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Mad sanity, or sane madness
Steve Wishnevsky of Winston-Salem has unearthed a gem from a few years back. By Stephen Wishnevsky LAMB: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal. By Christopher Moore. Harper, 2002. Available in various hardback and paperback editions. One of those books. Quite mad, and rather sane, a parable of parables, or a satire of satires,…
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Good food, good reading
By Linda Brinson Those who have access to the Greensboro News & Record might want to take a look at my review on its Books page today of Maya Angelou’s new cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Eat Splendidly, Eat Smart. It’s a cookbook that offers both delicious recipes and common-sense advice for losing weight…
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Who did whatever it was?
Paul O’Connor’s latest reading venture involved an actual book rather than the screen of his iPhone, and he moved from 19th century fiction to a real-life 20th century mystery. By Paul T. O’Connor DEATH OF A PINEHURST PRINCESS: The 1935 Elva Statler Davidson Mystery. By Steve Bouser. The History Press. 206 pages. $19.99, trade paperback.…
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The Sounds of Battle at Sea
When I drive alone, I like to listen to audio books. I listen almost exclusively to fiction, just as almost everything I read is fiction. It’s not that I dislike nonfiction; it’s more that try as I might, I find it hard to make myself read nonfiction. I blame this failing on my long years…
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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…