Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Red Flags By Juris Jurjevics Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; $26; 320 pages Review by Mark James The Vietnam War, or “Conflict” as the government labeled it, continues to torment us over 35 years after we left. Histories have appeared and been revised, and a collection of fiction is accumulating. Juris Jurjevics adds to that collection with “Red Flags,” set in the early days of our involvement. Jurjevics is a Vietnam veteran who served for 14 months, 9 days, and 2 hours, his departure... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness By Alexandra Fuller Penguin; 256 pages; $25.95 Review by Mark James Reading is sometimes a form of travel for me; I can visit faraway places without having to actually spend money to get there. But Africa has never been on my list of places to go. It’s sometimes referred to as the “Dark Continent,” and my only literary trips have been through Ernest Hemingway’s short stories and Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,”... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Book Review: In Stitches By Anthony Youn, M.D. Gallery Press; 288 pages; $25 Who knew that the movie “Revenge of the Nerds” was based on a true story? Not really, but the inspiration could have come from the story of celebrated plastic surgeon Anthony Youn, who tells of his upbringing in a Korean immigrant family and his ordeal to first get into and then graduate from medical school. Tony, as he is known, was born in the United States and spent his childhood in tiny “Greenville,... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
The Skateboard: The Good, the Rad, and the Gnarly Written by Ben Marcus; Photography by Lucia Daniella Griggi MVP Books/Quayside Publishing; 255 pages; $35 Reviewed by Mark James I don’t really care for coffee table books, those dust collector/footrests/paperweights that are must-haves but are hardly ever cracked before they end up at the Goodwill store or in the trash. But this one brought back so many memories — skinned knees, torn Levis (and a pissed-off mother), running from the... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Bitter Bitch By Maria Sveland; Translated by Katarina E. Tucker Skyhorse Publishing; 240 pages; $22.95 H. L. Mencken once said that the only really happy folk are married women and single men. But Mencken never met Sara, the bitter bitch in “Bitter Bitch.” Sara is so unhappy, bitter in fact, that she must take a respite from husband and child and the cold of Sweden to lounge in the warmer clime of Tenerife. But the couples she observes lounging at poolside or ignoring each other at dinner... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Honor Bound By Robert N. Macomber Pineapple Press; 364 pages; $21.95 If you’ve ever viewed the St. Johns River on the way to Orlando, then you probably have a good idea of what Florida looked like 120 years ago. Robert N. Macomber brings those images to life in his “Honor” series of novels featuring Commander Peter Wake, USN, and his faithful sidekick, Sean Rork. “Honor Bound,” the ninth novel in the series, begins in St. Augustine in 1888, takes a railroad trip to... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game By John Thorn Simon & Schuster; 384 pages; $26 The cold weather is gone and another season of our national pastime is underway; all is well. But wait; John Thorn is at it again. He is now attacking the legitimacy of the Mills Commission that “investigated” baseball’s historical record and crowned Abner Doubleday as its inventor. Could something so silly really happen in baseball? Thorn is the preeminent baseball... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
The Bone Yard By Jefferson Bass William Morrow; 336 pages; $24.99 Growing up in Florida in the 1960s, my mother often warned me that I would end up in the reform school in Marianna if I didn’t “straighten up and fly right.” Judging from the new Jefferson Bass novel based on that hellhole, it was no empty warning. “The Bone Yard” is a work of fiction that revolves around a Panhandle reform school. The authors take extreme care in distancing their subject from the real... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
Night Vision By Randy Wayne White G.P. Putnam’s Sons; $25.95; 352 pages Could all the uproar about illegal immigrants have come at a better time for Randy Wayne White? Or is it the inspiration for his latest Doc Ford thriller? It’s no matter which came first; “Night Vision,” the eighteenth and perhaps best in this long running series, offers a sympathetic perspective of those who come here in pursuit of a better life — and righteous justice for those who exploit them. Marion... [Read more...]
Mark James
Article Category: Book Review
The Cobra By Frederick Forsyth G. P. Putnam’s Son’s; 364 pages; $26.95 A two billion dollar budget. Check. Independence to act in total secrecy. Check. Authority to use any military unit for any reason at any time. Check. Another ill-advised war. Check. It could be Iran or North Korea, but in this case it’s cocaine, a threat to the very foundation of our being. The premise of Frederick Forsyth’s latest “thriller” is to have the importation of cocaine reclassified... [Read more...]
