The reading of Stephen King continues.  This time we visit a small northeastern town that becomes infested with vampires.The premise of the book is simple.  What would happen if a single vampire moved into a small town?  Who be the first infected?  How would the infection spread?  Who would recognize what was happening and choose to stand... Continue Reading →

November Mourns by Tom Piccirilli is one of the stranger books I've ever read.  It will probably percolate in my dreams for many nights to come.Shad has just been released from prison (incarcerated for defending his sister's honor) to find that his sister has died under mysterious circumstances.  Shad believes she was murdered and wants to... Continue Reading →

China Syndrome by Karl Taro Greenfeld is one of the scariest books I've ever read.  It's a nonfiction chronicle of SARS in China.  The disease is scary enough.  Out of nowhere, people become dangerously ill and around 10% of those infected die.  But that's not the scary part.  The scary part is the government's response to... Continue Reading →

I'm not really sure what to say about A Handful of Dust  by Evelyn Waugh.  This was a very odd novel.  Set in England in the very early 20th century, it seemed a commentary on a society that I didn't fully understand.  The story centers on a couple, Tony and Brenda.  Brenda sets off on... Continue Reading →

Between XX and XY by Gerald N. Callahan is a non-fiction book about sex.  It made me realize that I have been unintentionally perpetuating a myth.  Most people know a little about the X and Y chromosomes.  If you have two X chromosomes, you are a female.  If you have one X and one Y,... Continue Reading →

I knew there would be trouble from the start.  Allison, the "heroine" of Sandra Brown's Thursday's Child is a geneticist.  How did I know that would lead to trouble?  This book was written in 1985, it's a romance, and Brown does not have a strong background in the sciences.My hypothesis was correct.Allison gets away with coming... Continue Reading →

It's been a long time since I've read Jane Austen.  I had forgotten about her wicked sarcastic streak.  It is very evident in the first half of Northanger Abbey.  Throughout the first half of this book, Austen's voice is very present.  She steps out of the story and comments on events and characters as the... Continue Reading →

I had another visit with some old friends.  I Can See You by Karen Rose is another novel that picks up the story of a character who appeared in a previous novel.This story follows Eve, a victim of the serial killer from an earlier story.  (Victim in the sense she was attacked, left for dead, but... Continue Reading →

I feel a bit like a voyeur.  River Odyssey: A story of the Colorado Plateau by Gerald N Callahan almost made me feel like I was learning things I didn't have the right to know.  The basis of the problem is that I know the author.  And the book is creative nonfiction.  Callahan is writing... Continue Reading →

I just finished another "classic."  The Monk by Matthew Lewis was first published in 1796.  I started this book expecting it to be slow and rather dull.  I was pleasantly surprised.This story centers around an ideal monk who is overly deliberate in his monk-ness for the sake of the fame it brings him.  Lucifer recognizes the falseness of his... Continue Reading →