Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review:  The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021 Edited by John Joseph Adams and Veronica Roth

This collection has a different tone than the other best of the year collection I recently read and reviewed, The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Volume 2 edited by Jonathan Straham, and it’s not just that it includes fantasy. The selection … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 by Anne Applebaum

This book is a heavy read; that applies to the physical weight of the book as well as the subject matter. It deals with the attempts of the Soviet Union to bring Eastern Europe into subjugation after World War II. … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review:  The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Volume 2 Edited by Jonathan Straham

This is the second year of Strahan’s new best of the year science fiction anthology series, one that he has deliberately modeled after the late Gardner Dozois’s classic decades-long series. (Strahan acknowledges Dozois in the introduction.) With all respect to … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Book Review:  Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

The two books of Colson Whitehead’s that I have read previous to this one, The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, have been exciting and original works of fiction, and both, incidentally, have won the Pulitzer Prize. Along with his … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Forever Young: A Memoir by Hayley Mills

Although I was significantly younger than either of them, my two biggest film star crushes when I was a child were Judy Garland and Hayley Mills. Judy Garland, of course, I knew as the vulnerable but determined young woman wandering … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders

This is a slim volume consisting of a series of essays that first appeared on the Tor.com website. Its premise is that writing fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy, can help you survive in the midst of the shit storm … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, On Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

In a phone conversation one of my sisters and I were discussing which of our brothers, sisters, and progeny were extroverts and which were introverts when she brought up this book, Quiet, and recommended it. I had never heard of … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Reviews and Reflections on Books, Literature, and Writing: Volume Two – Now Available!

The second volume of Reviews and Reflections on Books, Literature, and Writing is now available at numerous retailers. Pick up a copy by clicking on one of the links below. From the author’s introduction: Preparing the second volume of Reviews … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, Reading | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  The Adventurer’s Son by Roman Dial

This memoir tells of a father’s search for his missing son, and I can acutely identify with it in a number of ways. First of all, I am also a father. The author of this book has one son; I … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Book Review:  The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead turned the phenomenon of oppressed and traumatized African American slaves fleeing the South before the Civil War into compelling alternative history. The fantasy elements include a literal physical railroad system … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , | 1 Comment