Everybody knows the Mantoni girls are attractive, and theoretically, that’s a good thing, right? Only this time, a charming but older millionaire desires the most beautiful Mantoni, Annalisa, as his lover for the Christmas season. Her cousin, Carlina, is disgusted by the liaison and says she’d rather see him dead than at Annalisa’s side. The next […]
Featured Book: August 31
My good friend and colleague from Avalon Books has recently published a new book, An Uncertain Path. Here are a few word about the book from Sandra Carey Cody’s own writer’s blog, Birth of a Novel, also on WordPress. A tragic accident links the lives of two young women, unrelated, unknown to one another, causing each […]
Featured Book: July 25: Remembering the Armenian Genocide 1915
On April 24, 1915 the Ottoman Turk Caliphate began one of the most heinous, inhuman exterminations of their fellow citizens when they systematically annihilated Armenian men, drove women and children on death marches into the Syrian desert, and committed the first genocide of the 20th Century. This terrible act led to a coverup on an […]
Featured Book: Review
CJ Verburg’s Another Number for the Road has all you could ever want from a murder mystery set in two iconic periods of American history: the 1960s: Free Speech, Free Love, Stop the War, Civil Rights and sex, drugs, rock and roll; and 1980s: Reaganomics, Cold War Collapse, Punk Rock, big hair and bigger shoulders. […]
Featured Book: May 17
One of the first books that sparked my interest in history, and particularly the Middle Ages, A Distant Mirror, purported to compare the 14th Century to the 20th. At the time the book was published, I was deep in studies of Comparative Literature, World Literature, Women’s Fiction et cetera, et cetera. What enthralled me about […]
Snakes & Snails & Puppy Dogs’ Tails
We know the counterpart to the title of this blog, starting with sugar but enough is said about the Spice and Nice. About twenty years ago, I learned the counterpoint regarding boys from a book titled, Bringing Up Boys. I have three. Variously known as “the mother of those three” and “so you’re the one […]
MSM & Women’s Rights Advocates Ignore These Facts
A few days ago, Kate Steinle was murdered at a popular tourist location less than six miles from my home. Her killer was a five-times deported, recently released felon awaiting another deportation hearing. (http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Pier-shooting-suspect-had-been-released-from-S-F-6365228.php). A young woman, living just 20 miles from my home, was brutally raped and beaten by a gang of young men […]
Review: The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton My rating: 5 of 5 stars The House of Mirth is an exquisite, classic tragedy. Wharton’s creation, Lily Bart, is among the truly honest, tragic heroines – driven by her best instincts and her highest ideals to make choices that lead to sink further into the mire of […]
Review: Black Ransom
When I was writing for Avalon Books, I met Stone Wallace and interviewed him when his Western novel, The Last Outlaw, was released in July of 2011. That interview was reposted here last month. I had ordered a copy of the book to be delivered to a relative’s address in Conneticutt. On the last day I […]
Review: The Camp of the Saints
The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail My rating: 5 of 5 stars Prophetic, timely, a difficult book but compelling read. Fittingly finished reading this book today, 14 juillet, Bastille Day, but I wonder if the French revolutionaries of 1789 would be in The Village or on the beach. View all my reviews This […]