-
Review: My Ántonia
My Ántonia by Willa Cather My rating: 2 of 5 stars There are some fantastic lines in this novel. Some great scenes. I liked the characters a lot. But ultimately … nothing happens. There’s no crisis. No villain. No problem that has to be overcome. It’s just kinda there. What’s the story about? Well … […]
-
The Year of Horses and Porn
It’s time for my 2016 year in review in terms of books I read. There are a lot of Westerns on the list. There’s also a lot of erotica. I swear, though, that stuff was for market research purposes. Honestly! I read 55 books last year. I don’t know if this is a personal record […]
-
Review: The Day the Cowboys Quit
The Day the Cowboys Quit by Elmer Kelton My rating: 3 of 5 stars I haven’t read a whole lot of Elmer Kelton’s Western fiction — in fact, this is only the second novel of his I can recall reading — but that needs to change. I really enjoy his style of writing, his level […]
-
Review: Orphans of the Sky
Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein My rating: 3 of 5 stars A friend told me about this novel way, way back in the early 1990s. I kept forgetting the name of it, but finally bought a copy several years ago, and just now got around to reading it. From the moment Bruce […]
-
Another Open Letter to Oklahoma Lawmakers
State Question 779 was not a good bill. It put the burden of the legislature’s job of funding teacher salaries onto the shoulders of everyone in Oklahoma, hurting the poor the most. And so it failed. One can hope people voted it down because it was a regressive tax and not because they feel like […]
-
Review: Stranded: A Novel
Stranded: A Novel by Bracken MacLeod My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a good one. Is it a horror novel? A science fiction novel? An adventure story? Why choose? It’s all the above! Noah Cabot is a deck hand on the Arctic Promise, and the ship is in a very violent storm as […]
-
Review: Fate and The Exorcist: An In-depth Interview with William Peter Blatty
Fate and The Exorcist: An In-depth Interview with William Peter Blatty by Brian James Freeman My rating: 3 of 5 stars Not really a biography, but an extended interview with William Peter Blatty. It left me with a lot of questions that still aren’t answered, but it was an interesting read. You’ll learn more about […]
-
Review: In the Season of the Sun
In the Season of the Sun by Kerry Newcomb My rating: 2 of 5 stars I just didn’t care for it. The story was too heavy on the romance. This will sound sexist, I know, but honestly, the romance was such an important element of the story that I thought Kerry was a woman. Yeah, […]
-
Review: Wolf: The Lives of Jack London
Wolf: The Lives of Jack London by James L. Haley My rating: 3 of 5 stars The Call of the Wild has long been one of my favorite books, and it’s the first novel we read together in my AP Literature class to illustrate The Hero’s Journey and introduce literary movements. I’d read London’s The […]
-
Review: ‘Salem’s Lot
‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King My rating: 4 of 5 stars So many years since my first visit to Jerusalem’s Lot! Way back in the halcyon days of the early 1980s, when the teenage version of myself decided to move out of high fantasy and explore the horror genre, I began by buying an H.P. […]