Book review: “Elle” by Douglas Glover
The story of French noblewoman Marguerite de La Rocque de Roberval has been told and retold over the past 150 years in popular entertainment — several historical novels, poems, a [...]
Book review: “The King’s Beast: A Mystery of the American Revolution” by Eliot Pattison
Eliot Pattison’s The King's Beast: A Mystery of the American Revolution is a potboiler stew of brutality, detective work, derring-do, tribal gods, forest lore, London lore, an evil Earl, torture, [...]
Poem: April 3, 2020
April 3, 2020 By Patrick T. Reardon I learned my ABCs long ago and know the dance inside darkness. Better to stumble and bang and crash [...]
Book review: “Unknown Man No. 89” by Elmore Leonard
Unknown Man No. 89, published in 1977, is certainly an Elmore Leonard novel. It has all the elements. It’s built around Jack Ryan, a basically good guy, like all of [...]
Essay: Long books for the long hours ahead
Early on, it was pretty clear that my wife and I — both over that red-alarm age of 60 — are going to be spending basically all our time in [...]
Essay: Still thinking about the thinkable
Eight and a half years ago, an elderly friend of mine died, and one of the guys I play basketball with got leukemia. It got me thinking about that thing [...]
Essay: Rosehill Cemetery, 3.24.20
I think I’ve always enjoyed walking in cemeteries. That may seem odd, especially during our present national crisis. But walking — well-separated from each other — is one of the [...]
Poem: July 10, 1981
July 10, 1981 By Patrick T. Reardon On this porch, on this cool summer day, when the moon is benign in afternoon sky, when birds [...]
Essay: The endless ripples of a book recommendation
Over the last year, I’ve read two books that knocked my socks off — the exquisitely evocative “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison and that massive, epic, beautiful [...]
Essay: Walking through the virus
In recent days, I’ve been doing a lot of walking. I know that this may soon come to a halt if the efforts to combat coronavirus in the United States [...]