Category: Uncategorized

  • From chaos, violence comes a brilliant novel

    Bob Moyer reviews the latest novel by one of his favorite authors. One note: Despite what Bob writes, not all Southerners called the conflict of the 1860s the War Between the States. Some – I think particularly of an elderly woman who owned a historic house in downtown Charleston that a group of graduate students…

  • A friendship forged in fire

    Paul O’Connor, intrepid journalist and discerning reader, reviews a new book about the long-lasting friendship between two very different American heroes. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE WINGMEN: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams. By Adam Lazarus. The Citadel Press. 232 pages. $29, hardcover. There’s no explaining friendships. Often, people…

  • Like fine wine, a good novel grows better with age

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson. RUIN CREEK. By David Payne. Cedar Lane Books, an imprint of Ingram. 367 pages. $18, paperback. If you’re looking for a beautifully written, moving, wise novel to read while you’re lounging on the beach under a shady tent or umbrella, you couldn’t do better than Ruin Creek, the second of…

  • Looking for love and a whole lot more

    If you’re looking for a good detective novel, Bob Moyer is the man to ask. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer RACING THE LIGHT. By Robert Craig. Putnam. 355 pages. $29. In the pantheon of L.A. crime writers, Michael Connelly stands head and shoulders above a crowded field. His Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch manifests a modern-day version…

  • Mystery, history and the lives of women

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson ASHTON HALL. By Lauren Belfer. Penguin Random House Audio. Read by Jayne Entwhistle and Kristen Sieh. 12 hours, 38 minutes. Also available in hardback from Ballantine Books. Don’t start listening to (or reading) this book unless you have some time to spare. Once you start, you won’t want to stop.…

  • Life and love in spite of the horrors

    Bob Moyer likes mysteries, detective stories and other fiction, but he also has a more serious side.  In his nonfiction-reading mode, he’s often a student of the Holocaust. This book, he says, is very real – and, thank goodness, also a story of survival and even happiness. INTO THE FOREST. By Rebecca Frankel. St. Martin’s…

  • Murder, monks and mirth

    Bob Moyer is back with a review of a book with plenty of “outlandish humor.” FELONIOUS MONK. By William Kotzwinkle. Blackstone Publishing. 278 pages. $26.99. William Kotzwinkle may be the most famous author you’ve never heard of. He has sold more than 10 million books across a swath of genres: the cult ‘70s favorite The…

  • Lost Generation, lost opportunity

    Paul O’Connor, esteemed newspaperman and professor, makes it a practice not to review – or even to finish reading – books he really doesn’t like. Keep that in mind as you read his take on a historical novel about books and authors in Paris a century ago. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE PARIS BOOKSELLER. By Kerri…

  • Not for the faint hearted

    There were the holidays, you know. Oh, and he recently moved to a new house. And other things intervened. But Bob Moyer is back in book-reviewing mode now, and the world rejoices. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer DEAD GIRL BLUES. By Lawrence Block. LB Productions. 218 pages. $24.99. She’s dead. Her blues are over. The…

  • Unraveling the girl she was

    Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer A GIRL’S STORY. By Annie Ernaux. Seven Stories Press. 160 pages. $18.95 Shame and humiliation. She spent two nights with a man, then fixated on him, in 1958, earning the name “whore around the edges” from her colleagues. She carried that shame with her for 58 years, until she decided to…