My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith. (Romantic Novel, 2016). I’m a big fan of McCall Smith’s charming No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, set in the small African nation of Botswana. This unrelated work, a one-shot published in the UK in 2016 and now available in the US, is almost as endearing–with enjoyable characters and […]
Read more "REVIEWED: My Italian Bulldozer"Two Nights by Kathy Reichs (Mystery Novel, 2017). Reichs is of course best known for the books featuring Temperance Brennan (and the Bones TV series that sprang from them). She’s also co-authored (with her son) a series of Young Adult focused books. This–her latest–is neither. It’s a sometimes grim, but exciting crime/missing person story centered around an embittered […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Two Nights"Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. (Historical Novel/Classic Literature, 1852). This anti-slavery epic from shortly before the American Civil War is of great historical significance (Lincoln himself claimed that it played a major part in bringing on the war itself). It was certainly in its time an influential and controversial book. Yet as a famous […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Uncle Tom’s Cabin"Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris (Supernatural Horror Novel, 2009). Yep, picked up another one. Reading these in no particular order (but I’m weird and bounce around so much between genres/favorite authors, etc.). This one is the 9th novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series (basis for the True Blood TV series) with human telepath and fun lead character […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Dead and Gone"I’d Die for You (and other lost stories) by F. Scott Fitzgerald. (Story Collection, 2017). Yes, the much-honored (even revered) author of The Great Gatsby, This Side of Paradise and Tender is the Night has a new short story collection out. It includes a whopping 16 never-before-published pieces and 2 never included in any of his several previous collections. Pretty neat […]
Read more "REVIEWED: I’d Die For You (and other lost stories)"Ghost Monster by Simon Clark (Supernatural Horror Novel, 2009). A so-so horror tale from a British writer who’s done much better at other times. Set in a small town on the English coast, it has an isolated and frankly somewhat old-fashioned feel, despite it having been written less than a decade ago and (with the exception […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Ghost Monster"Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson (SF Novel/First of Trilogy, 2017). This, the first book in the Chronicle of the Dark Star trilogy, is a rollicking space opera adventure of the relatively near future (the main body of the novel is set in earth year 2213). It bears comparison to much of Heinlein’s classic juveniles–both […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Last Day on Mars"