Review of “Last Snow” by Eric Van Lustbader

This book is the second thriller [sic] involving Jack McClure, the strong yet sensitive Special Advisor and factotum to the U.S. President, Edward Carson. In the previous “episode,” First Daughter, Jack had rescued the President’s daughter Alli from the clutches of an evil serial killer who had kidnapped her and held her hostage for a [...]

Review of “Invisible I: The Amanda Project,” by Stella Lennon

This YA book is an interesting conceptual departure in several ways. First of all, it purports to be about a missing girl, Amanda, except it’s not really about Amanda at all, but about the effects of her being missing on other people. Second, the author “Stella Lennon” is a made-up name. A group of writers [...]

Review of “Eternal on the Water” by Joseph Monninger

I remember very clearly as a teen how enchanted I was by the doomed love and cheesy dialogue of Love Story by Erich Segal. Socially mismatched college students fall in love. They marry. The girl gets leukemia. And then, as The New York Times noted, “She dies, he cries and the story ends.” (This is [...]

Review of “Seen the Glory” by John Hough, Jr.

This book is supposedly about the Battle of Gettysburg, but it could have been about any battle in the Civil War. What you get is a chronicle of gritty front-line impressions from three friends: brothers Luke (age 18) and Thomas (age 16) Chandler, and Elisha Smith (age 18) – all from Martha’s Vineyard, and all [...]

July 25, 2010 – National Hot Fudge Sundae Day

As many of you know, my idea of cooking is generally to “peel back and vent.” But when it comes to hot fudge, I become industrious. Why? I wouldn’t think of defiling a potential sundae by using alleged hot fudge sauce containing corn syrup. Here is the recipe I use most often for hot fudge [...]

Review of “War” by Sebastian Junger

War, huh, yeah What is it good for Absolutely nothing Uh-huh War, huh, yeah What is it good for Absolutely nothing Say it again, y’all War, huh, good God What is it good for Absolutely nothing Listen to me” Lyrics to War by Edwin Starr According to Sebastian Junger, who spent time embedded with the [...]

Review of “Have a Little Faith” by Mitch Albom

Note: This review is by my husband Jim, who read this for a book club. This is the story of two men of the cloth, who, in spite of different religions and different backgrounds, have come to a similar place in life: serving their congregations in a way that expresses their faith in God. This [...]

Review of “Black Angels” (Middle Grade Book – 6th Grade and Up) by Linda Beatrice Brown”

During the Civil War, many children were made orphans. For the most part, they had to learn to survive on their own, like the engaging threesome in this inspiring story for adults as well as children. Luke is an eleven-year-old orphaned slave in North Carolina who steals his master’s gun and runs away to join [...]

Review of “Still Missing” by Chevy Stevens

If you prefer to skip books with detailed scenes of physical and sexual abuse of women, this is definitely one to avoid. In fact, ordinarily I would have too, but I was looking for something “light” after a very emotional book! My predictive powers weren’t working very well in this instance. Thirty-two year old Vancouver [...]

July 16, 1945 – First Atomic Bomb Explosion

On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was successfully exploded at the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range in a remote section of desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico. The bomb went off at 5:30 a.m. after a stormy night when the ability to go through with the test was uncertain. The detonation was initially [...]