Grant Snider loves books. He loves to read them, to write them, to collect them, even to smell them. This wonderful collection of 1 – 2 page cartoons covers every aspect of reading and…Read more…
Review: The Book of Tbilisi – A City in Short Fiction, edited by Gvantsa Jobava and Becca Parkinson
This short book of ten short stories about the Georgian capital can be read in an afternoon — and what a memorable afternoon that would be. These mostly young authors grew up in independent…Read more…
Review: The Book of Tbilisi – A City in Short Fiction, edited by Gvantsa Jobava and Becca Parkinson
This short book of ten short stories about the Georgian capital can be read in an afternoon — and what a memorable afternoon that would be. These mostly young authors grew up in independent…Read more…
Review: Rules for Perfect Murders, by Peter Swanson
An owner of a crime fiction book shop in Boston is visited by an FBI agent. She tells him that a murderer is on the loose, killing people based on a list he posted on…Read more…
Review: Rules for Perfect Murders, by Peter Swanson
An owner of a crime fiction book shop in Boston is visited by an FBI agent. She tells him that a murderer is on the loose, killing people based on a list he posted on…Read more…
Review: Will He Go?: Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020, by Lawrence Douglas
Lawrence Douglas teaches law at Amherst College. If what he says in this short book is right, America is in for a very rocky ride in the next few months. His basic argument is that…Read more…
Review: Will He Go?: Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020, by Lawrence Douglas
Lawrence Douglas teaches law at Amherst College. If what he says in this short book is right, America is in for a very rocky ride in the next few months. His basic argument is that…Read more…
Review: Humankind by Rutger Bregman
I thought Bregman’s previous book, Utopia for Realists, was pretty good. This book is even better. Bregman presents an optimistic view of human beings, and backs this up with many, many…Read more…
Review: Humankind by Rutger Bregman
I thought Bregman’s previous book, Utopia for Realists, was pretty good. This book is even better. Bregman presents an optimistic view of human beings, and backs this up with many, many…Read more…
Review: The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan
John Buchan was, according to Christopher Hitchens, “the father of the modern spy thriller”. But, as the introduction to this, his most famous novel, explains, he was a writer “of…Read more…
Review: The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan
John Buchan was, according to Christopher Hitchens, “the father of the modern spy thriller”. But, as the introduction to this, his most famous novel, explains, he was a writer “of…Read more…
Review: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
OK, I’ll confess: I don’t get it. The illustrations are lovely. The message is nice. It might work as children’s book, but for adults? I’m not so sure. And yet the book is…Read more…
Review: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy
OK, I’ll confess: I don’t get it. The illustrations are lovely. The message is nice. It might work as children’s book, but for adults? I’m not so sure. And yet the book is…Read more…
Review: If It Bleeds, by Stephen King
Stephen King is a master storyteller. He’s often classed as writer of horror, but as one who generally doesn’t read horror, I think that’s not entirely accurate. In this collection…Read more…
Review: If It Bleeds, by Stephen King
Stephen King is a master storyteller. He’s often classed as writer of horror, but as one who generally doesn’t read horror, I think that’s not entirely accurate. In this collection…Read more…
Review: Ten Things About Writing, by Joanne Harris
Joanne Harris knows a thing or two about writing, having published some 20 novels and several other books as well. This short book came out at the height of the Covid-19 crisis and just in…Read more…
Review: The Water Dancer, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
I’ve thought for a while that one of the most honest films ever made about the subject of slavery in America is Quentin Tarantino’s Django. Even though the film is a fantasy (much like…Read more…
Review: Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists, by Julia Ebner
In 1943, the best-selling book Under Cover by John Roy Carlson described the pro-Axis groups that thrived in the US before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Carlson — whose real name…Read more…
Review: Killing Eve: Die for Me, by Luke Jennings
This is the third, and final, book in the series that began with Codename: Villanelle. When I first read about that book, I was very keen to read it — and was not disappointed. The…Read more…
Review: Gooseberries, by Anton Chekhov
The first of the Penguin Little Black Classics series that I’ve read — having bought a whole shelf of them a few years back — and it’s a good one. Chekhov is described as…Read more…