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Here’s where the twain shall meet (pun intended)
Stephen Wishnevsky must have … jet lag? Airship lag? In no time at all, he’s traveled from Mark Twain and The Gilded Age to Agatha H and a wild Girl Genius fantasy. Who knows where he will venture next? By Stephen Wishnevsky AGATHA H AND THE AIRSHIP CITY. By Phil and Kaja Foglio. Night Shade…
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The Queen’s true love
Anne Barnhill may have mixed emotions when she reads historical novels. If they are well written, she enjoys them, as she did the one she reviews here. But, since Anne is also hard at work on her own first historical novel, she is likely also analyzing why she enjoys the books she reads – which,…
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A tale of today – still
Steve Wishnevsky, who enjoys reading old books on new gadgets, takes a look at another of Mark Twain’s works. By Stephen Wishnevsky THE GILDED AGE: A TALE OF TODAY. By Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. Public Domain, 1873 It behooves the historically inclined reader to respect a novel that gave name to a whole…
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The plain truth: A great new series
Look in any bookstore or airport newsstand, or on the shelves of many variety, grocery and drugstores for that matter, and you will see that mystery series are flourishing. Some are the more hard-boiled detective types; some are heavy on violence. There are also plenty of series for those of us who prefer the cozier…
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Off to France
Knowing Bob Moyer and how much he travels, I have a prediction: If Martin Walker’s mystery series has made Bob want to visit the Perigord region of France, Bob will be visiting the Perigord region of France. One day, I’ll be hard at work in Stokes County, N.C., and my phone will ring. When I…
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Let the debate continue!
Paul O’Connor’s amazing (?) feat of reading Moby-Dick on his iPhone prompted Stephen Wishnevsky of Winston-Salem to write about another classic of American literature, Huckleberry Finn, and to confess to an act of literary heresy. By Stephen Wishnevsky. In the same thread as Paul O’Connor’s review of “Moby-Dick; or, The Whale,” by Herman Melville, I…
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Whirlwind memoir
Anne Barnhill of Garner, N.C., who’s hard at work on a novel to be published by St. Martin’s, has also written a short-story collection and a moving memoir, At Home in the Land of Oz, which tells her story of growing up with an autistic sister. Here, Anne takes a look at a new memoir…
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Is this man insane?
Paul O’Connor is special. All those who write for this book blog do so because they love books. They like to read them, and they also like to talk about what they have read. They enjoy the thoughtful conversation about books that’s increasingly moving to the Internet as more and more print publications give up…
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Praise for a History of Christianity
Stephen Wishnevsky of Winston-Salem weighs in on a weighty book. He hasn’t quite finished the book – it’s long – but his review is worthwhile nonetheless. By Stephen Wishnevsky CHRISTIANITY: THE FIRST THREE THOUSAND YEARS. By Diarmaid MacCulloch. Viking Press. 2010. 1016 pages. $45. As much as I hate to review a book that I…
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Hello Again – Tentatively
Forgive me reviewers and readers. I have been remiss in posting reviews. I have a number of good reviews waiting in the wings, and they’ve been waiting for a while. But it’s not my fault. Or if it is my fault, it’s only in that I celebrated publicly the coming of high-speed Internet to the…