A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers
I meant to cobble this together along with some other books I’ve been reading the last few days into one review. But I couldn’t with this one. From the first few pages, I knew it would grab me. And it had the energy to carry to the end. I’m a gracious grader when it comes to reviews. I don’t mind that. A four star book for me is a good book. A three star one is a good book with nebulous flaws. I don’t give […]
Pale Horse Rider: William Cooper, the Rise of Conspiracy, and the Fall of Trust in America by William Jacobson
A few weeks after the, shall we say, contentious 2016 primary, a former friend who I still somewhat interacted with on Facebook (and who was and maybe still is a dyed-in-the-wool Way Too Online Libertarian) started blasting me in the comment section of some post I made. He accused me of supporting weird, horrific stuff that made no sense just because I voted for Hillary Clinton. Not being a patron of the Conservative Reddit Extended Universe, I had no idea what he was referring to. […]
Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life As A Weapon by Matt Fraction
Death Comes As The End by Agatha Christie
Country Dark by Chris Offutt
Heaven's A Lie by Wallace Stroby
Over the weekend and into the early part of this week, I read four books. Each one merited four stars and all were good in their own unique way… Hawkeye, Vol 1: My Life as a Weapon It’s good. I guess. No really, it’s good. All good. It’s fine. Just…it’s kind of why I don’t read a lot of comics: simplistic hero narratives with twee dialogue. I know this is what everyone wants thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m not sure it’s what […]
The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden
Being a fan of HBO’s Succession, I think I have a thing for rich people acting like dolts. Not even four years of the Trump regime could change that. I had checked out this book months ago but didn’t have time to read it. Plus the reviews were not very positive. However, as it got closer to movie time, I really wanted to know the story as it seemed fascinating. So I grabbed it again. This is a “true crime” book in a very nominal sense […]
Thank you to the very thoughtful ElCicco for your package. Not only did I get two books I’m excited to read (John Copenhaver’s new thriller The Savage Kind and Mike Capite’s love letter to NYC Jacket Weather), I also received a lovely Pittsburgh post card AND some locally sold toffee. What a sweet gift. I hope you have the best holiday!
The Pledge by Kathleen Kent
This one followed the same pattern as the Hunger Games trilogy: interesting first book followed by an excellent second and a concluding one that basically made me say “Eh, ok, I guess that’s an ending.” Part of why I loved (indeed loved) The Burn, the second book in the Betty Rhyzyk trilogy, is because I thought Kathleen Kent did an excellent job covering Betty’s PTSD from the end of the events of the first book. Too often, series writers put their characters through hell only to have them […]
