Book review: “The Melody” by Jim Crace
The dainty Persian bells would jingle in the middle of the night when Alfred Busi’s wife Alicia would go downstairs to the larder for a snack. “What could it matter [...]
Book review: “Trickster: Native American Tales, a graphic collection,” edited by Matt Dembicki
Well, when you get down to it, isn’t life a trick? You’re born and spend your whole existence on Earth trying to figure out what it all means. And then [...]
Book review: “Time and Again” by Jack Finney
Jack Finney’s 1970 time-travel novel Time and Again is a lot of things, including a cult favorite. It’s a science fiction novel inasmuch as it deals with time [...]
Book review: “Abraham Lincoln” by Adam I.P. Smith
Abraham Lincoln by Adam I.P. Smith was published in 2014 by the Britain-based History Press as part of its Pocket Giants series of very short — 100 or so pages [...]
Book review: “What If? — The World’s Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been,” edited by Robert Cowley
.There is no point to the study of history if each event, each action, each decision is seen in some mechanistic manner — as if what happened had to happen. [...]
Book review: “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer” by Michelle McNamara
People get obsessed. They get obsessed with growing orchids. With the fortunes of the Los Angeles Lakers or the Cincinnati Reds or the Cleveland Browns. With the stock market. With [...]
Finding a rich life by looking out the window: An interview with Patricia Hampl
Patricia Hampl laughs and says, “I have a list.” We’re talking over the phone about that bane of modern life, the to-do list, she in the kitchen of her St. [...]
Book review: “The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel” by Robert Alter
It is a bit perplexing that the ancient story of David --- the giant-killer, king, adulterer, father, sinner and old man --- doesn’t have its own book in the Hebrew Bible. Instead, [...]
Book review: “The Patron Saint of Cauliflower” by Elizabeth Cohen
Let me make clear I’m no cook or baker. I have, I’ll admit, followed the directions to produce a Betty Crocker cake (with canned frosting) with relatively edible results. And, [...]
Book review: “Noir” by Christopher Moore
Christopher Moore, the author of 15 wacky novels, explains in an afterword that he had planned for his latest book Noir to be about a “poor working mug” who got [...]