A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov The first thing I ever read in Russian that was an actual piece of text and not an example sentence was a story about a young Russian officer who ends up amongst a household of smugglers and gets tricked by a pretty girl who, it turns out, is […]
Read more "“A Hero of Our Time” by Mikhail Lermontov"Unlocking Lyme William Rawls, MD I am reviewing this book somewhat prematurely, since I haven’t actually tried out most of the things in it yet. However, each person’s reaction to treatment is so individual that my success or failure probably won’t mean much either way. What is more of interest to me about this book […]
Read more "“Unlocking Lyme” by William Rawls, MD"The Living Corpse Leo Tolstoy In 1900, more than 20 years after finishing his masterpiece “Anna Karenina,” Tolstoy returned to a character named Karenin in a troubled marriage, although this Karenin seems to have no blood relation to the original. Still, it’s a fascinating indication that, for all the dislike he felt for the novel […]
Read more "“The Living Corpse” by Leo Tolstoy"Tired of reading about macho men? Looking for some speculative fiction that’s a bit different? Maybe something a bit more…feminine (dare we even say: feminist?). Do we have the special offers and new releases for you! First of all, The Breathing Sea I is free December 2-3 on Kindle: myBook.to/tbsi And The Breathing Sea II is […]
Read more "So Many Deals and New Releases!"Cross of Iron Willi Heinrich I have to admit that I read this book a long time ago, so perhaps it isn’t as good as I remember. But as I remember, it is incredible, a true classic of combat writing, so I thought I’d write a review of it for German Literature Month 2017. […]
Read more "“Cross of Iron” by Willi Heinrich for #GermanLiteratureMonth"Strata Terry Pratchett Before there was the Discworld, there was “Strata,” the story of a company that builds planets. Including, it turns out, a strange flat planet out in the middle of nowhere… It’s a bit hard to review “Strata” in a meaningful way, because it both prefigures the Discworld novels, and stands in inevitable […]
Read more "“Strata” by Terry Pratchett"Under Orders Dick Francis As one of the last acts in the twilight of his career, Dick Francis took his favorite character, Sid Halley, out for one last race. Things have changed a bit since Sid Halley first appeared, back in 1965. As part of the time warp I mentioned in one of my earlier […]
Read more "“Under Orders” by Dick Francis"Come to Grief Dick Francis After an almost 20-year hiatus, Dick Francis returns to his favorite character Sid Halley in “Come to Grief.” Like the other Sid Halley stories, this one is dark and edgy even for a Dick Francis book, and like the other novels from the early 1990s, it features a particularly sadistic […]
Read more "“Come to Grief” by Dick Francis"Whip Hand Dick Francis In “Whip Hand,” Sid Halley returns, this time with his damaged hand replaced with a myoelectric version. He’s returned to life after the depression of the first book, but has to face his own weakness when his nemesis threatens him with his worst fears. Francis’s use of Halley as a recurring […]
Read more "“Whip Hand” by Dick Francis"Odds Against Dick Francis In “Odds Against,” Francis’s fourth fictional outing, he takes a decidedly darker turn. Although not lacking in evil villains, both “Dead Cert” and “For Kicks” had a strong aspect of glamorous wish fulfillment, and so, in its own way, did “Nerve.” Alan, Rob, and Daniel all had tough times, sure, but […]
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E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman 