Month: September 2014

  • Grand and terrible

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson I’d seen the large monument in the cemetery at Hospital Point on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. It’s a structure of rocks, topped by an ice-glazed cross and an anchor. I suppose I’d even read the inscription. But there are a lot of monuments on the…

  • A chilling Barcelona tale

    Antonio Hill’s day job, according to the blurb on the cover of this audio book, is translating English-language fiction into Spanish. He must have analyzed what makes fiction successful as he pursued his translations. Like his debut thriller, The Summer of Dead Toys, published a year ago, his new book is expertly plotted, intelligently written,…

  • The dreariness of conformity

    Charles Davenport Jr. of Greensboro, a new contributor, takes a look at a 1993 book that’s much in the news because of a movie adaptation. Reviewed by Charles Davenport Jr. THE GIVER. By Lois Lowry. Houghton Mifflin. 225 pages. $9.99. In the movie theater about a month ago, I saw an interesting preview for a…