Category Archives: Books

Jane Lindskold’s Thirteen Orphans: Breaking the Wall

Brenda Morris never thought her father was anything more than a charismatic huckster with some odd friends. That is, until he takes her on a business trip while she’s away from college for the summer, and tells her some hard-to-swallow … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Comments Off on Jane Lindskold’s Thirteen Orphans: Breaking the Wall

Leslie A. Sconduto’s Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study  from Antiquity through the Renaissance 

With the much anticipated remake of The Wolf Man (starring Benicio Del Toro) coming out later this year, now is a good time to brush up on one’s werewolf lore. While many people may believe that the first instance of the werewolf … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on Leslie A. Sconduto’s Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study  from Antiquity through the Renaissance 

Patricia Anthony’s Flanders

Jayme Lynn Blaschke penned this review. There are few things more depressing in life than to see brilliance punished. The fact that it happens with disturbing regularity makes it no less palatable, and when it happens to a writer as overwhelmingly … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Patricia Anthony’s Flanders

Tony Hillerman’s Hunting Badger 

Steven E. McDonald penned this review. Tony Hillerman’s Hunting Badger was inspired by a real 1998 case that resulted in the murder of a police officer. The author refers to the case repeatedly but doesn’t offer any clues to its solution. Instead, he … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Tony Hillerman’s Hunting Badger 

Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate — A Novel in Monthly Installments,  with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies (English translation)  and the Like Water for Chocolate film

Whenever she closed her eyes she saw scenes from last Christmas, the first time Pedro and his family had been invited to dinner; the scenes grew more and more vivid, and the cold within her grew sharper. Despite the time … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Comments Off on Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate — A Novel in Monthly Installments,  with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies (English translation)  and the Like Water for Chocolate film

Barney Hoskyns’ Hotel California

Subtitled the true life adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Mitchell, Taylor, Browne, Ronstadt, Geffen, the Eagles, and their many friends, Barney Hoskyns’ Hotel California is exactly that: a chronicle of the heady days of the singer-songwriter era, when songs became diary entries, … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Comments Off on Barney Hoskyns’ Hotel California

Dave Eggers’ The Wild Things

The Wild Things is Dave Eggers’ foray into the universe of Maurice Sendak, a novelization based on Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and Eggers’ own collaboration with Spike Jonze on the screenplay for the film of the same title. … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on Dave Eggers’ The Wild Things

Phillip DePoy’s The Devil’s Hearth

I’ve a special fondness for mystery series set in the Appalachian Mountains as there’s not lot of good ones even though there’s a lot of not so great ones. Sharyn McCrumb’s Ballads series had some memorable outings, particularly among the … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Comments Off on Phillip DePoy’s The Devil’s Hearth

Martin Stokes and Phillip V. Bohlman’s Celtic Modern: Music at the Global Fringe 

Celtic Modern, subtitled Music at the Global Fringe, examines the phenomenon that is Celtic music in its many varied strands. While on the surface this volume looks at Celtic music from a number of different standpoints, the content is academically inclined, … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on Martin Stokes and Phillip V. Bohlman’s Celtic Modern: Music at the Global Fringe 

Peter Dickinson’s The Tears of the Salamander 

When I was little, I thought of salamanders as the cute little amphibians I saw in the woods near ponds and under old logs. But I found out later that there are mythological salamanders, too, magical salamanders that live in … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on Peter Dickinson’s The Tears of the Salamander