Category: Words

In the last few weeks, I read a few books – mainly mysteries, mainly recent material. I followed some serials that I already knew, and I started a new series. I tried to write a review of each one for Blogcritics. I don’t want to turn this blog into a book review blog, and Blogcritics…

I read and enjoyed “The Enemy,” the newest novel in the Jack Reacher series of adventure/mystery novels by Lee Child. My review is posted at the Blogcritics.org site.

I wrote a review of “Resistance” by Barry Lopez for the Winnipeg Free Press, which was published on Sunday July 4, 2004. This post is a longer version of the same review. Barry Lopez was honoured for his nature writing with an American National Book Award for “Arctic Dreams” in 1986 and a nomination for…

Until “American Gods” swept up most of the significant SF and horror writing awards in 2002, Neil Gaiman was known for his work on the DC comic series “Sandman”. He was writing for print all along. His online biography provides details for the curious. The premise of “American Gods” is that the gods of all…

Australian writer Max Barry’s second book, “Jennifer Government” is a well-crafted light satire. It could be called speculative fiction or science fiction. It’s set in a dystopian near-future in which governments have been downsized and government functions privatized. People take the name of their employer as their surname – Hack Nike, John Nike, Billy NRA,…

“White Teeth” was British writer Zadie Smith’s first novel. It was critically acclaimed, it won awards and it was turned into a mini-series on British television. We saw it last winter on PBS – Masterpiece Theater. My daughter Claire was caught by the story and bought the book. In looking up Smith on Google, I…