If you’re in and around the Tampa area in Florida, you might want to check out the annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., today, March 1. The event concludes on Sunday, March 2 but only runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The book fair will be held atContinue reading “Florida Antiquarian Book Fair Scheduled For This Weekend”
Category Archives: Book Reviews
‘Lies He Told Me’ Is A Nice Thriller With Some Well-Deserved Twists
With a mediocre title and lackluster cover, Lies He Told Me could’ve been another one of James Patterson’s less than stellar novels. There’s even been some talk that Patterson has the books ghost-written but only does a polish as the actual writers are the lesser known ones who share the below the title credit. AndContinue reading “‘Lies He Told Me’ Is A Nice Thriller With Some Well-Deserved Twists”
‘Spamalot Diaries’ Is The Book Equivalent Of You Just Had To Be There
I’ve been a big Monty Python fan for over 30 years. Little did I know that some of my favorite movies as a kid like A Fish Called Wanda and Yellowbeard which I saw in the 1980s had that Pythonesque humor to it. (Ok, Yellowbeard is not so good once you get older.) And IContinue reading “‘Spamalot Diaries’ Is The Book Equivalent Of You Just Had To Be There”
‘Queer’ Is Quite Straight
I’m going to be brutally honest here. Just because a movie, TV show or literary work covers a subject matter that is (or in this case) was hardly ever discussed, it doesn’t make it automatically great. William S. Burroughs was part of the Beat Generation, but we have to wonder was he consider good becauseContinue reading “‘Queer’ Is Quite Straight”
‘Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ Dated But Overall Moral Is Timeless
Barbara Robinson was in her mid-40s when she published The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. And it’s the type of novel someone middle-aged in the early 1970s would write. It’s very dated by today’s standards as the narrator Elizabeth “Beth” Bradley is recalling the story as it happened when she was younger. But stories about menContinue reading “‘Best Christmas Pageant Ever’ Dated But Overall Moral Is Timeless”
‘If Animals Could Talk’ Doesn’t Wear Out It’s One-Joke Premise
If Animals Could Talk: A Children’s Book for Adults is one of those vulgar silly books that is intended for people with sophomoric humor. That’s not to say, it isn’t funny. I did laugh. Despite the 132 pages, I got through it in no time. And that’s just what a book like this should be,Continue reading “‘If Animals Could Talk’ Doesn’t Wear Out It’s One-Joke Premise”
‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’ Series Remain Some Of The Best
Like most people, I was very disappointed with the 2019 loose adaptation of the book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The three books published over a 10-year period from Oct. 14, 1981 to Sept. 1, 1991 were some of the true terrifying stories for young people. Most of them were retellings ofContinue reading “‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’ Series Remain Some Of The Best”
‘Private Diary Of Lyle Menendez’ The Mind Of A Sociopath Or A Manchild?
Now that the Menendez Brothers have been thrusted into the spotlight once again with the show Monsters on Netflix, there’s a brief mention of this book. And anyone who is a true-crime buff will like to read or more importantly listen to the audiobook. But anyone else will junk it as garbage. I admit, LyleContinue reading “‘Private Diary Of Lyle Menendez’ The Mind Of A Sociopath Or A Manchild?”
‘Dragon Teeth’ Has Some Bite, Yet The Story Feels Undercooked
When Michael Crichton passed away in 2008, he left behind several novels, some unfinished, but some of them weren’t published during his lifetime for a reason. Crichton still needed and wanted to fix them up some more. Stephen King has talked about how he lets a manuscript’s first draft “marinate.” He’ll forget about it forContinue reading “‘Dragon Teeth’ Has Some Bite, Yet The Story Feels Undercooked”
‘Memoirs And Misinformation’ Is A Muddled Mess
In his memoir Gasping for Airtime, actor/comic Jay Mohr talked about the cultural divide between the writers and performers on Saturday Night Live during his tenure in the early to mid-1990s. It was obvious he observed so many of the people were trying to be more smart and sophisticated than they actually were. And readingContinue reading “‘Memoirs And Misinformation’ Is A Muddled Mess”
Zane Says 