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Wacky and oh, so true
Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson Understandably, when newspaper reporters try writing fiction, they’re likely to have a newspaper reporter as a major character. Stephen Roth, who spent 12 years in the trenches as a reporter for newspapers in Missouri and Florida, gives us a good one in Pete Schaefer, an aspiring novelist who’s stuck in…
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Those binding ties
In my mind, one of the great values of audio books is that I’ll try something that I wouldn’t normally sit down and read in the print version. Although I’ve abandoned audio books that were really bad or just not interesting to me, I’m more likely to give something I think I might not much…
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And who do you think you are?
Some books are so good that, having read them in print, I can’t wait to hear the story all over again in an audio version, with professionally rendered accents and inflections. Fannie Flagg’s latest novel is that kind of book. I’ve read it and listened to it, and I’m still smiling. Reviewed by Linda C.…
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Y’all come back now, hear?
Once again, Bob Moyer and I have read the same book. I reviewed Margaret Maron’s latest for the Greensboro News & Record, and Bob is reviewing it for Briar Patch Books. I may have treated Maron’s book a tad more gently than Bob did, but we are in agreement that the new one is not…
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Have mercy on us!
Anne Barnhill is an inspiration to me. She’s courageously battling some health problems, but manages to find time to read, review and write. Rather than complain or feel sorry for herself, she finds joy in life. She also takes whatever comes and mines it for material for new poems, books and insights. Anne is the…
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Mrs. Murphy: No. 20
Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown have just graced us with the 20th anniversary Mrs. Murphy mystery. Since cats don’t usually live as long as humans do, I find myself worrying about Sneaky Pie’s advancing age. If this latest book is any indication, though, the cat is still on her writing game. And if…
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Still time for a summer read
I’ll admit it. In a way, I’m late in reviewing this book. It would make a good beach read, and here we are at the end of July. I don’t mean that “beach read” description as an insult. While Summer in the South is an entertaining, reasonably quick read, it has more substance than many…
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Red clay, bad blood
Valerie Nieman is a seasoned journalist, a novelist and a poet. She uses all those experiences and talents to good effect in this, her third novel. Originally from western New York State, Valerie Nieman teaches writing at N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro, N.C. She arrived in North Carolina via West Virginia, where she graduated…
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Watch out: Here comes Miss Julia
Ann B. Ross of Hendersonville, N.C., is a delightful lady whom I’ve had the privilege of interviewing twice – once for the Winston-Salem Journal back in the 1980s when she published The Pilgrimage, a novel about two orphaned sisters traveling on the Oregon Trail, and then for Our State magazine when her 11th Miss Julia…
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Michael Malone’s latest (I think), and editors or their lack
Michael Malone, a North Carolina writer, is one of my favorite contemporary authors. He’s also one of the most frustrating. At times, he goes long stretches without publishing a novel. Somehow, when he does come out with a new novel, it takes me by surprise. Even though I’ve been a book-review editor for 25 years,…