Last year I read and raved about Hannah Morrissey’s debut crime thriller, Hello, Transcriber. That was the first book in the Black Harbor series, set in a crumbling town in the American Midwest. The city of Black Harbor is the…
Wake of War author Zac Topping is a veteran, and it shows. In Topping’s debut novel, war is not treated as a glorious thing, but rather as an absurd cancer, or a toxin. The reader leaves with the distinct feeling…
Before getting into the review proper, I’d like to mention that my buddy L gave me Radio Girls at book swap we had at my former office. It was pretty fun – everyone at our place of business brought in some books…
I have to say that given the cover of this book, and the title, I was expecting the book to be more…tongue in cheek? But this book isn’t that. Rather than being a fun “backstory” of our fascination with butts,…
One cool thing that I’ve noticed as a result of my No-Buy Year is that I enjoy tinkering around with my worldly possessions so much more. Por ejemplo, I recently pulled my five comic book short boxes out of the…
Olivia Blacke’s Vinyl Resting Place is the first book in The Record Shop Mysteries, and also my first ever “cozy” mystery. If they’re all like this, I’m in! In Vinyl Resting Place, Juniper Jessup is looking for something new. And…
What do Usher and St. Augustine have in common? I enjoyed their Confessions more than Thomas De Quincey’s. (Also, both Usher and Augustine were both great dancers in their prime.) There have probably been books that were more disappointing to…
A couple of year ago I had a (very) full-time job, graduate classes, young kids, etc. It was a lot. And for some reason I wasn’t able to get stuff done anymore. It wasn’t that I didn’t have time; it…
All the way back in the ancient days of 2016, I read de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life. That put famed author Marcel Proust on my radar. Last year I read about Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove) reading Proust…
Un/fortunately, it’s common for me to read 60 – 85 books a year. In some ways this is great because of the breadth of experiences and learning I can get. In other ways, my reading life can become something of…
