Their Big Fat Greek Album (Burlap to Cashmere to Me)
I have little idea what most of the songs on Burlap to Cashmere's self-titled 2010 album mean, but it doesn't mean they're not memorable. Out of the blue, in a restaurant or from the back seat of the...
View ArticleDiamonds and Rain
(Editor's note: The branch at left is the same river birch, leafless in winter)Last year, a thunderstorm rattled the river birch that straddles our side yard and the neighbor's, snapping a jagged...
View ArticleA Forensic Fais Do Do in the Big Easy
Review: Floating Souls by Mary H. ManheinMy rating: 3 of 5 stars I enjoyed Manhein's presentation about her first novel (she's previously written nonfiction books about her work as an LSU forensic...
View ArticleIn St. Francisville, the Little Way Goes a Long Way
Review: The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life / By Rod DreherMy rating: 5 of 5 stars Here's the thing I want you to know about Rod Dreher: He...
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Tourism Zeal Threatens to Trample Iconic New Orleans Structure
They're cooking up a big demolition party in New Orleans to eradicate one of the city's iconic structures: No need to waste one's weary little gray cells on this building, the story line goes, it's...
View ArticleHell hath no fury like Homestead, Minnesota (fictionally speaking)
Review: Bad Blood | A novel by John Sandford My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read in airports and during down time on a trip to Santa Fe, Bad Blood wasn't a dull read. It's lively, provocative – even...
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Rediscovering The Violet Burning
Two classics, two decades apart — one story.8.17.13Where to begin? Please indulge me as I take the discursive route — it seems the appropriate one. I'll begin, like Odysseus, in medias res ...I woke up...
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Anna Pigeon: An Angel of Wrath in Minnesota's Rugged Iron Range
A dozen years ago, while I held down the business desk at a nearby newspaper, my wife and fellow Nevada Barr fan traveled to that inimitable bookstore near the old Oxford, Mississippi, courthouse –...
View ArticleAlong the Shore
"All along the Lee shore/ Shells lie scattered in the sand/ Winking up like shining eyes, at me/ From the sea" (David Crosby, "The Lee Shore," from 4 Way Street, by CSN&Y) The rain spent itself...
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4 Books, 1 Beach
Fifteen years had passed since last we visited Fernandina Beach. The Florida town anchors Amelia Island, the last barrier island as you descend the Atlantic Coast. It's also the extreme northwestern...
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