From a little further back ... --- “And the Mountains Echoed”; By Khaled Hosseini, 402 pages; Riverhead Books (Penguin Group); 2013 The challenge for Khaled Hosseini these days is enormous. Much like a mountain climber preparing to attack Mount Everest from an isolated base camp, reaching the next level must appear … next to impossible. … Continue reading Book review: ‘And the Mountains Echoed’
Month: January 2017
Book review: ‘The Summer of Beer and Whiskey’
This is from a few years back by one of my favorite chroniclers of baseball history and a damn good newspaper writer. --- “The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, immigrants and a Wild Pennant Fight made Baseball America’s Game;” By Edward Achorn; Public Affairs; 263 pages. Recording history is one thing. … Continue reading Book review: ‘The Summer of Beer and Whiskey’
Book review: ‘The Night Train’
From a few years back but one of my favorites when I reread it today. A North Carolina author. --- ‘The Night Train’; by Clyde Edgerton; Little Brown; 211 pages; $23.99. Think of the literary work of author Clyde as a pone of cornbread. Each book he’s written represents a small slice of the North … Continue reading Book review: ‘The Night Train’
Book review: ‘The Last Days of Video’
Also from 2015, a book by a regional author. --- The dilemma for Waring Wax is familiar. He owns a business wasting away at a glacial pace. It fact, the patient is deteriorating at such an excruciatingly slow speed that it only becomes obvious to those working there when shutting down is imminent and unavoidable. … Continue reading Book review: ‘The Last Days of Video’
Book review: ‘This Dark Road to Mercy’
This is from 2015 in advance of the Alamance Reads choice that year. — “This Dark Road to Mercy”; Wiley Cash; HarperCollins, 2014; 230 pages. Can there be anything more remorseless than becoming an adult, especially the harsh transition when dreams begin to go dark, realities take shape and the idea that life can be … Continue reading Book review: ‘This Dark Road to Mercy’
Book review: ‘Letters: Kurt Vonnegut’
“Letters: Kurt Vonnegut” Edited by Dan Wakefield; Delacorte Press; 436 pages. Fiction only hides so much. It is the curse, or blessing, of an author that bits and pieces of a life are revealed in every book or short story. Remnants can be stitched together like a patchwork quilt over time to present something of … Continue reading Book review: ‘Letters: Kurt Vonnegut’
How I got into the business of writing
For those interested, this is a column I wrote a few years ago for the Burlington Times-News describing how I became attracted to the business of writing and journalism. Call it the smell of ink, the lure of air-conditioning and the taste of Coca-Cola. I'll post archive columns from more than 30 years of newspaper … Continue reading How I got into the business of writing
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Madison's Avenue 