Blog
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The Orchid Tattoo, by Carla Damron – Book Review
Set in the author’s home of Columbia South Carolina, this exciting and well-crafted story features an interesting, vividly-drawn protagonist whose determination and grit drives the action forward at a blistering pace.Georgia Thayer hears voices and has a history of psychiatric disability. She is also a valued social worker at her town’s general hospital, a woman with a satisfying, if far from perfect, life that is turned upside down by the disappearance of her younger sister. Georgia refuses to accept …
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Breath-taking Selfishness
One overlooked aspect of the rise of mistrust in all institutions that we seem to be living through is the selfishness of those who are cynically taking advantage of it for their personal and political gain, foremost among them the leadership of the Republican Party.
Our monetary and financial systems, the scientific research community, and democratic institutions large and small depend on a basic level of trust to operate, and as a consequence, so does our civilization. And yet …
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Thoughts on Mass Shootings
Things I know:
- We will never be able to prevent eruptions of gun violence by alienated and angry young men by identifying them and intervening in advance. There are just too many of them that show warning signs, and they are too impulsive. Claiming that this is a mental health problem leads us down a blind alley and will not lead to a solution.
- Our society is saturated guns, including hyper-lethal semi-automatic weapons with extended magazines. We could largely
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All the Secrets of the World , by Steve Almond – Book Review
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In All the Secrets of the World, all of Steve Almond’s many gifts as a writer and humanist are on full display. He uses the story of what happens to a fractured immigrant family’s encounter with a splintering wealthy established US family to explore a variety of issues in all of our lives. He sets the story during the Reagan presidency because so many of the social and political issues that haunt us today took flower at that time. As
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Biden Makes Us Proud
I have to think even some in our chronically detached and distracted electorate have to be impressed with the job President Biden is doing in regards to Ukraine. He has been engaged, strong and energetic, going to our NATO allies and impressing them with his leadership and commitment. He is showing all the qualities that the Republican Party of cynics and suckers and their Fox News allies have said he lacks, projecting a steadfast strength and resolve that his predecessor …
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Brief Review of Watch Her, a novel by Edwin Hill
This is the third and latest book in the series featuring eccentric librarian Hester Thursby and her crowd. Hill has a fascinating view of humans and their nature. Rather than following the story of Hester’s almost sister-in-law, this book introduces us to a family running a for-profit college and features their secrets as they play out in dramatic fashion in the present day. It shows Hill’s mastery of the unconventional mystery. Though there is a murder to be solved, the …
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A Word or Two on Cultural Appropriation
In the
series of books I’m working on, African American characters play central, point-of-view roles. I’ve already published one years ago, and the second in the planned series of three is coming out in July 2022, so I’m stuck with them at this point. It’s not like that should be a problem because I like them a lot. In fact, I’m damn proud of them.But the push-back has already been significant. Before I gave up the enterprise and signed …
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Brief review of American by Day by Derek B. Miller
This is a terrific book. I only wish I had read the first in the series (so far there are only two), Norwegian by Night, but this one manages to be funny and profound in the context of a suspenseful story. The interplay between Sigrid, the Detective Superintendent from and Irv, the upstate New York sheriff and her American (sort-of) law enforcement counterpart provides lots of humor and warmth but also pointed commentary on American culture. The commentary ranges from …
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Set Aside Filibuster for Voting Rights
Democrats who hesitate to change the rule in the Senate around the filibuster out of fear of opening the floodgates to Republican party chicanery would do well to remember Majority Leader McConnel’s history. He refused for nine months to allow hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland, whom many Republican senators were on record as supporting as a moderate, on the insincere justification of leaving the choice to the next president, and then pushed through the nomination of …
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With current Supreme Court, we’re staring down a Wild West of gun ownership
In her excellent op-ed “Expand the Supreme Court,” Elizabeth Warren lists a number of recent rulings in which the court has pulled back rights of US citizens but she glances over another instance in which the current radical court overturned established precedent. While the threat she cites that the current court poses to localities’ rights to limit an individual’s right to bear arms under any circumstances is indeed daunting, it stems from the court’s bizarre decision to ignore the language …