For more reasons than one you need to read Angela Clarke’s story from six years ago. Shoutout to my sister-in-law Brenda for alerting me to this excerpt from Clarke’s account: My own fragility revealed that a library is not just… Read More ›
Books
Ingrid Thoft
No, “Identity Theft” is not the title of this book — though you can readily see why Barbara thought so when she glanced quickly at the cover. Identity is Ingrid Thoft’s second novel. In some ways it’s in the tradition… Read More ›
Old authors never die…
Lawrence Block’s latest novella, A Time to Scatter Stones, and one of Ruth Rendell’s last novels, The Monster in the Box, have something in common — a couple of things, in fact. It’s no coincidence that both books were written late in… Read More ›
The Punishment She Deserves
Elizabeth George writes literature, not genre fiction. That’s the sensibility of her novels, even though they are technically mysteries, which should make them genre fiction. The Punishment She Deserves is the 20th of her Lynley/Havers books, and I think I’ve read all… Read More ›
Crime & Punctuation (and a cat)
Crime & Punctuation. No, not the novel by Dostoevsky that just happens to have a somewhat similar title — that one that only English majors and Russian lit students have actually read, although everyone else claims to. (Confession: at least… Read More ›
The Temptation of Forgiveness
Looking closely, you will notice that the image here is a scene from Venice. I’ve read all 19 — can it really be 19? — of Donna Leon’s novels, all of which center on Venice. I’ve reviewed four of them before,… Read More ›
The Colors of All the Cattle
Review #8 here about Alexander McCall Smith’s Botswana series! I’ve been writing about these 19 charming books for a long time, most recently three years ago but going back to April of 2006 for the first post — almost 13… Read More ›
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
Neal Stephenson is the best. As a long-time fan, I can assure you that this conclusion is an objective fact, not a matter of personal opinion. Your mileage may vary, but I doubt it. Up to this point I have reviewed… Read More ›
Shell Game
If you like Donald Trump, don’t bother reading Shell Game, Sara Paretsky’s newest mystery novel: it will only irritate you. For the rest of us, it’s definitely worth reading. For a long time I always read every Paretsky book, but… Read More ›
Am I related to George R.R. Martin? What does Skip Gates say?
George R.R. Martin Larry Davidson People have often claimed that I look like George R.R. Martin. I always thought that they were just paying attention to the beard, the suspenders, and the physique — but now I know of another… Read More ›
