If you’ve ever seen stiff Victorian photographs of children, you understand the creepiness some of them engender. Whether it’s the photographic process and film of the period that manage to accentuate visual oddities, or the length of time the subject is required to remain still for the photo to develop, there’s no denying the large … Read more
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has graciously answered some questions regarding his experience during the Katrina hurricane catastrophe and the self publishing of his first book: Katrina’s Secrets: Storms After the Storm Q: My first question would be a general one-How is New Orleans and the people doing these years after Katrina? Has … Read more
Roll Over and Play Dead—Joan Hess–1991–St. Martin’s Press–used If you’ve not encountered the worlds of Joan Hess, you have many unique hilarious to the point of embarrassing yourself, moments ahead. Practically any one title from her Claire Malloy series could be on my list, but I have a particular fondness for Roll Over and Play … Read more
An unlikely theme in books seems to be more prevalent than I realized. The use of twins in literature has been around forever, and many more recent titles have explored the bond and relationship between two identical siblings. Naturally, Chang and Eng was one of the first titles that popped into my mind when I … Read more
My father didn’t read. Ok, he read the newspaper and model railroading magazines. But fiction? No. The exceptions were located at a shopping spot called the Mart, where stalls contained various low key vendors, meaning, most of the stuff in the place consisted of velvet Elvis paintings, soft pretzels, and troll dolls. One stall sold … Read more
Recently, an article highlighting prolific writer and fantastic sales person, James Patterson, brought to the forefront his foray into YA lit. I somehow missed the beginning of this venture. He apparently released his adult suspense novel on the same day a YA novel was also released. And critics find this to be a sales ploy … Read more
Serial Killer Days—David Prill—1996–available Forget competing for Miss America, the real prize is to become Scream Queen at Standard Springs’ annual parade honoring their local serial killer who arrives during the festivities to slaughter another member of the upstanding community. Back in 1996, the dark humor was appreciated and hilarious. Today, it rings a little … Read more
A former boss used to call Barnes and Noble, The Evil Empire, and meant it. I remember B&N before it became B&N, when it was a fantastic outlet for remainders and other books, a real bookstore–not oh so full of itself, with author illustrated shopping bags, prepaid shelving for certain books, and a coffee shop … Read more
