By MONTE DUTTON Click here. I’m sure this review won’t be a big hit on the site analytics, but I’ve spent a lot time reading lately and resolved to write about each book after I completed it. As I have stockpiled many books over the years that I haven’t gotten around to reading, this means …
Tag: drugs
Mastodons Run Amok
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, March 30, 2020, 7:45 p.m. When I read Don Quixote, I found it astonishing to learn that the art of comedy had not notably advanced in over four centuries. Salman Rushdie’s Quichotte takes Miguel de Cervantes forward and adds levels that would not have been structurally feasible in 1616, when the …
Easily Mistaken for the Mystical
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, December 23, 2019, 1:17 p.m. Most bad things have good sides, and vice-versa. For a solid week, I have been sick. I’ve been getting better through the weekend. I’m close to well, though my throat is full of congestion and I don’t feel like yodeling. Last week, when I had to …
Making Light of Myself, Etc.
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, October 7, 1019, 9:38 a.m. This blog is an intangible. I derive no tangible income from it. I hope it has some promotional value, but mainly I write it to get things off my chest. It’s therapeutic in its way. Sometimes it’s a warm-up, like playing scales, I guess, if I …
Taking It All with a Pound of Salt
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, June 20, 2019, 10:47 a.m. Advertising has never been particularly important to me. I’ve spent most of my life working for newspapers, but I have my own small role in their decline. I’ve never paid any attention to the ads. Apparently, I was not alone. In a very small way, I …
Serenity in Name Only
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, June 14, 2008, 10:59 a.m. Shelby Alexander barely lets the reader take a breath in this opening salvo of Craig A. Hart’s series of thrillers. Serenity is not to be confused with the noun. It’s the name of the town in northern Michigan that, based on the hero’s experience, is hardly …
The Right Stuff of the Vanities
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, May 15, 2018, 3:38 p.m. For many years, I thought The Right Stuff was the best non-fiction book I ever read. Now I consider it neck and neck with William Prochnau’s Once Upon a Distant War. When I wrote a novel about a pot-smoking songwriter fleeing the feds, I used The …
Guilty Pleasure in a Guilty Pleasure
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, May 1, 2018, 1:25 p.m. Green Goes Forth. The protagonist and narrator is a guy named Joe Green. He grows “green,” which is one of many code words and synonyms for cannabis. No need to write a paragraph of them. The title is a double entendre. Appropriately, Green Goes Forth is …
The Names Have Been Changed to Protect the Imagination
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, April 6, 2018, 10:45 a.m. This week has seemed slow. Most seem fast. Yet my life has been full of activity. First the audio version of my stock racing novel, Lightning in a Bottle, was released. The audio version is fantastic, thanks to the diligent work of narrator Jay Harper. He …
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The Eighth Novel Is Out!
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, April 1, 2018, 12:24 p.m. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will make some readers angry. What doesn’t? This novel is either my best or my best mess. I did my best. I put lots of effort into it. No one is objective about oneself. The readers decide for themselves, and their verdict …
Nightrider's Lament 