Milkman, a novel by Anna Burns
Sometimes the best books are the ones that catch your eye on a table at a small independent bookstore. We have a couple of great ones where I live in Olympia, WA, though they’re closed these days, like just about everything else. The last time I was at Browsers Bookshop, I picked up Milkman, by […]
Bending Reality
A long time ago, when I was a wild rebellious eighteen-year-old who left my mother’s home with a young man I would soon marry, I liked to experiment with LSD. Not as often as some of my generation did, but often enough to learn that it could sometimes scare the hell out of me. […]
Sierra Court Blues, by Lawrence Parlier
Sierra Court Blues by Lawrence Parlier is a stunning novel. We’re pulled in to a wild, chaotic world of young men and women, their music, their manias, their passion and their pain. The majority of the action takes place in a trailer owned by Jon, band member and long-time friend of the narrator, a […]
Book Review: LAMENTATION by Joe Clifford
Available this October from Oceanview Publishing Pre-order here: Lamentation, Joe Clifford’s riveting new novel, is a page-turner in the classic sense. You can’t put it down. You need to know what comes next. At the heart of this particular bundle of darkness is an ordinary guy, Jay Porter, trying to get along. He […]
THE WOMAN UPSTAIRS, by Claire Messud
Poor, poor Nora Etheridge, that woman upstairs. You know the one, pleasant, genteel, a good neighbor, always helpful, never demanding, forever single and trapped in a career – teaching art to third graders – that is far below her true talents. Does she complain? Never! She soldiers on bravely, quietly, admirably. Yet she seethes. […]