Reviews

In this early Lawrence Block thriller five characters are thrown together in a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro. Interwoven in the assassination story is the story/biography of how Fidel comes to power in Cuba. Written in 1961 shortly before the Cuban Missile crisis Block captures the time period and doesn't shy away from pulpy language.

I don't think anything I can write will be as compelling as this from one of the five, a murderer named Turner.

This book had great potential, and many great moments, but doesn’t deliver in the end.  After a night out with her four single girlfriends, Julie decides to travel the globe interviewing single women for a book about dating in different cultures.  It’s a great premise, except that Julie gets air sick every time she flies and is too shy to talk to strangers on her own. Fortunately, one of her friends is able to fly across the world to each country she visits to hold her hand.

Classed as a Mystery Thriller at the local bookstore and as Fiction at JCL, The Expected One follows protagonist journalist Maureen Pascal as she does research for her new novel. In the process, she discovers ancient mysteries involving the Cathar peoples of southwest France and uncovers legends including Mary Magdalene and a gospel that she wrote describing her life as Jesus’ wife and his teachings.

This is an older mystery, one I read shortly after it was first published in 1983, but it has stuck with me for many years, so when I recently found the library had a newly published edition, I reread it.  I was not disappointed--the characters inhabiting the small, terminally ill coal-mining town in Pennsylvania are still the rock solid working class, some of whom are immigrants and some first-generation Americans decended from their Italian and Polish parents.  The struggle to rise beyond the coal mines and unemployment are leading some of the residents to investigate  earning money in so

The Proteus Operation is about World War II. It’s about time traveling and alternate histories. It’s about quantum mechanics. And it’s about the human spirit and the lengths humans are willing to go to improve their, and others’, future. A group of scientists, diplomats and military personnel travel from a bleak, hopeless 1975 to a still-hopeful 1939.

“Betty Crocker’s Just cupcakes: 100 Recipes for the Way You Really Cook” has an eye catching cover with baking and decorating ideas for every holiday or just because you want to make them. Most of all each page lists how long it will take to create these delicious bits down to the very minute.

In Sebastian Junger’s latest non-fiction adventure War, the author spends parts of 15 months embedded with American soldiers in one of the deadliest locations in Afghanistan.  This is not a history of Afghanistan, not a commentary on US foreign policy, or a romanticized look at combat.  Politics and culture are far removed fro

Stockett's debut novel is a gem. The Help is a poignant look at the 1960's civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi. This story shows us the boundries that need crossing and endears us to the very few citizens willing to dare.

Widow Francesca Companile needs something to do to fill some lonely hours. Single mother Loretta Simmons needs a nanny. It seems like a match made in heaven, right. Not quite.

Felix Castor, Fix to people who like him, is an exorcist. When he accidentally almost excises an old college buddy instead of the demon who has possessed him, Fix gives up the business. Hard times, however, draw him into a case in which he becomes interested in helping the ghost, instead of those who want to get rid of it.