Strange Ramblings of an Independent Writer
Book Cover for Michael Connelly's "The Black Ice" Available on Amazon If you enjoyed reading this review, consider clicking the Buy Me a Coffee button to the right and becoming a Member or sign up for my Patreon here. Members get early access to reviews like this, as well as exclusives only available through those … Continue reading A Tale of Two Cops – Book Review of Michael Connelly’s “The Black Ice”
Cover Art for "The Black Echo". Available on Amazon. If you enjoyed reading this review, please consider supporting my site through the Buy Me A Coffee button to the right. Supporters and Members gain early access to blog posts like this, with Members getting exclusive access to posts only available through Buy Me A Coffee. … Continue reading Detective in the Dark – Review of Michael Connelly’s “The Black Echo”
Cover Art for "Side Jobs". Available on Amazon (Amazon Associate Link) If you enjoy this post, consider clicking the Buy Me A Coffee button to the right and showing your support. You can make one-time donations or sign up for Memberships to get early access to blog posts like this one, as well as exclusives … Continue reading The Weird World of Harry Dresden – Review of Jim Butcher’s “Side Jobs”
Book Cover for "Stranger in a Strange Land" Religion and sexuality are two of the most difficult subjects to engage as a writer. Regardless of the writer’s intentions, someone is going to be deeply offended or challenged, probably both. Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land seeks to both offend and challenge. Heinlein uses the … Continue reading Review of Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Book Cover for Still Foolin' 'Em Comedy is often built on tragedy. Memoirs are a form of literature that often mines a person’s tragedy to create universal feelings in the reader. Billy Crystal’s Still Foolin’ Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys is a brilliant memoir from a … Continue reading Still Foolin’ Em: Billy Crystal at his Best
Book Cover for "Ham on Rye" Source Horror stories often involve the supernatural or the extra-ordinary. Often times the only mundane subjects in such stories are the principal characters, generally mortal men and women bereft in a world that once made perfect sense. But what if the world never made sense? What if the horror … Continue reading The Horrible Childhood of a Pulp Icon – Review of “Ham on Rye” by Charles Bukowski
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse book cover. Available on Amazon Anthology books can often be a tough read because the tone can shift sharply from one author to the next. The editor of an anthology shares in my mind the majority of the responsibility for the success or failure of the collection. Add to this … Continue reading In the Aftermath – Review of “Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse”
Source. When you’ve taken the titanic leap of killing your main character off at the end of your previous novel, what more can you do? If you’re Jim Butcher, you have the wizard detective try to solve his own death as a ghost. Perhaps the strangest of the novels in The Dresden Files series, Ghost … Continue reading Giving Up the Ghost – Review of Jim Butcher’s “Ghost Story”
When personal pain can be transformed into beautiful work, that is my definition of “art”. The collection of poems found in “Displaced Egos” by A.M. Aylward carries the writer’s pain simultaneously like a thick overcoat but underneath that coat is poignancy, grace and reclaimed power. Poetry, as an artform, is deeply personal and in many … Continue reading Beauty Through Pain – Review of A.M. Aylward’s “Displaced Egos”
Book Cover for "The Cyborg Tinkerer" The most interesting thing I can say about Meg LaTorre’s debut novel “The Cyborg Tinkerer” is that it was an unexpected pleasure to read. This isn’t a criticism of LaTorre’s marketing of the book, which was ubiquitous on her Youtube Channel IWriterly or her blog, which can be found … Continue reading Love, Sex, and Metal – Review of Meg LaTorre’s “The Cyborg Tinkerer”