It’s Good Friday When the hordes Demanded blood Not theirs but another’s For the sin of uttering words They didn’t want to hear For not uttering the words They wanted to hear Words that rang, that sang, that clanged In their heads Of a Reality that doesn’t exist. It’s Good Friday When the people Demanded…
Category: Writings
Articles, essays, stories, etc.
Medicine Admits Concussions Bad but Still Doesn’t Understand
I read an article in The Toronto Star recently titled “A Blow to the Head is a Big Deal” by Megan Ogilvie (8 April 2011), and I knew I had to read it. It wasn’t long before I was grumbling and had to comment on it. So here are some excerpts with my thoughts. ““The…
Review: The Sugar House
The Sugar House by Laura Lippman My rating: 3 of 5 stars The Sugar House features Tess Monaghan, an eminently likable private investigator with interesting, complicated relationships and a good eye for the missed (by the reader) detail. I like how Baltimore is treated like a character in the book and how Tess interacts with…
Review: The Closers
The Closers by Michael Connelly My rating: 3 of 5 stars Harry Bosch is the hero of this mystery series that progresses in character development and personal plot points through time. But though this book is #11, which normally means feeling lost in this kind of series if you’re coming to it as a new…
Review: The Golden Spiders
The Golden Spiders by Rex Stout My rating: 4 of 5 stars What can I say? I love Rex Stout books. They’re my go-to when I need something light, easy to read, but with engaging characters, a realistic plot, and a good mystery. The Golden Spiders fills the bill just as well as other Stout…
Review: A Catskill Eagle
A Catskill Eagle by Robert B. Parker My rating: 3 of 5 stars Robert Parker is a good writer, though you wouldn’t think so with the kind of formulaic books that he writes. In the first sentence, I already had a sense of the narrator Spenser, plus the sentence itself wasn’t formula writing. By the…
From Paper to Pixels
This is from a talk I gave to my fraternity on their Career Day. We are in an age of transition. Like those who went from calligraphy to the Gutenberg press, so we are going from pen and print books to tablet computers and ebooks. Up until early last century, manuscripts were written by hand.…
Review: Cradle and All
Cradle and All by James Patterson My rating: 2 of 5 stars Boy, does James Patterson write short chapters. That was my first thought, this from someone who writes short chapters herself, but not quite that brief. This style of writing moves the story along rapidly and doesn’t require the author to put in transitions…
Review: Double for Death
Double for Death by Rex Stout My rating: 4 of 5 stars I borrowed Double for Death eBook from the Toronto Public Library, virtual branch, thinking it was a Nero Wolfe mystery, not knowing Rex Stout had written another series starring a different kind of detective called “Tecumseh Fox.” A bit of a surprise when…