Category Archives: Book Reviews

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Reviewing Your Favorite Books, Even When You’re “Not Very Good At Writing”

While many of my readers take the time to leave reviews for my books, others often compliment me in person, via Facebook, or email, but when I ask these particular readers to leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon, they express reluctance, stating that they’re “not very good at writing” or they assure me that they will leave a review and never follow through. 
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Remember, you do not need to purchase a book from Amazon to leave a review for the book there.  Also, for those unfamiliar with Goodreads, it is a social media site for book lovers where you can rate and review books, create an online library of books you currently own and would like to read, and join groups of like-minded readers to discuss your favorite books. Best of all, it’s free to join!
 
The screen capture below shows two Amazon reviews for Beach Nights, a collection of short stories from Cat and Mouse Press that contains my paranormal tale, “Tower Sixteen”.  The book was published in October 2016. 
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Note the second review from Early LBI. It’s one brief sentence: “Great group of short stories.” Five words. That’s the perfect example of a brief review you can leave for any book that you enjoyed even if you’re “not very good at writing.”
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Ratings and reviews help authors immensely. As our volume of reviews and ratings increases, new promotional and writing opportunities open for us, new readers notice our work, and most importantly, reader feedback encourages writers by letting us know that our work is reaching and touching people. 
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Thank you so much for your support! We deeply appreciate it. 
Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Plague by Albert Camus

It’s the 1940s in Oran, a coastal city in the Northern African country of Algeria, when, on a spring day as random as any other, rats begin crawling out of the shadows only to die violent deaths in the streets, hotels, and other public venues.

It isn’t long before the town’s physicians, including Dr. Bernard Rieux, whose ailing wife had just departed Oran to be cared for in a sanitorium, declare that bubonic plague is upon the town during a meeting with the Prefect.

Unfortunately, it takes the rest of the population a bit longer to acknowledge the outbreak, since the plague’s attack begins slowly. Bubonic plague is the last thing anyone expects. It is not until the Prefect orders the town gates closed and all vehicular transportation terminated than panic truly sets in.

While Rieux works tirelessly to treat the victims, ultimately unable to do more than keep a tally of the ever-increasing death rate, each of his colleagues and friends reacts to the crisis differently.

Dr. Castel begins formulating an inoculation against the plague once it’s realized that the medicines sent in from Paris have no effect.

An elderly town clerk, Joseph Grand struggles with his novel-in-progress, fretting over the opening sentence for months all the while struggling with the fact that his wife, Jeanne, left him as she could no longer tolerate living in poverty. Finally, Grand volunteers to assist with plague prevention.

The mysterious Cottard, a man of “independent means”, attempts to commit suicide at the onset of the plague, but is stopped by his neighbor, Grand. Cottard has a deep distrust of the police, but comes to find that while they are distracted by the plague, his seedy activities can continue unchecked.

Young journalist Raymond Rambert is only visiting Oran for a story when the town is quarantined and will go to any lengths to escape and return to his wife. When all legal means are exhausted, he turns to Cottard in desperation.

Father Paneloux, pastor of the town’s Catholic church, believes that the plague is God’s punishment and delivers a sermon to that effect, but eventually has a change of heart, stating that God will also offer succor and mercy. He then volunteers to assist Rieux with caring for the sick and is witness to the violent death of Magistrate Othon’s son.

Jean Tarrou, who quickly becomes Rieux’s closest friend, arrived in Oran just weeks before the plague erupted and decides to form teams of sanitation workers on a volunteer basis to fight the plague. Eventually, he reveals his life story to Rieux as a way of explaining why he is fiercely determined to help people when lives are at stake.

Other characters come in and out of the narrative, but the question is whether the efforts of this core team can bring an end to a plague that ravages Oran over the course of nearly a full year. The general atmosphere and attitude of the town is brilliantly depicted as the plague escalates through the seasons.

The Plague was Camus’s first book published after WWII. Contemporary readers unfamiliar with Camus—or with works written in this era—will most certainly cringe at pages of dense background information that would, in today’s terminology, be considered “infodumps.” There are also the occasional archaic sentence structures and words (a few even sent me to the dictionary) and outdated expressions of the time.

