New Reviews Are Up At Amazon and Bookhound!

Please stop by and see if I've read anything lately that interests you.

My New ROGUE ANGEL Book Comes Out In June!

Isn't that a beautiful cover? And it's got a lot of action and humor in it that plays off the characters.

A Great And Chilling Coming Of Age Novel!

Just read and reviewed this one (Bookhound Review). It's the first of Jeffrey Ford's books that I've read, but it won't be the last. He writes with a lot of emotional integrity and honesty that immediately pulls a read into a story and makes that borrowed world real.

If you're reading for pleasure, you'll probably enjoy this one if you like chills and nostalgia. But this is definitely a book writers can learn their craft from.

Yep, It's About What You Think It's About!

Once upon a time, Dr. Isaac Asimov attempted to explain the world to everybody. When I was growing up, I devoured both his science fiction and his non-fiction, learning a lot about what had already happened in the world, what was happening at the present, and what yet might happen. I enjoyed his non-fiction books and thought he was really good at explaining science to the layman.

But these days my heart belongs to Mary Roach! I will never stray. She’s only written three books, but she’s already captured every inquisitive bone and impulse in my body. She’s written articles for Reader’s Digest and National Geographic and her curiosity and propensity for knowledge and instruction seem inexhaustible.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers revealed what happened to a body after death. Granted, some stuff maybe I wasn’t too thrilled about learning – at first – but Roach took out (most) of the gross effect and totally turned the exercise into an instructional laughfest filled with history and fantastic errata. And the fascination of the subject, as well as her own passion for it, removed the stomach-churn of the experience

In Spook: Science Tackles The Afterlife, Roach brought the same kind of intelligent, informative wit to the study of the afterlife and the existence of souls. I knew people were interested in proving the existence of such one way or the other, but I’d never before known to what lengths scientists (and armchair enthusiasts) had gone.

Now Roach delivers, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, a hardcore – sorry, couldn’t resist – look at the mysteries and mismanagement of sex. When I first saw the plain white, almost virginal book cover, I was entranced. Could a book on that subject really be called by that title? I couldn’t help thinking how risqué everyone involved was being.

But I couldn’t expect anything less of Mary Roach. All (or at least more than I’d ever before guessed at) of the secrets of sex are revealed between the covers, so to speak. She details several of the curious minds that probed into the subject, and the test patients that laid themselves bare. (See? Even I can’t approach this subject with a straight face and the occasional ill-conceived giggle and pun.)

I also love history, and Mary Roach makes the most of the study of sex within those parameters as well. She left no rock unturned in her pursuit of this forbidden knowledge that civilization had invented. I knew that the scientists covered regularly in elementary and junior high science classes dug into the field of sex, but I’d never before known exactly to what degree. Nor did I know that some of them might even have murdered patients to gain knowledge. (I mean, how likely is it that a scientist would happen upon the body of a woman who’d died in the throes of orgasm so he could examine her corpse to better understand that function?)

Another thing I love about Mary Roach is that she’s apparently willing to go anywhere to seek out knowledge and report back to the armchair scientists who can’t afford to go and wouldn’t be caught dead asking such questions. (And that’s one of the reasons I like Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs.)

For this book, Mary Roach interviewed dozens of people, examined dozens of secret documents, took a tour of a pig farm and watched sows get artificially inseminated, first hand (by hand!), and even enticed her own husband into having sex while being subjected to an MRI. I have to admit, that after seeing Roach in action – forgive me – I can’t help but believe that has to be one of the most interesting marriages in the world. I love my wife, but I’m not crawling up onto an MRI table to be watched by scientists for anybody.

Roach goes on to explore several other reconstructive surgery avenues physicians and surgeons have pursued over the year. Just when you think she can’t top the last chapter, all you have to do is turn the page.

If you haven’t discovered Mary Roach, if you think reading Masters and Johnson’s Human Sexual Response has made you an expert in the field, pick up Bonk and become truly educated and amazed. Her chapter on Master and Johns, and their peers, casts that research in a totally different light and I found myself alternately appalled and amused.

The science field has a new champion ready to educate and entertain the masses, and her name is Mary Roach. I can’t wait to see where she’s going next.

Sinus Surgery!

I gotta go for sinus surgery next month. Supposed to leave me with a two-month nosebleed. Not looking forward to it. As it turns out, I've had enough sinus pressure in my face to actually crack my cheekbone. So I gotta have that fixed. It's not a unique case, but it is definitely something no one sees very often.

In the meantime, I got to thinking today. That's always my best and worst thing. Since the surgeon is going to be changing a lot of things inside my nose, I think maybe I should ask him how he feels about Picasso. I gotta check his office.

Otherwise I may come out of there with both my eyes on the same side of my nose!

Jimmy Buffett Pens Another Novel!

When most folks think of Jimmy Buffett, they think of Parrotheads and familiar tunes a lot of people have grown up with. “Margaritaville,” “Come Monday,” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise” are among the songs fans always cry out for during concerts.

Buffett is also a noted pilot and collector of old airplanes. He’s even been involved in a one-side dogfight with Jamaican police, while carrying U2’s Bono as a passenger.

