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Dark, soulful tales that haunt long after the last page.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain My rating: 3 of 5 stars I read this book in high school over 30 years ago, then faked it twice more in college. I didn’t like it much in high school. The main thing I remembered was hating the ending. This time, I was really enjoying…
The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner My rating: 2 of 5 stars This is a hard one to review. While I was actively reading the book was pretty good. After I closed it for a while, I’d ask myself what happened in that last chapter. The answer was usually, “Nothing.” There were instances of nice…
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller My rating: 5 of 5 stars Norwegian by Night Wow! What to say about this book? How to define it, even? When I chose it I was just hoping for a decent read set in the land of the Vikings. A literary novel. I didn’t have high expectations.…
John Steinbeck Was Wrong About Oklahoma ! by Bob Burke My rating: 1 of 5 stars Oklahoma City attorney Bob Burke continues 70+ years of ignorant knee-jerk reaction to John Steinbeck’s masterpiece work of literature. One wonders how Burke could ever win a court case if he prepares his cases like he does the “research”…
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak My rating: 5 of 5 stars Review Upon 2nd Reading, Jan. 18, 2016 The experience wasn’t quite as magical the second time around. It never is. The book holds up well and I saw things I missed the first time, had a new perspective on others. It’s still a…
I read 32 books this year, which happens to be the same number as last year. There were some really, really good books, and some stinkers. Some were re-reads for school, but most were first-timers. And the majority of the reading I did on my own seemed to be novels set in the Old West.…
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky My rating: 4 of 5 stars As a teacher, it’s my job (and my privilege) to assign great literature to my students. They don’t always appreciate what I assign. But sometimes something clicks with them. When that happens, they often return the favor by suggesting one…
Christmas. The end of the year. It’s time to look back and be nostalgic, right? Like Ralphie in A Christmas Story. But I didn’t grow up in the late 1940s like he did. My childhood was the psychedelic and disco-infused decade of the 1970s. Enid, Oklahoma, didn’t have big department stores downtown with windows full of…
Preacher’s Assault by William W. Johnstone My rating: 2 of 5 stars If you’re looking for a fast-paced Western set in the days before the Civil War and you don’t care much about character development or clever writing, this is your book. Preacher’s Assault is apparently the 17th volume in William W. Johnstone’s The First…
Mojave by Johnny D. Boggs My rating: 3 of 5 stars I think there are three classes of Western novel. There are the books like the John Slocum series written by “Jake Logan” and the Preacher series by William W. Johnstone where the action is non-stop and there really isn’t much in the way of…
Steven E. Wedel 