Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Between a Heart and a Rock Place: A Memoir By Pat Benetar with Patsi Bale Cox William Morrow; 245 pages; $25.99 Memoirs clutter the literary landscape these days. They tend to be very personal in nature, and are often written by people unknown to the masses. Pat Benatar doesn’t suffer from such a malady. She was one of the biggest selling acts of the ’80s, and arguably the biggest female rocker since Janis Joplin. She came out of New York, and stormed across the country winning millions... [Read more...]
Flying Fish By Vern Hobbs Aberdeen Bay; 332 pages; $15.95 At first glance, “Flying Fish,” appears to be yet another quirky Florida novel in the vein of Carl Hiassen and Tim Dorsey. But while it is peopled with suitably unusual characters (including a ghost), Vern Hobbs’ debut novel is something much more Set in the fictional “hardscrabble fishing village” of Juniper Key, where a ban on fishing has been implemented, “Smiley” Randolph, the reserved editor... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Book Review: The Long Song by Andrea Levy • Reviewed by Mark James • The Long Song Andrea Levy Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 320 pages; $26 July, the narrator of “The Long Song,” warns early on that if you cannot find interest in her tale, “then be on your way, for there are plenty books to satisfy if words flowing free as the droppings that fall from the backside of a mule is your desire.” This seems a bit contradictory given the windiness of the warning, especially for... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Book Review: The Executor by Jesse Kellerman • Reviewed by Mark James • The Executor Jesse Kellerman Putnam; 352 pages; $25.95 The dictionary informs us that an executor is someone who “executes” or “performs a duty or assignment” such as taking out the trash. It can also be someone who performs the dirty task of taking someone else’s life. The line between the two is a little blurry in Jesse Kellerman’s new novel that tracks the descent of a thirty-something... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Let’s Ride: Sonny Barger’s Guide to Motorcycling By Sonny Barger, with Darwin Holmstrom William Morrow (HarperCollins); 288 pages; $23.99 What is the world coming to? We have an unending war, the world economy on the brink of collapse, and now Sonny Barger writes a “How-To” book? Is this really the same Sonny Barger who is a founding member of the Hell’s Angels? The same Sonny who did time for… oh, never mind — this isn’t about Sonny; it’s about... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
The Godfather of Kathmandu By John Burdett Knopf; 320 pages; $25.95 Bangkok may well be on most people’s list of places to visit, but if you’re like me, it’s probably not within your budget. No worries, John Burdett’s series featuring Royal Thai Police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep serves as a nice surrogate, whether you want the sex or the drugs, the tom yam gung, or simply the mystery of the Orient. “The Godfather of Kathmandu” is the fourth and most ambitious... [Read more...]
By: Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
TORTILLA FLAT By John Steinbeck Penguin Classics; 208 pages; $13 John Steinbeck is one of a handful of American authors awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in the last century. He is perhaps best known for “The Grapes of Wrath,” and to a lesser extent, “Of Mice and Men.” While those novels are dramatic in nature, the lesser-known “Tortilla Flat” features a cast of lovable losers even Tom Joad could both laugh at and relate to. The novel revolves around a group... [Read more...]
By: Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Open: An Autobiography By André Agassi Knopf: 400 pages; $28.95 It’s difficult to imagine what André Agassi hoped to accomplish in his recently published autobiography “Open.” He certainly made no friends, and may have alienated the few that he has. Agassi offers no substantial insight into the pro tennis tour, offering pure autobiographical fodder by focusing on the demons that tormented him. Not all of those are psychological though; some of his former opponents are fair game, and all the... [Read more...]
By: Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
The Humbling By Philip Roth Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 160 pages; $22 Doesn’t Philip Roth realize that retirement is part of the American dream? At the ripe old age of 76, he’s recently released “The Humbling,” his 30th book and eighth this century, and he has another due for publication in a few months. His latest is the story of an aging actor who has lost his ability — thus the humbling. Could this be Roth foretelling his own artistic demise? Can he be serious? The... [Read more...]
By: Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Breath By Tim Winton 218 pages; Picador Press, 2008 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-42839-6 Taking breaths on a regular basis is a good thing, so it’s a little odd that Tim Winton’s novel “Breath” begins with a teenager who isn’t breathing at all. But Bruce “Pikelet” Pike, the paramedic first on the scene, recognizes what the boy has done, and that event sparks a reminiscence of his teenage years, a foreboding beginning to what’s billed as a coming-of-age story... [Read more...]
