"The temperature hit ninety degrees the day she arrived." -- Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann. I've always half...

This week's Booking Through Thursday question asks about "hot reading."  Specifically: Well, folks, I don’t know about wh...

Fer-de-Lance is Rex Stout's first Nero Wolfe mystery and everything it is cracked up to be. I am torn between being appalled at myse...

"Suddenly the power came on, the dim lights in the hall and my couchette revealing a world of dirt.  My mattress was so stained it l...

There is only one book on my Mailbox Monday list, but I really like it. I spent a big hunk of Saturday afternoon flipping through it. On...

"He carried his girl tied to his front, the trapsack on his back, the rifle balanced like a yoke along his shoulders." -- A Su...

Here is a guest review from a lady lawyer friend of mine who is also busy raising three young boys. Thanks Heather! I just finished read...

"Outside of Pul-I-Khumri, the bus shuddered to a halt on the dusty roadside and couldn't be restarted." -- Lunatic Expre...

Angler Management: The Day I Died While Fly Fishing and Other Essays by Jack Ohman . Angler Management is cartoonist Jack Ohman’s firs...

From a list of reasons why 93-year-old Mr. Flood is "irreconcilable" to death: "Third, he is a diet theorist -- he calls ...

It looked like I was going to have an empty mailbox this holiday weekend. But then I ran across an estate sale late yesterday afternoon -- ...

There was no reason why I shouldn't have been sent for the beer that day, for the last ends of the Fairmont National Bank case had bee...

Summer is finally here in Portland, so it is time for my quarterly, three-part, progress assessment. The first part addressed the book li...

"The English woman was still looking at me when I entered the hallway. Perusing me in a fashion as if I was not there to see her sta...

I only got one new book last week, and it did not come in the mail. I found it at a garage sale. So I have another very short list for Mail...

Probably no cookbook maven inspires the love/hate reaction that Martha Stewart does.  I don't think I am alone in this. I have at leas...

"I thought I'd been to Africa." -- from the Prologue to Small Island by Andrea Levy. I've been hearing very good t...

Summer is finally here in Portland, so it is time for my quarterly, three-part, progress assessment. The first part addressed the book lis...

The Secret Scripture is the entwined story of Roseanne McNulty, a 100-year-old mental patient, and Dr. Grene, who is desultorily trying t...

"A bossy, yellow-haired blonde named Mazie P. Gordon is a celebrity on the Bowery. In the nickel-a-drink saloons and in the all night...

Liz Crain is the author of the brand new, must-have book: The Food Lover's Guide to Portland . I have been dreaming about this book ...

Only one book came into my house last week, so this is a very short Mailbox Monday post.  This is probably a good thing, because I must rea...

Summer starts this week, but it's hard to tell here in rainy Portland. The sun is supposed to arrive in the next few days, so in anticip...