It took a little convincing to get me to read this book. I got an email about the book and they almost lost me with “as only a dog could tell it.” A dog telling the story is almost always a recipe for disaster. In this case, instead of disaster, there’s a pretty terrific story and a narrator with an… Read more
Marina Marks is a fake psychic. She developed a keen ability to read people as a method of self-preservation – it helped her survive her drug-addicted mother and the string of shady boyfriends that hung around them. Her mother stuck a deck of tarot cards in Marina’s hand and she became a revenue stream, one more way to scrape the… Read more
I love after-the-apocalypse stories. I always have. As a kid, I was always planning for what I would do after the zombies attacked, after the nuclear warheads fell and it was just me and a rag-tag band of survivors. There is something appealing about the start of a whole new world order, a chance to find a different place for… Read more
Gary Gray wants nothing more than to be “normal.” He wants to fall in love, get married, have children, go to church, go to Disney Land and live the American dream. He’s got one little problem, though: he’s in love with his roommate, Russ, and lusting after other men is frowned upon at Southern Florida Christian College. God Says No… Read more
Lucy Burns works for Satan. Now, I have often told stories about a particularly miserable old job and told people that I, too, worked for Satan. But Lucy really does work for Satan. She’s a Facilitator – she helps damned souls make their way to their final “reward” in a timely fashion. She got into this mess by making a… Read more
This is the last, great beach read of the summer. Let’s Get It On is the rather fanciful tale of LaShaWanda P. Marshall and her friends, Lydia Beaucoup and Acey Allen. They are the owners of a successful “full-service spa” (in other words: a brothel) for women in Reno, and they are opening their first franchise, on a yacht off… Read more
One of the problems with reading historical fiction is that you usually know how the story ends. You can write a book about the Titanic, but everyone knows that the boat sinks. The same is true, to some extent, about Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman: most people know at least a little about the Scottsboro Boys, nine young black men, falsely… Read more
Finally, someone who comes from an even smaller hometown than mine! Michael Perry tells the story of coming back to his hometown (New Auburn, WI) and working as an EMT and volunteer fireman in Population: 485, Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time. As a small town girl myself, I could relate to a lot of the stories Perry… Read more
In the late 18th century, a fabulous new scientific oddity was the toast of Europe. The Turk, a chess-playing automaton built by Wolfgang von Kempelen, was defeating chess masters across Europe. It was a true marvel of the times — a machine, built after the fashion of a Turkish ruler, that was capable of thought. Built for the amusement of… Read more
First of all, an apology. I wrote this review ages ago and it has been stuck in Draft mode. I’m really annoyed about that because it’s a book I’ve been telling friends to go out and buy right away! Luckily, it’s not too late… Web Goodhue is a jerk. He’s down to his last friend, he’s got no job, he… Read more