Someone who’s lived a large and adventurous life is a natural storyteller. But a lot of people don’t know about Jimmy Buffett the author. Three of his books, Tales From Margaritaville, Who Is Joe Merchant?, and A Pirate Looks At Fifty all spent months on the New York Times bestseller lists over the last few years. The first two were novels while the third was a nonfiction title. Buffett’s one of only seven authors who have ever achieved that, putting him in the prestigious company of authors like Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and others.

Evidently Buffett is a Renaissance man. He just can’t devote himself to one thing; he’s constantly got to be spreading his wings and trying new things. Which is probably only natural for the pilot in him.

His new book, Swine Not? is set for release on May 13, and is already pulling Parrotheads (the name his fans are known by) into bookstores. But it’s also pulling in readers who have read his previous bestselling titles and are hoping for more great fiction. His previous novel, A Salty Piece of Land also reached bestselling status.

In Swine Not?, Buffett writes about a small town woman and her twins who move to New York City. Ellie McBride is from Vertigo, Tennessee, and her kids have a hard time getting rid of their pet pig, Rumpy. So, naturally, the family has to hide the pig out in the hotel Ellie’s working at. Meanwhile, the hotel chef become determined to trap Rumpy and serve him up for dinner.

I’m really looking forward to this book. If anyone can pull off something so bizarre and twisted, Buffett can. One of his most memorable characters in Who Is Joe Merchant? was a hit man who had eyes tattooed on his eyelids so it looked like he was always awake. I mean, who would think of something like that?

The book is also supposed to be geared for the family and is illustrated by Helen Bransford, so I’m really looking forward to reading it to my ten-year-old while we’re camping. Buffett has a wry sense of humor and an eye for realistic characters dealing with real life that’s just on the other side of normal. If you’re looking for something fun and different, it’ll be here on May 13.

You Want I Should Read This Book To Youse?


Since Chicken Soup for the Soul came out (followed immediately by dozens more books), I’ve been intrigued by the various topics and phases of life you could give chicken soup for. I’ve been likewise intrigued why it always has to be chicken soup. But the self-help and motivational industry has been sparked into establishing a whole new wing (chicken, anyone?) of publishing.

I’ve watched these books roll out with regularity and fading interest. It seems that chicken soup can cure any ailment and passage of life. Who knew? Not to knock those books because they’re filled with wonderful stories.

However, there appeared to be nothing new under the sun. Until now.

Writer/editor Brian M. Thomsen throws the whole Chicken Soup franchise a hanging curve ball that catches the outside corner of the plate with an eagle-eyed umpire in attendance. Pasta Fazool for the Wiseguy’s Soul is an irreverent send up of the Godfather, home cooking, and the whole give-me-guidance fad. But Thomsen delivers his delightful concoction with tongue firmly planted in cheek and in a narrative that is just as believable as it is hilarious.

According to Thomsen, he met an elderly Italian gentleman in a small restaurant on a slow night and ended up sharing a table and a meal. During the quiet evening, the old man – call him Don Minestrone – served up a delectable cornucopia of tales, wisdom, colorful characters, street justice, and irony.

I loved the set-up and didn’t know if the author could pull off what he’d promised. I suspected that the entries might be heavy on the cheese (another specialty of Italian cooking). Instead, the stories sound just like they’d come from the Old Neighborhood where everyone knew what the Mafia was but no one ever mentioned it.

I settled in, expecting to read a few stories to relax for a bit after dinner, then ended up blazing through the whole book. I had to laugh out loud when Thomsen lampooned the Mafia and current crime TV when he relayed “Minestrone’s” thoughts on wives, mistresses, and girlfriends, and took shots (what else can you expect from a book about Mafia types?) at Mafia guys in the news. One of my favorite stories was about the movie script that got sold over and over again to New York Publishers. The punch line came out of left field and made perfect sense.

Other stories include how a long-time waiter at a favorite restaurant was given a retirement plan that worked out for everybody, how boosters (professional thieves) cut out middle man (fence), and started selling things on eBay, and how Mrs. Santini got a trip to the “old country.” Thomsen is a natural storyteller, the old don not withstanding, and the tales tumble off the page and into the reader’s mind with grace and guffaws.

I loved how Thomsen and Minestrone introduced characters, then pulled them back into other stories. They weren’t just throwaways. I got the feeling that all of these stories happened (incredibly!) at one time or another.

Pasta Fazool for the Wiseguy’s Soul is a perfect book for the airport, the beach, or while waiting in doctor’s offices. And with a title like that, you’re sure to attract the attention of people around you. Be warned, though. You might not put this one down until you finish it. However, this is definitely a book you’ll want to re-read and share.

Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguiz Score Again With Issue #2!

The Locke kids have definitely gone from bad to worse after the brutal murder of their father last issue. Check out six-year-old Bode Locke's nifty recap.

Of course, when the school's concerned, the adults have to be as well.

This is one creepy looking house, and I promise there are lots of secrets inside.

One of the things I love most about Gabriel Rodriguiz's artwork is the constantly shifting points of view he uses. Makes the story just look more interesting.

But in this issue Joe Hill's first-person narrative of Bode is amazingly accurate. He gets kids right.

You know this woman is going to be bad news.

Especially after the mirror reveals part of her secrets.

Check out my Bookhound review here.