One by One by Freida McFadden
So I really got into Freida McFadden’s thrillers for a while there. I liked the first one I read and reviewed a lot, so I went on a bit of a binge. After a few, I realized that they were suspenseful potato chips more than anything else, with the writing being so-so. I didn’t care, I love a cheap thrill. Sometimes you just want a ride, even if it’s in an old Yugo. But with One by One, I have come to the end of […]
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
CBR Bingo: Shadow All things had opposites close by, every decision a reason against it, every animal an animal that destroys it, the male the female, the positive the negative. The splitting of the atom was the only true destruction, the breaking of the universal law of oneness. Nothing could be without its opposite that was bound up with it. Strangers on a Train is not the first time I’ve read Patricia Highsmith. I’ve read her short stories (still scarred by “The Terrapin,” thanks), one […]
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
I feel dumber with each review I write. I loved Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. It has one of my favorite literary passages of all time: “Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it you’ve got to be kind.” But my brain won’t analyze it. It just loves […]
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
Sometimes I start to read a Cannonball review and stop a paragraph in, because I know I want to read the book and I don’t want to spoil anything, so I run off and buy the book, the review half-read. Such was the case for Emily Carroll’s collection of graphic short stories Through the Woods. I started Malin’s review and immediately knew the book was for me. Now that I’ve read the book, I read Malin’s whole review, and it’s amazing. Much better than mine. […]
Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present could not be more relevant. Authoritarian rule has wreaked destruction around the world. I picked up this book to read a historical analysis of Trump, among other autocrats and dictators, but found myself educated on much more than my corner of the world. Ben-Ghiat writes from a transhistorical perspective. From the introduction: “Strongmen argues that today’s leaders….have deeper roots. They recycle rhetoric and actions that go back to the dawn of authoritarianism in the 1920s and are invested […]
Naked in Death by JD Robb
After scanning the list of books in Classic’s recent review of JD Robb’s (pen name for Nora Roberts) “In Death” series, I thought I would read the first book, Naked in Death. The book features detective Eve Dallas, a no-nonsense cop with golden eyes like a lion. Also very lithe. With tousled short hair. And firm breasts. This will come into play later. The story opens on the brutal murder of a high-class escort. Eve is a cop on the scene and soon is off […]
