Happy Banned Books Week

October 2, 2023 News Editor 0

Sometimes, these days, it’s better to laugh than cry. You know: when life gives you lemons, chug some lemonade. The lemonade in the banned book scenario is a brand new reading list: created for us by those who would restrict what we’d read. Thankfully, it doesn’t work that way. Not sure what to read this week? Choose one of these. And we can make light (back to that laugh so you don’t cry scenario) but […]

Food with Spirit by Alicia Shevetone

October 2, 2023 admin 0

Food With Spirit is the latest book from Las Vegas chef, author, and television personality Alicia Shevetone. The book focuses on cooking for one or two people without creating massive amounts of leftovers, but also without sacrificing flavor. Food With Spirit features 50 recipes spread across five sections: Appetizers, Soups, Entrees, Sides, and Desserts. Each is beautifully illustrated and all 50 recipes are infused with some of our favorite intoxicants, from spiced rum to the […]

Crime Fiction: The Second Murderer
by Denise Mina

August 1, 2023 J. Kingston Pierce 0

Scottish crime-fictionist Denise Mina has demonstrated her versatility in recent years with modern fictional takes on historical dramas (Rizzio, Three Fires). In the vivid, crisply penned new tale, The Second Murderer (Pegasus Crime), she stretches her muscles still further, dispatching Raymond Chandler’s solitary Los Angeles gumshoe, Philip Marlowe, in search of Chrissie Montgomery, a naïve 22-year-old heiress gone missing after her engagement party. Marlowe suspects Chrissie’s repugnant father—who comes from money “so old there was […]

Fiction: Somebody’s Fool
by Richard Russo

July 26, 2023 J. Kingston Pierce 0

North Bath, the fictional upstate New York setting of Richard Russo’s “Fool” trilogy, seems to be finally and firmly on the skids in the brand-new novel Somebody’s Fool (Knopf). The town is slated for annexation by a wealthier, more liberal neighbor, Schuyler Springs. Even the local police station is being shuttered, its longtime chief, Douglas Raymer, surplussed to make room for his Black ex-employee and sometime-girlfriend, Charice Bond, at the helm of the Schuyler PD. […]

Crime Fiction: Unnatural Ends
by Christopher Huang

July 24, 2023 J. Kingston Pierce 0

Christopher Huang’s twisty new whodunit, Unnatural Ends (Inkshares), should make you feel better about your own upbringing, no matter how wretched it seemed. It’s 1921, and Sir Lawrence Linwood has been bludgeoned to death in the study of his Yorkshire manse, likely by someone he knew. His three adopted, adult, and successful children—Alan, Roger, and Caroline—return home for the funeral, only to learn of a peculiar clause in their pater’s will: the one of them […]

Crime Fiction: All the Sinners Bleed
by S.A. Cosby

June 9, 2023 J. Kingston Pierce 0

Cosby’s rise through the crime fiction firmament has been meteoric. Three years ago, he was virtually unknown, working for his wife’s Virginia funeral parlor and dreaming of literary notice. Now, after two award-winning releases — Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears — he’s just a couple of rooms shy of being a household name, his prose celebrated for its poetic undertones, the endemic violence of his plots accepted as essential to portraying the bigotry that still plagues Southern rural […]

Non-Fiction: The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic by Tom Santopietro

June 5, 2023 Tony Buchsbaum 0

The Way We Were is one of my favorite movies. What’s not to love? It’s got Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford at the top of their games. It’s got the timeless, Oscar-winning song by Marvin Hamlisch and Marilyn and Alan Bergman. It has Hamlisch’s lush, Oscar-winning score, plus 1950s-era politics; and rich, juicy dollops of romance as the two ill-fated opposites attract each other.  I was eager to read a book about how the movie […]

Threat Modeling

Non-Fiction: Threats: Designing for Security by Adam Shostack

June 4, 2023 admin 0

“We can’t secure our systems if threats are mysterious or poorly understood,” writes Adam Shostack, author of Threats: Designing for Security. “This book gives every engineer foundational knowledge in a structured, accessible and fun way. My students come in with incredibly variable knowledge — bringing everyone to the same level is so important as security becomes a first-class engineering requirement.” Shostack’s book is not for everyone, but in a world where cybersecurity is a large […]

Working Through the Banned

June 3, 2023 admin 0

Over the past 90 days, there has been an increase in searches for “banned books,” “banned book list,” and “list of banned books.” These types of searches have also increased over the last year. Trending book titles include The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The interest in banned books can reflect the current political climate and increased censorship in America’s public […]

Fear of Living

June 3, 2023 News Editor 0

Everyone is looking for the perfect creative space, but it’s not unthinkable that Fear of Flying (1973) author Erica Jong’s Upper East Side New York apartment might fit the bill for a number of creators: if you can get past the $4.25 million dollar price tag, that is.“Located in the coveted Imperial House building on the Upper East Side,” says Top Ten Real Estate Deals, “the 3,000-square-foot apartment boasts specta cular Central Park and skyline […]