However, as I tend to gravitate toward classics, this style of prose is no stranger to me and is to be expected. It does nothing to diminish the enjoyment of such stories, but instead offers a glimpse into the history and evolution of literature.

 

 

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Revisited

In this anthology of nine tales that extend the eerie and wondrous universe known as the Twilight Zone, it was challenging for me to choose a favorite. I enjoyed every one of these adaptations by the legendary writer of The Shadow novels, Walter B. Gibson. In addition to his extensive writing credits, Gibson was also a magician who published two books on the secrets of Houdini’s escapes and tricks from the master’s original notes and with the permission of Houdini’s widow, Bess.Twilight Zone Revisited

Of the nine tales in this Twilight Zone collection, seven were ghost stories, one a time travel tale called “Beyond the Rim,” that was produced for the TV series as “100 Yards Beyond the Rim”, and another about a genie in a bottle (called, appropriately, “Man in a Bottle“). The latter was also an episode of the show, but one that leaned close enough toward cliché as to be predictable.  “The Purple Testament” and “The Mirror Image” were also memorable episodes of the series. The best of the stories from the book are summarized below.

In “Two Live Ghosts”, Jeff Tupper and Hank Merchand are a pair of adventurous prospectors mining the Black Mountains after the Civil War. They soon find themselves caught up in a battle between the U.S. Calvary and the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes, but not before witnessing a bizarre and mystical ritual of a medicine man who beckons the spirits of ancient warriors…

“Silent” John Moreland is one of the best riverboat pilots on the Mississippi. He seems to have an uncanny ability to sense what’s happening miles ahead on the great river. One thing Silent John doesn’t tolerate on board the Dixie Belle is gambling. Shortly after ordering a renowned card sharp off of the boat, the Dixie Belle collides with another vessel and Moreland is found dead in the pilothouse. At the same time, Moreland’s brother and sister each have a vision of their late brother in which “The Ghost of the Dixie Belle” tries to convey a message…

In “The Purple Testament“, Lieutenant Hugh Fitzgerald is among US forces fighting the Japanese on the Philippine Islands. During one particularly grueling battle, Fitzgerald manifests the ability to predict which of the men will die next…

Traveling to upstate New York during a fierce snowstorm, sports reporter Peter Dunning and photographer Bert Carey encounter an obsolete steam locomotive, painted white, and a strange young woman who pleads for help in getting home to her sick father, only to disappear into the storm after Pete drops her off. Determined to capture evidence, Pete sets off alone with a camera during the next snowstorm to find the truth about “The Ghost Train“…

In the autumn of 1847, pioneer Christopher Horn leads several families, including his own, across the country to California only to run out of water in the New Mexico desert. Worse, Horn’s son is ill with fever. Many in his caravan are growing restive and threaten to turn back until Horn decides to travel alone to the rim of the desert in search of water. What Horn finds “Beyond the Rim“ is more than he can handle…

During WWII, U.N. forces occupy Fort Defiance in Cape Regal overlooking Hangman’s Bay, once governed by reformed pirate Roger Crisp in the 1600s. A ruthless executioner of pirates, Crisp had come to be known as Jolly Roger for his gaunt appearance and demonic grin. Now, U.N. soldiers report unusual experiences and apparitions in the Fort leading to speculation as to the existence of “The Ghost of Jolly Roger“.

It’s late night in a city bus terminal when Millicent Barnes, while waiting for the last bus to Cortland, begins experiencing episodes of confusion and possible hallucinations. Her luggage seems to move about on its own and she sees a doppelganger behind her in reflective surfaces. Is it possible that Millicent is being taunted by “The Mirror Image“?

In the old Abington Arms apartment complex, Wilfred Laraby is everyone’s friend, always willing to lend whatever help is needed, financial or otherwise. He enjoys randomly visiting his neighbors living on the floors below his penthouse suite—to the chagrin of stamp collector and master counterfeiter Milton Casper who tries to elude Wilfred only to find himself in an awkward confrontation with “The Man Who Dropped By“.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Beyond This Horizon by Robert Heinlein

Three centuries into the future, the human race has become a product of artificial selection through genetic engineering. The world has conquered poverty, crime, and most diseases and while there are still natural-born humans, they are generally considered inferior.

