My mother raised two boys. She loves spending time with my son, her grandson, who has a tendency to bouncing-off-the-walls physical craziness in the manner of many toddlers. When he does something along those lines, my mother, who would know, is fond of saying “You’re such a boy.” I read mostly male authors but I have done better in recent years. I’ve tried really hard to get away from tough-talking PIs who put women in their place and screw them when the case is solved. […]
Spring Football is a Good Idea
I saw Jeff Pearlman speak on this, his new book at a nearby Barnes and Noble. He was concerned that nobody would read it. Pearlman has written books on such exciting sports subjects as Roger Clemens, the 90s Dallas Cowboys, and the 1980s Showtime Los Angeles Lakers. And yet, it was this subject, the relatively obscure minor league USFL that excited him more than anything else he’s worked on. But he knew it would be a tough sell, which is why, despite his relative success […]
Holy Case Crime
First things first: I got a free advance copy of the re-release of this novel thanks to the good folks over at Hard Case Crime! I collect HCC books as a hobby and am on their mailing list. I won a contest for a free copy of this one. They are awesome and know how to reward loyal customers. Much love to Charles Ardai and all the good folks over there. Donald Westlake is the kind of writer I would love to be, someone who’s […]
Life is a Mystery
This is the second book I’ve read in the last three years on Vietnamese immigrants to the US and both have been good in different ways. Dragonfish isn’t in the same league as The Sympathizer, the latter being the best thing I’ve read this decade. But it’s still a good book and if these two books provide a baseline quality for Vietnamese-American writers, I need to be checking out more of their work. I almost returned Dragonfish to the library before even reading it because the GoodReads reviews were…well they […]
Family Matters
As much as I loved the ending, I came away thinking this should have been much better than it was. Aside from a few standalone works, the most famous being And Then There Were None (still my favorite of hers), Agatha Christie is mostly known for her two famous detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. I imagine she probably got bored of writing for them (I almost certainly know this was true of Poirot) so on this one, she decided to venture out on her own. […]
“The Departed” set in Giuliani’s New York
This is what may be termed as a “bad sandwich” book: nothing wrong with the bread but what’s in the sandwich is awful. In other words: the first and third act are a lot of fun, the second act soured me to the point where it’s tough to appreciate the book in its totality. I’ll start with the positives. I liked the Michael Forsythe character. Immigrating from Ireland to get work, Michael is stuck with a violent gang tied to the Irish mob in early-90s […]
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