COLDWATER, Mich. — One October night in 2004, Curtis Dawkins smoked crack, dressed up for Halloween in a gangster costume and terrorized a household, killing one man and taking another hostage in a rampage that drew 24 patrol officers and a six-member SWAT team. He is serving a life sentence without parole in Michigan. After […]
An Addict, a Confessed Killer and Now a Debut Author – The New York Times Read More »
At a book group gathering a few months back a man opened the discussion with the comment, “I didn’t like this book because I just couldn’t like any of the characters.” I don’t even remember what that month’s book was because my mind took off with that comment. That was certainly not the first time
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Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why Penguin Random House, 2007 978–1–59514–188–0 Originally published in 2007, this book recently received renewed interest when streaming service Netflix made it into a series. In fact, that’s why I bought and read it. The story comprises 13 cassette recordings left by teenager Hannah Baker for the people who contributed to
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In celebration of Father’s Day, here are five memoirs about fathers. The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr Mary Karr describes a dysfunctional childhood—by turns hilarious and appalling—in an east Texas oil town. The book’s title comes from her father’s group of male friends who would assemble in the evenings to drink and see who could
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Father’s Day is upon us. The greatest novel about fathers that I’ve ever read is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Here are five more. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver In 1959 evangelical Baptist preacher Nathan Price takes his wife and four daughters to the Belgian Congo to deliver God’s message. They take
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Nunn, Kem. Chance Scribner, 2014 ISBN 978–1–5011–6467–5 San Francisco hosts this novel, but not the charming city by the bay. This is the San Francisco of fog, mist, and nighttime crime, where thoughts and desires scuttle off down the darkest paths and then emerge from the depths to bite us. This is where we meet
What are the novels that you remember most fondly, even long after you’ve read them? Here are five that have stuck with me over the years. 1. Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos Margaret Hughes, age 75, has just learned that she has a brain tumor. Margaret lives alone in a huge mansion in the
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Hey, did you know that there’s a new season of Twin Peaks? Oh—you did? Why, have people been talking about it? And scene, with my sincere apologies. Like many of you, I’ve been thinking… Source: An Incomplete Guide to Literary References in Twin Peaks | Literary Hub
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Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade Delacorte Press, 1969 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 69–11929 Rereading this book leaves me speechless every time—not because I have nothing to say about it, but because there’s so much to say that I don’t know where to start. Just as the bumblebee flies anyway, this
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My husband and I are getting ready to leave on a one-month vacation. I’ve already decided what clothes and accessories to pack, but I’m stressing out about what reading to bring along. I’m talking about those big, frothy stories that you can dive into on a long plane trip or while sunning on a ship’s
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