Book Review: Tortilla Flat
Issue 12, Volume 5, February 2010By: Mark James
Filed Under: 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...]
Book Review: December ‘09
Issue 10, Volume 5, December 2009By: Mark James
Filed Under: 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...]
Book Review: October ‘09
Issue 8, Volume 5, October 2009By: Mark James
Filed Under: 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...]
Tom Ryan
Issue 9, Volume 4, November 2008By: Tobin Bennison
Filed Under: 20 Questions
Avid sailor, scuba diver and part-time Cape Canaveral resident Tom Ryan is the author of the new adventure thriller A Sword for Pizarro, which is set in our very own Space Coast. In it, recently divorced treasure hunter Marshall Cross finds himself down on his luck. His foundering archaeology-themed amusement park, Treasure Island, is being threatened by ruthless real estate tycoon Denton Barrett, and Cross is hoping for a big find to stave off selling his dream. Finding Pizarro’s golden sword,... [Read more...]
