One of my favorite crime writers was Andrea Camilleri, who died in July of 2019 at age ninety-four. His Inspector Montalbano series, set in Sicily, was the subject of a previous column. Camilleri’s books were full of wit, violence, and a deep knowledge of human nature. His death, and the pro…
For good or ill, the end of the year calls up a whole half-dozen occasions for bookish gift-giving—holidays, traditions, and family gatherings. In 2020, there’s one more occasion, grimmer and more universal than any of the others have ever been. We’ve all earned the feeling of being survivors.
It seems to me that production of detective stories on so large a scale, and by writers whose immediate reward is small and whose need of critical praise is almost nil, would not be possible at all if the job took any talent.
The lifeblood of any publishing year is novelty, in all its forms. The endless parade of books on bookstore display tables all calls out to prospective buyers with the same call: new, new, new! The newest novels, the newest histories, the newest biographies taking advantage of the newest so…
Coming Attractions
There are some books I am a little reluctant to review. I struggle to overcome that reluctance because dark things happen in our world, and we gain nothing by hiding them—or hiding from them. In truth, we lose because by hiding them, we let then grow and fester.
Despite the blazing heat and choking humidity outside, despite the classic dog-days-of-summer feeling of being trapped all day and all night under a soggy, heated blanket, the weeks are slowly filing in, and the autumn book-season is slowly drawing nearer. The season typically brings an incr…
I was in law enforcement for over twelve years. Many things, like the high incarceration rate of black males, have disturbed me about our criminal justice system. But when it came to police brutality, I believed in the “few rotten apples” theory. I understand the pressures police face from a…
Max Brooks had a massive bestseller on his hands back in 2006 when he wrote that War and Peace of zombie novels, World War Z. The book's title was later used in a Brad Pitt movie that otherwise had virtually nothing in common with the book other than hordes of shambling undead, but millions …
The action of Matthew Carr's second novel (following 2017's The Devils of Cardona) kicks off in Barcelona in the summer of 1909. It features private detective Harry Lawton, who arrives in the city just in time to be drawn into a series of bizarre killings. Several people have been killed by …
Jill McCorkle's new novel Hieroglyphics is on one level a quiet, modest story about a battered, durable, loving marriage. Lil and Frank Wishart have been together for years, their long marriage first cemented by the fact that each of them had already been deeply wounded by personal bereaveme…
A new writer has piqued my curiosity. Well, Lydia Davis is not a new writer, as she has at least 16 books to her credit. Only one of them is a novel, “The End of the Story.” I have not read it and likely will not read it. A brief description of the story made me think it would not hold my interest.
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, the subject of history professor Brian Holden Reid’s new book The Scourge of War, has been a controversial figure pretty much since he graduated from West Point in 1840. In the popular imagination, he’s remembered for three things: his firebrand genera…
On a chilly April morning in 1984, while driving my daughter to middle school. I saw a small African American child wearing a heavy-looking backpack trudging along Powers Ferry Road. I stopped to give him a ride. The child, a classmate of my daughter’s, said he’d been suspended from riding t…
(NewsUSA) - The first month of the New Year is galloping by and many folks are still sorting out their goals and resolutions for 2021. Hooray … Read more
(StatePoint) Headline news often directly impacts the types of scams you may encounter, and scammers have been hoping to take advantage of tho… Read more
(NewsUSA) - Maybe it was a sleek, reusable water bottle. Whatever it was, most of us probably bought or received a gift last month that was ma… Read more
(BPT) - Even if you’re not the tech savviest person, you probably already use some technology to make your life easier, from your smartphone g… Read more
(NAPSI)—The U.S. Postal Service has added tiers to the USPS® Loyalty Program for business customers—a move that helps small businesses improve… Read more
(BPT) - The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult on small businesses. Whether it's a local eatery, service provider, retail store or another t… Read more
(NAPSI)—During 2020, for many Americans, home and work lives saw a major shift as people turned living space into workspace—and classrooms, an… Read more
(StatePoint) 2020 was more than just a health crisis, it had ripple effects on nearly every aspect of our lives, including our long-term finan… Read more
(BPT) - Picking the right phone and wireless service can feel like you're a contestant on the world's most complicated game show. So how do sm… Read more
(BPT) - The next big thing in the quest for customer loyalty isn’t new, and it isn’t fancy. But it definitely does not come in the mail. The t… Read more
(NewsUSA) - Celebrations of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History Month often prompt consideration of the United States' dive… Read more
(NewsUSA) - The arrival of the new year means new decisions for students planning their futures. Although the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has th… Read more
