Because a Fire Was in My Head by Lynn Stegner “[S]tunning . . . . The poetic detail of Stegner’s sentences—not to mention her wanton protagonist—is reminiscent of the novels of John Updike. . . . Because a Fire Was in My Head, her most ambitious novel so far, ought to attract for Stegner the wider audience she so richly deserves.” —Julia Scheeres, New York Times Book Review, “Editor’s Choice” Previous praise for Because a Fire Was in My Head Continue reading More Praise for Because a Fire Was in My Head

Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman by Lee Lowenfish “[O]ur heartiest recommendation: Branch Rickey – Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman by Lee Lowenfish. A fitting and admirable tribute to the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color line. Lowenfish, a respected baseball scholar, reportedly spent 10 years researching and writing this book that, at 600 pages, is chock full of revelations and great anecdotes on Rickey’s life.”—Bill Madden, NY Daily News “Lowenfish weaves the American trifecta of God, family and baseball into Rickey’s fascinating life. The significant moments that forever changed the landscape of baseball are all well documented, researched and … Continue reading More Praise for Branch Rickey

Pulp Writer by Paul S. Powers, edited by Laurie Powers “[Powers] provides a lively chronicle of working during the 1930s and ’40s, the years many fans consider the golden era of pulp fiction. . . . Powers may not have been a great prose stylist, but he could spin a lively, readable yarn—as this long-neglected autobiography attests.”— Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times Book Review Read previous praise for Pulp Writer Continue reading More Praise for Pulp Writer

meant to write on something else this week.  I have the book sitting out with a bookmark stuck into page 3 or something pathetic like that.  Instead I got sidetracked by the delivery of my special edition of the Ginger Snaps trilogy and werewolves led directly to vampires and it was all over from there.

Werewolves are a more recent interest of mine that came about with movies.  I didn’t see An American Werewolf In London until I got older and became interested in werewolves as a result of watching Dog Soldiers and later Ginger Snaps, movies that take werewolves in completely different directions.  Werewolves seem to fare better in movies than in prose.  There are plenty of werewolf novels (Guy Endore’s The Werewolf of Paris is the classic, but Jack Williamson’s Darker Than You Think is also a good choice) but they don’t seem to hit popular culture the way vampire books do.  I think it’s because werewolves just are not as sexy when they kill.  Vampires kill with a kiss.  They let their lips linger on intimate and sensitive places.  Werewolves rip you to shreds, more akin to rape than to seduction.  Not to mention a pale, sophisticated human is going to be more of a turn on than a big dog.

What appeals about werewolves then is the dilemma.  The innocence of the werewolf.  Dr. Jekyll at least caused his own transformation.  Werewolves, through no fault of their own, change and destroy, and in a lot of stories, hate what they become.

Continue reading “Vampires and Werewolves! Oh my!”

It’s Thursday and, for linking this week, I have compiled a sites dealing with crime, domestic abuse, and two sites that readers were so kind to suggest that have nothing to do with women and self defense.  The subject of this week’s Thursday Links was inspired by blogger Laura James’ review of  The Enigma Woman: The Death Sentence of Nellie May Madison by Kathleen A. Cairns.  Home Sweet Home is a blog focusing on crimes within relationships.  There is a movie review of the film Provoked, about domestic violence and self-defense, on An Anthropologist Wannabe blog site.  The Malefactor’s Register … Continue reading Self Defense or Crime

Deals from the Diamond   Also, bargains from the Society for American Baseball Research! Continue reading Save 25% or More

ive young, African-American men promised their lives to their troubled city, Hartford, Connecticut.  They make a pledge to return with college degrees and a willingness to live and work in their hometown.  Michael Downs tell their stories–how they kept or broke their  promise to Hartford–in his book House of Good Hope: A Promise for a Broken City.  On March 8, 2007, editor Brianne Burrowes with University Relations at the University of Montana spoke with Michael Downs about House of Good Hope and the universality of sacrifice and leaving home in and outside of African-American communities.

BR: What was it that made you want to write about these boys? Was it an idea that you always had since you first met them when you heard them make this pact or did it come later on in your career?

MD: It came later on. What happened is that I left Hartford, which is detailed in the book. And leaving Hartford was more difficult for me than I thought, especially because I was leaving my grandparents there. And there were some relatives in the area, but shortly after I left they left too. And then my grandparents were all alone. I began to wonder if leaving had been the right decision even though it was good for me personally. I wondered how other people would make that decision and then how other people would live with themselves having made such a decision. And that reminded me of these five guys who had made this promise.

BR: Had you kept in touch them?

MD: No. But I knew that after college they’d be confronted with the reality of their promise. Their promise would focus the questions I was asking because they would, now having become educated, have to make an active decision to keep their promise and go back or recognize that though there was a degree of wisdom to their promise, there was also naïveté. Maybe they would decide to break the promise, but their stories, mixed as they might be, would allow me to explore the questions that were troubling me. I wasn’t looking for an answer. I was just looking to explore.

BR: Was it difficult for these boys to allow you to write this story about their lives? I mean, it’s very personal.

MD: You know when I contacted them all, when I told them all what I had planned and that it would be a long process, that I would call them at odd times and ask them questions that would surprise them, and I would come visit them and I would ask to spend a day or so with them at a time, and I would want to talk to friends of theirs and relatives and the whole thing — what most of them said was, this is an important story to tell. You know? It matters for Hartford. It matters for other cities that are like Hartford. It matters for other people who like us who were once kids in these places. And because it mattered, and because I was still interested, and perhaps because I had been interested when they were in high school, they seemed to decide that I was an okay person to tell the story.

BR: And that they could trust you.

Continue reading “Interview with Author Michael Downs”

By Sara Dickerman t’s hard to read Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book without getting a little orchard fever. I was just about to send a $50 check in this morning to a stranger in Oregon. The Oregonian, named Nick Botner, grows hundreds of varieties of old apples, plus plums, cherries, and grapes. He was happy to pick a couple of apple trees out for me and send them along, and I then planned to plant them in the parking strip between the street and the sidewalk in front of our house. Too bad then, that, I waded into the city of … Continue reading The Preservation of Fruit

hy it is titled The Night School, I have no idea, since all classes and most of the horror happened during the day like any normal high school, but apparently the publishers and the author are sufficiently removed from high school that just calling it High School didn’t seem scary enough.

I did finish the book.  But only because my husband challenged me.  I ranted and raved to him about how I already knew what would happen and which characters would live and which would die and who would end up with whom.  He said I might be wrong.  So I sat down with a notepad and made a list of all the major characters.  I labeled my list ’83’ for the page I was on in a 325 page book.  And then I made my predictions.  I was dead on.

The book starts with the Morgan teenagers at Christmas, bright, blond, blue eyed Tanner and his bright, blond, blue eyed sister Alexis, putting up the Christmas tree and happy in spite of their filthy rich parents going off to someplace exotic for the holidays and leaving them home.  (Poor little rich kids.)  Enter Matt, their brother.  He has dark hair (Pay attention to description in these books because it will clue you in to the outcome of the character. Beautiful people are important, for good or bad.  Nondescript, too
tall, too pale, too athletic and muscular, and anyone middle-aged who
hasn’t "aged well" is going to end up dead) and is also the jock of the
siblings (Also remember the stereotypes.  Sports=Bad and Paine takes
that cliche and rams it down our throats while doing essentially
nothing with it).

Continue reading “The Night School by Michael Paine”