Category: Book Reviews
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The Mailman: A Review
The Mailman, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Mysterious Press, 2025). Meet Mercury Carter, a “mailman” like none other. Merc, as he prefers to be called, is the protagonist in Andrew Welsh-Huggins’ novel, fittingly titled The Mailman. Merc is totally dedicated to delivering packages, letters, even people to their designated destination. That isn’t always an easy task. In the…
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Team of Rivals: A Review — Part II
Part II of Team of Rivals – “Master Among Men” — provides an extensive analysis of Lincoln’s wartime leadership as well as the relationships he had to sustain and nurture in order to be a successful leader. At the outset of his administration, Lincoln had to make a difficult choice over whether to evacuate Fort…
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Team of Rivals: A Review — Part I
Since elementary school, I’ve probably written close to 100 book reports and book reviews, covering a wide range of genres (though not erotica). My review of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals (Simon & Schuster, 2005), however, is the first one that will be done in two parts. That’s partly because of the book’s length…
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A Review of The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
In my years as a participant in long-distance runs, I only dropped out of one race. That was the 1983 Columbus Marathon when grinding pain in my knees forced me to quit near the 20th mile. Had I been one of the boys in Stephen King’s The Long Walk, I wouldn’t have had the option…
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A Review of The Female of the Species
It’s a fact that males are more prone to violence than females. Indeed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, males account for 78.9 percent of the violent crimes committed in this country. But if nearly 80 percent of violent crimes are committed by males, around 20 percent are committed by females, which prompts one…
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The Last Laugh: A Review
In The Last Laugh (Katherine Tegen Books, 2022), Mindy McGinnis answers the questions left open at the end of The Initial Insult and reveals a different — and often negative — side of the characters who appeared in the first book of her duology. Three storylines form the core of The Last Laugh. First is…
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A Review of The Initial Insult
There are YA authors who hesitate to offend readers by showing them the ugly side of high school life, who shy away from the wrenching, painful issues facing today’s teenagers. Mindy McGinnis is, without doubt, NOT one of these writers. Ms. McGinnis confronts these issues and seizes them in a way that is compelling and…
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The Great Gatsby: Why It’s a Great Novel
Any list of the 10 best American novels is certain to include The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story of a handsome social climber, who pursues a married woman while suspicions swirl around both his profession and his pedigree. I probably should have read this classic long ago, but only finished it within the last…
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A Review of Stephen King’s Night Shift
Stephen King is known as a masterful writer of horror novels, many of which have been turned into successful movies. But before he gained fame with such spine-tinglers as Carrie, It, and The Shining, King was a struggling high school English teacher who wrote short stories for men’s magazines to help make ends meet. In…
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A Review of Chautauqua: An American Utopia
Simpson, Jeffrey. Chautauqua: An American Utopia. New York: Abrams Books, 1999. I have visited Chautauqua four times, and it is one of the most-serene, intellectually stimulating places I have ever been. Jeffrey Simpson’s book provides a comprehensive picture of Chautauqua’s origins and the changes it experienced over the decades that made it what it is…