Category Archives: Books

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (2009. Ballantine. ISBN 978-0-343-50534-7) Hmm…The book I am about to review is this year’s “One Book, One Community” selection by the Duluth Public Library. It is  (as most such … Continue reading →

The Book of Mormon translated by Joseph Smith, Jun. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; 1961). Well. I had to read the thing because I was writing a story of Mormons hell bent for leather to “bleach” Lamanites … Continue reading →

Hubert Humphrey: A Biography by Carl Solberg (1984; Borealis Books. ISBN 0-87351-473-4) Not once in the 572 pages of this exhaustive but thoroughly documented and well written book did the author, Mr. Solberg, reference the label that I recall being … Continue reading →

Limin’ Times by the Writers’ Circle of St. Croix (U.S.V.A.) (Author House: 2009. ISBN 978-1-4389-7493-4) Limin’ Verb. Caribbean term: “To relieve from attention or effort: relax.” “Limin’ ” is just hanging out, to buss a lime with friends, dat means … Continue reading →

  The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck (1961; Viking. ISBN (unknown) Sometimes a writer just makes you sigh and ask yourself Why do I even bother to try? Most readers know Steinbeck from the books that made him … Continue reading →

The Oxcart Trail by Herbert Krause (1954; Brevet Press (Originally, Bobbs-Merrill Co.) ISBN 088-4-980-472) Most of you have no idea that little Friberg Township in Otter Tail County, Minnesota produced two great men in the first decade of the 20th … Continue reading →

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (audio version) (2009; Random House. ISBN 978-0-7393-0956-8) I read Dan Brown for the first time when I was sitting at the Green Man Festival at Spirit Mountain in Duluth one summer, not so far … Continue reading →

  Purge by Sofi Oksanen (2008; Black Cat. ISBN 978-0-8021-7077-4) I ran into this novel in Poets and Writers Magazine where it was being discussed as an “international best seller”. That’s not what drew me to the book. It was … Continue reading →

  Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (1927 (4th Ed.): Harcourt, Brace and Co. ISBN: Unknown) Elmer Gantry was drunk. He was eloquently drunk, lovingly and pugnaciously drunk. He leaned against the bar of the Old Home Sample Room, the most … Continue reading →

The Rocky Mountain Saints by T.B.H. Stenhouse (1873 (photomechanical reproduction); Utah Lighthouse Ministry) Mr. Stenhouse’s historic depiction of the rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints ( the Mormons) was originally published in 1872. He and … Continue reading →