Despite this alleged Utopia, wealthy game designer Hamilton Felix questions whether mankind should even continue as a race. Felix is from a “star line”, the product of 300 years of tightly controlled genetics. Yet, when the District Moderator for Genetics, Mordan Claude, calls Felix to the Central Clinic to suggest that he take a wife and produce offspring, Felix balks.

Refusing to be easily dissuaded, Claude steers the attractive and willful Longcourt Phyllis in Felix’s direction, but while Felix slowly warms up to her, he comes into contact with a dangerous revolutionary known as McFee Norbert who is gathering forces to overthrow the government and institute their own version of a perfect world.

Despite Claude’s objections, Felix infiltrates the group, but can he and Claude stop the revolution when the rebels send forces to invade the Central Clinic?

A master storyteller, Heinlein does a deft job of revealing this new world as the plot develops, although the Beyond This Horizonstory is occasionally stifled by several pages—and an entire third chapter—of purely scientific (or pseudo-scientific) discourse in the form of dense info-dumping. This is something that would never make it past a contemporary editor, of course, but as an avid reader of golden age SF novels, I’m accustomed to it. At that time, it was fairly common in the genre. Modern readers might also stumble over Heinlein’s occasional use of what would now be considered archaic grammar, but, in such cases, meaning can easily be derived from context.

Published in 1948, Beyond this Horizon is one of Heinlein’s earliest novels and offers a glimpse into the imaginative and prescient mind of one SF’s legendary visionaries.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Peter Benchley’s JAWS

Typically, my book reviews provide a brief synopsis of the first half of the story and end with such questions as “Will the detective solve the murder?” or “Will the heroes accomplish _____ in time to save ____?”

In the case of JAWS, do I really need to do that? Well, believe it or not, I know a few people who have never seen the film. For them, I shall summarize.

A great white shark has staked a claim in the waters just off the shore of Amity, a fictional beach town on Long Island, NY. Despite pressure from Mayor Larry Vaughn and the selectmen of the town council, Police Chief Martin Brody closes the beaches after the shark kills three swimmers including twenty-something Christine Watkins, a young boy named Alex Kintner, and a 60-year-old man.

Harry Meadows, editor-in-chief of the town newspaper, recruits an ichthyologist named Matt Hooper from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to assist in investigating the incidents. Meanwhile, local fisherman Ben Gardner is hired to catch the shark. Later, his boat is found abandoned a few miles offshore, but Gardner is never seen again.

Hooper borrows Gardner’s boat to patrol the waters in search of the shark and at one point after Brody reopens the beaches, another young boy narrowly escapes the shark while Hooper tracks it toward shore.

During this crisis, Amity’s economy declines rapidly. Summer home rentals are down, businesses suffer, and Mayor Larry Vaughn is unable to pay his “business partners” aka the Mafia. All the while, Chief Brody begins to suspect that his wife, Ellen, might have had an affair with Hooper not long after they met.

Finally, Meadows recommends that Brody hire a local shark fisherman named Quint to hunt down and kill the leviathan. Despite Hooper’s objections, Brody makes the call. Quint agrees, but doubles his fee. Brody and Hooper join Quint on an expedition that takes place over several days. Finally, after the second or third day, the shark reveals itself but eludes Quint’s harpoons. Surprised by the shark’s intelligence, Quint and Hooper try different tactics to bring the shark in closer for the kill—but will their efforts prove fatal to themselves as well as the shark?

I had not read JAWS in probably 25 years and had forgotten just how disappointing the novel is compared to the film, which I’ve seen well over 200 times by now and can quote almost verbatim. With possible exception of Chief Brody, none of the characters in the book are likable. They range from the annoying and vain (Ellen Brody) to the callous (Quint, Meadows, even Chief Brody and Hooper at times) and despicable (Vaughn). There is absolutely no character development at all, and I can see why, while reading the novel back in 1974, Steven Spielberg said that he was rooting for the shark to win.

