Diane Plumley I don’t know what else to call this unbelievable turn in the issue of censorship and disruption of public school curriculum. I only know that a state I visited and enjoyed, has now become the poster child for backward, dictatorial thinking. The voters of this state should not only be ashamed of themselves for voting … Read more
A man inside his car at a gas station is shot point blank by a motorcyclist wearing a opaque helmet who then speeds off. After some detective work, they realize the dead man was friends with a former beauty queen, wife of a wealthy prominent restaurant owner. A mother with 9 children–two adopted. And when … Read more
I’ve always heard this expression as: Dead as a door-nail. A rather odd expression to begin with. So I checked on its origins. Apparently no one is absolutely sure of whence the simile came. The best scholars can theorize it is a reference to the nails used on large wooden doors back in the middle … Read more
Not about book-selling, not about censorship, not about amazon or B&N, not about collecting, not about anything except a wish that everyone have a great time celebrating however and whatever one does this time of year. I’ve vastly enjoyed this past year writing about various subjects related to books, and the conversations, sometimes arguments, keep … Read more
Whoa! There are far more awards for writers of crime fiction than I realized. I thought I knew them all, even a rather low key one called the Hammett Prize. Uh, no. Apparently not. Some mystery writers awards are within a more general literary group, just one section. I was unaware of these and perhaps, … Read more
While researching my articles on biblio mysteries, I again came across the dust jacket art for a title called The Bookshop Mystery, by James Saxon Childers. And as I usually do, I judge a book by its cover, and since the cover is a Deco delight–I hunted one down–not as easy as one would think–they seem … Read more
I have a bunch of articles on the burner, but when I heard of Hitchens’ death, and read some obits, I thought I’d comment. I’ve not read any of his books. I’ve seen him on various talking head shows, including The Daily Show, and I generally knew what he was about. It wasn’t until reading … Read more
Richard Russo interviewed several best selling authors about the recent amazon trickery, and the results were comforting, at least. The authors, including, Scott Turow, Stephen King, and Dennis Lehane all found amazon’s tactics less than a stellar business practice. However, the comments to the article were typical in the ‘oh you elitists’ and ‘poor amazon’ … Read more
