Thoughts on Living the Life Creative
A World On Fire by Amanda Foreman (2012) - We all learned about the American Civil War. Lincoln, the Confederacy, Gettysburg, slavery and Appomattox. When we got a little older we may have learned a little more, that it wasn't quite so cut and dried and that the war was an enormous bloodbath that forever... Continue Reading →
("From My Shelves" is an occasional series that looks at personal favorites from my personal collections) The various works of author, columnist and humorist Lewis Grizzard - It's just over 20 years since Lewis Grizzard died at age 47. I'm not sure how I "discovered" Grizzard. My best bet is that I was looking for something... Continue Reading →
What It Was Like - Peter Seth (2014) - In the summer of 1968 a young man takes a job at a summer camp in Upstate New York. He will enter Columbia University that fall on a scholarship and needs to make some pocket money. It is at camp that he meets Rachel Prince. She's... Continue Reading →
Daughter of Elysium (1993) and The Children Star (1998) by Joan Slonczewski - Two novels from a common universe. Slonczewski is a microbiologist at Kenyon College and brings that hard science background to her work. These books make up two thirds of the "Elysium Cycle". The stories examine events on several planets when an intelligent... Continue Reading →
Mythed Connections by Michael G. Munz (2013) - Three short stories that take the figures of Greek mythology and plant them firmly in the modern world. In "The Atheist and the Ferryman" a young man discovers there's an enormous river running through his basement. With a strange and grumpy old man in charge of bringing... Continue Reading →
Fusion: A collection of short stories from Breakwater Harbor Books' authors (2013) - Breakwater Harbor Books is a group of self-published authors that have banded together for promotional and support purposes. This is just what it says, a collection of their short works. Sadly, the quality of that work varies widely from one end of the... Continue Reading →
Dover Beach (The Last P.I. #1) by Richard Bowker (1987/2012) - A "limited" nuclear war has reduced the United States to a post-apocalyptic backwater nation. Society is still sorting itself out with both good and bad affect. In the midst of this Wally Sands is trying to be a private investigator. At the moment it... Continue Reading →
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson (1886) - This is a book that we all believe we know well. We are usually quite wrong in that assessment. Yes, this is the story of Dr. Henry Jekyl. In his research he discovers an astounding and terrifying compound that releases a... Continue Reading →
Shaking Out The Dead by K. M. Cholewa - The story of three adults struggling with what it means to love and be loved. Tatum is positive that she is unlovable, Paris wants to love her but spends too much time being "invisible" to believe it could happen. Geneva is an older woman struggling with... Continue Reading →
Male of the Species by Alex Mindt (2007) - I have a very bad habit of resisting reading recommendations, even from people I respect. Along the way I've missed out on some great books. This collection of short stories came with the VERY enthusiastic endorsement of my daughter. Since I'm trying to overcome this habit... Continue Reading →
Stories Are My Life 