The Clock Of Life is a coming of age story set in the American South. It’s 1974, and Jason Lee Rainey has just started school. On the very first day, he makes friends with a black kid named Samson, and gets bullied for pursuing that interracial friendship. Even if Jason Lee is living in the post-Civil Rights era South, the residue… Read more
I knew this one was going to be fun the moment I saw the pitch in my email. I have been pretty burned out the Pride and Prejudice and… genre, but this is a little different sort of mash-up. Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is a retelling of the classic sci-fi movie in iambic pentameter. The Bard would be proud. You know,… Read more
Joining me this week is my new reviewing buddy, Nanette Morton! She’s a writer who lives in Ontario and we have been posting together on a couple of internet forums for quite some time. She loves to read and I always value her opinion on new books, so I know that her reviews will be a great addition. We’ll be… Read more
Music history fans are gonna love this! I admit that, small town girl that I am, I wasn’t a big punk rock fan as a teenager. Many years later, I have more of an appreciation for it, although it will never be first on my playlist. But PUNK magazine was cool. It was something between a comic book and a music… Read more
Ian Nash is having a remarkably bad day. He has been kicked out of his PhD program, which means no degree, no job, no income. As if that isn’t bad enough, when he stops at a local coffee shop to drown his sorrows (and maybe pick up a job application), he’s taken hostage by bank robbers. What else could go… Read more
WordPress and I are not getting along lately. I have had several posts just disappear into the ether. Others, like this one, are scheduled to post and just never appear. My apologies to the good folks at Tor/Forge for missing the review date. Virus Thirteen by Joshua Alan Parry presents a scary vision of the future. Amazing medical advances have… Read more
I was caught up in the book from the very first chapter. Terrier Rand comes from a family of thieves – burglars, second-story men, con artists and grifters. (All named after breeds of dog, for reasons that are never fully explained.) His brother, Collie, is on death row after a killing spree that included an elderly couple and a nine-year-old… Read more
Disclaimer: I voted for Carla Hall for Fan Favorite on Top Chef. I loved Carla’s attitude and I loved the look of her food when she was on Top Chef. I always prefer the low-drama, high-teamwork folks who are focused on the cooking. Because of that, I was really excited to check out Carla’s cookbook. Now, I am always a little… Read more
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd is the story of Lysander Rief, a London stage actor who has come to Vienna in search of a cure for his sexual problems. He gets his cure, although not quite in the way he planned. Rief meets a crazed woman in his psychiatrist’s office, a Miss Hettie Bell, and from that moment on,… Read more
I am admitting defeat. I have tried at least 4 times to get through The Taste of Tomorrow: Dispatches from the Future of Food by Josh Schonwald. In theory, it’s the sort of book I should love. I am interesting in food and gardening and how the growing population of the planet will be fed over the coming years. I am… Read more