"Crackling with energy, assured and authoritative." So says Val McDermid about Manda Scott's debut suspense novel, Hen's Teeth, the first novel to feature Dr Kellen Stewart. But she might well have been discussing Kellen herself. Indeed, she is the draw to the series, in this reader's opinion; it's Kellen's sharp
B.I.P.'s Snips are short-hand responses to works; I usually opt for this format when I've read the book without taking many (or any) notes. Kate Wilhelm’s Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976) Read: Mostly over breakfast, home-baked muffins or bakery-bought rugelach with coffee, perched on a stool in the kitchen, mostly
The weeks for Carl's un-Challenge are slipping past. We're almost a third of the way into the event now, and of course it's mostly about the books, but there are quests for Short Stories and for the Screen as well. Screen: Okay, I admit it. Whenever a book appears in
In eleventh-grade English class, we studied "Oedipus Rex" and I fell in love with the idea that a story so old could still be compelling. But the idea of reading these classic texts outside a classroom seemed unthinkable. You know how some books become all-the-more intimidating the longer you leave
Headline - Review, 2012 The Flying Man opens in 2012, in France; our hero is preparing to die, looking back on his life. He's in Biarritz, but wouldn't it sound better to say that he was in Paris? And wouldn't it sound better to say that he is
