Thoughts on Living the Life Creative
The Black Count - Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss (2012) - If you are at all familiar with French literature you know the name Dumas. Alexandre Dumas (pere) and Alexandre Dumas (fils). Father and son, and two of the great names of French writing. Unknown to me,... Continue Reading →
"The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas (pere) - 1844 Having just read a biography of Dumas's father (for which I thought I'd written a review but apparently not) I was happy to dive into this great classic of French literature hiding on my Nook. The basic story is fairly well known - a young man,... Continue Reading →
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (with an excerpt from "The Ocean at the End of the Lane") by Neil Gaiman - This is a short story by the acclaimed author with an excerpt of a novel. In it two English lads in the 1970s go to a party and discover what most of... Continue Reading →
The Retribution by Val McDermid - I don't think I've read anything else by this Scottish author and that's clearly a mistake on my part. While it's yet another forensic profiling meets crazed serial killer novel McDermid finds ways to bring a little freshness to the ideas. The book is the latest in a series... Continue Reading →
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne Somehow in all the years of science fiction reading I've done I have somehow managed to never read this classic by Verne. It is a classic story of a man who turns his back on civilization after his family is presumably killed. But rather than disappear into... Continue Reading →
The Men Who Lost America - British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire. By Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy In school we all learned the American mythology of how we won our independence from Great Britain. It wasn't until I was in college that some of the detail of that part of our history... Continue Reading →
The Lost Cyclist - David V. Herlihy (2010) - The sub-title here is "The Epic Tale Of An American Adventurer And His Mysterious Disappearance" which offers a nice little summation. This is the story of Frank Lenz an early star in the world of bicycling. Bicycles are such a common object that we forget that... Continue Reading →
The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom (2012 Hyperion) Got this one as a Christmas present. I read "Tuesdays with Morrie" a couple years ago and was moved by Albom's story. So I was happy to put this on the To Read pile. The book tells the story of Father Time. He was the human who... Continue Reading →
Spinning - Michael Baron (2011 - The Story Plant) When I flipped this one open and saw the author being compared to Nicholas Sparks I almost closed it again. No insult intended to Mr. Sparks or his legions of readers. Just not my cup of tea. But I was between books and really needed something... Continue Reading →
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920) If I am honest I must confess that I had no idea what to expect from this book (in fact in my head I had confused it with Dreiser's "American Tragedy". No idea why). What I discovered was a truly astounding story about people for whom I... Continue Reading →