Overall, the narrative and dialogue are lackluster, but the descriptions of the shark attacks and the final showdown in the last two chapters are compelling. Some chapters ended in brief vignettes that are completely unrelated to the plot, but were intended to show the dire effects of the shark’s presence near Amity. I found these to be unnecessary and distracting.

Without spoiling the novel, I would like to point out just some differences between the book and the film since the latter contained over 20 scenes that were not in Benchley’s original story.

At the behest of Spielberg, the characters as depicted in the film were far more affable. The subplot of the mayor’s ties to the Mafia was eliminated, as was Ellen Brody’s familiarity with Matt Hooper.

In the novel, it’s Hooper who does most of the chumming aboard the Orca, not Brody, and at the end of each day, Quint brings the boat back to port. He sees no need to remain on the water overnight, as was done in the film. Chief Brody never says the famous line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and Quint never addressed the citizens at the town hall meeting, nor was he a survivor of the USS Indianapolis.

Also, the Brodys’ three kids are barely featured in the novel, and even then, only at home. That wonderfully tense scene of the shark attacking the sailboat in the “pond” and knocking Brody’s oldest son into the water was created strictly for the film.

There are many other differences, surrounding Hooper and the fate of the shark, but I’m done telling this fish story!

 

JAWS Book Covers and Movie Poster

Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Book Review: The Machineries of Joy by Ray Bradbury

As usual, Ray Bradbury writes in splendid imagery, his prose poetic. No one else wrote, or will ever write, like Bradbury.

Yet, I fear most of today’s editors would likely slash and gut much of his beautiful detail, carving the very heart from his work. Such are the changes in readers’ tastes, which I partly blame on the dumbing down of society.

The Machineries of Joy was, not surprisingly, a joy to read. Of the 21 brilliant stories included, my favorites were:

“Tyrannosaurus Rex” — A stop-motion animator, tasked with creating a miniature T-Rex, just cannot seem to satisfy a film producer—until he completely recreates the beast’s face to resemble someone very familiar.

“The Vacation”— Traveling atop a small four-wheeled workman’s railcar, a family of three takes a serene cross-country excursion, able to avoid the rest of humanity—because they are the last people on Earth.

“Boys! Raise Giant Mushrooms in your Cellar!”— Inspired by an ad in Popular Mechanics, a boy sends away for a kit to grow mushrooms in his parents’ cellar, something that seems to be catching on across the country. However, it isn’t long before alarming behavior begins to manifest in those who eat the mushrooms.

“Almost The End Of The World” — Two miners return home to regale the locals with yet more tall tales of adventure only to find their town completely changed. Everything is freshly painted from homes to shops to flower pots—and the locals suddenly prohibit the miners from uttering a word.

“And The Sailor, Home From The Sea” — A dying sea captain and widower, now living on a wheat farm far from the ocean, asks his caretaker to bury him at sea where he lost his wife so many years ago. When the time comes, the caretaker follows through—without ever leaving the farm.

“A Miracle of Rare Device” — Two schemers always looking for a fast buck discover a mirage in the New Mexico desert that appears to be New York City! They begin selling tickets to passersby, only to learn that each person sees something completely different—and life altering—in the trick of light and heat.

“And So Died Riabouchinska” — A detective investigating a murder questions a ventriloquist, but only learns the truth through the man’s exquisite Russian female puppet.

“Death and the Maiden” — Old Mam, or so the townsfolk call her, locked herself in her house decades ago, fearing the day when Death would come for her. She receives no visitors save for a grocery clerk who merely delivers food to her porch once every few weeks. When Death finally arrives, he tempts Old Mam with an unexpected offer.

“To The Chicago Abyss” — A homeless man who remembers what life on Earth was like before Annihilation Day is saved from a beating on the street by the member of a secret movement that wishes to return to the days of old. The homeless man’s reputation has fallen under the scrutiny of the authorities so the movement’s followers send the homeless man to a place of safety, but not before he imparts his knowledge to them.

“The Anthem Sprinters” — In Dublin, a group of Irishman place bets on who can run out of the cinema the fastest after a movie, in order to avoid listening to Ireland’s national anthem, which is played after the end of every film. When an American tourist is convinced to ante up and join the fun, he finds that even this callous group has a heart of gold.

 

Machineries of Joy by Ray Bradbury