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 →

I love Stephen King.  He is a god among us mere mortals.  Someday I dream of having the clout to invite people to dinner, knowing that they will attend.  King will be on the guest list for sure.  I want to open up his brain and see what's running around inside.  I have decided to... Continue Reading →

A couple of weeks ago a friend sent me a link: Evidence of Alien Life.  I read the article and was left highly sceptical that this was reliable evidence for ET.  Then, by total chance, The Rock From Mars by Kathy Sawyer came up in my library pile. By the time I started reading the book, I had forgotten the name of... Continue Reading →

In my quest to become a better human being, I often force myself to read "literature."  The Golden Bowl by Henry James is one such piece of literature.Written at the turn of the century (two turns ago) it is very much a product of its times.  Its long, 567 pages, and slow.  Much of the... Continue Reading →

Okay, I'm not sure if it's the genre (romance), the setting (Texas), or the era (late 1980's).  Maybe it's some strange chemical reaction that occurs when you combine all three.  Whatever the cause, The Thrill of Victory by Sandra Brown suffers from a fascinating phenomenon.  I've observed the same phenomenon is some of her other books from the... Continue Reading →

Violin by Anne Rice is not a vampire story.  Instead, it's a ghost story.  The main character is haunted by a ghost and his ghost violin.  The ghost is trying to drive her crazy.  The violin just wants to be played.So she steals the violin from the ghost and plays it.  Amazing considering she doesn't know... Continue Reading →