"The sea which lies before me as I write glows rather than sparkles in the bland May sunshine." -- The Sea, the Sea by Iris ...

Although called a novel, A Geography of Secrets by Frederick Reuss is really two separate novellas with common themes. The stories twin...

Steve Anderson is a Portland-based author whose historical espionage thriller The Losing Role is available on Amazon Kindle, iBooks, an...

"A violent gust or even a sudden change in temperature would force the buildings to sway and the wire could tighten and bounce. . . ...

Thanks go to Avis of She Reads and Reads for hosting Mailbox Monday in October. Three books came into my house last week: Mink Rive...

Having two new kittens in my house has completely absorbed my attention. Ever since their arrival a week ago, we spend all the time we can ...

"Those who saw him hushed." -- Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. This won the National Book Award last year. I am...

To say that Another Way the River Has is a collection of essays inspired by the Pacific Northwest is both an overstatement and inadequate...

Maeve Binchy has the knack for making stories about ordinary people be very interesting. She is like Anne Tyler in this. Echoes is no...

While he maneuvered to pass a towline to the disabled trawler, a breaker caught the lifeboat broadside.  The boat did what it was designed...

Thanks to a book chain letter I sent out a couple of months ago, at least one book came into my mailbox last week. Thanks go to Avis of S...

I've ignored the blog this weekend to celebrate the arrival of Billie and Ella, The Jazz Cats. We picked them up yesterday from the Oreg...

I'll be hopping around today while I pretend that I do not have a stack of neglected work to attend to. Also, please don't forget ...

  Liz Crain tapped into Portland’s do-it-yourself ethic and agricultural abundance to write her Food Lover's Guide to Portland , an inf...

It's time to get my Guilt List under control. And one thing I can do is pass on to an appreciative reader a book that I do not think I ...

A Geography of Secrets by Frederick Reuss Opening sentence: Driving into work one day, I found myself in a different city. Teaser: I...

I was out of town for a while and happy to come home to find several books had arrived in my absence. I also picked up a short stack on my...

My thanks go to the talented Michele Emrath of Southern City Mysteries for passing on the "I'm a Literacy Builder" award to m...

In The Truth About Obamacare , Sally C. Pipes examines the details of the new health care law and tries to show what its implementation...

Saul Bellow (1915 to 2005) may have been born in Canada, but he was an American treasure. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. ...

"Dorcas hated the fens." -- The Case Has Altered by Martha Grimes. That is, she hated the low, swampy wetlands of Lincolnsh...

This week's Booking Through Thursday question asks: When you travel, how many books do you bring with you? Has this changed since ...

Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes by Carl Hoffman.   (This review was ...

"Drainy was a bug-eyed boy with a shaven head and spaces between his teeth.  He had a collection of little cars and toy bikes made ou...

She Reads and Reads is hosting Mailbox Monday this month. Thanks Avis! We got a couple of coffee table books this week. One belongs to m...