, 2006, $13.95 paperback) by Karen MacInerney.Natalie Barnes spent everything she had to move from Austin,
Book Review: Karen MacInerney’s ‘Murder on the Rocks’ Read More »
When in the course of a boy’s life it becomes necessary to encounter an adult version of integrity or the lack thereof, said boy is nearly always at a disadvantage. None of the teachers, parents, or pastors he has had in his life can anticipate such a thing, or if they can, they
Little Boy, Big Girl, Gray World: A Review of William Faulkner’s The Reivers Read More »
