Desperate Measures by David Morrell is an old book (1992) about a journalist who has lost his edge due to depression from the death of his son.  He postpones his plans for suicide to do a favor for his friend and editor.  He must write an obituary for a man who is still alive.  The…

I just finished Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard.  The authors manage to make interesting a plethora of data about the Civil War, the assassins, and the seeds of the punitive measures of the reconstruction.  The book reads like a novel as it educates the reader.  It even answers the age-old question of, Who’s buried…

Smoke and Mirrors: the War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure is a nonfiction book that has altered my thinking on the government’s response to drug use in this country.  I have always supported the “war on drugs.”  After all, illegal drugs have destroyed countless lives and have few redeeming factors.  The problem brought out…

I attended the Florida Heritage Book Festival and Writers Conference in St Augustine in September.  Some of the speakers included Steve Berry, Jeff Lindsey, and Jeff’s wife Hilary Hemingway (niece of Ernest Hemingway).  A banquet honored Edna Buchannan.  She discussed life in Miami, her time as a crime reporter for the Miami Herald, and her…

I just gave up reading Without Fail by Lee Child.  He is one of my favorite writers, and Jack Reacher is one of my favorite characters, but this sixth book in the Jack Reacher series did not compare well to the others.  A woman in the secret service recruits Jack to help prevent an assassination of Vice-President-elect…

Shelter by Harlan Coben is a teenage adventure story staring Mickey Bolitar, the nephew of Coben’s prime protagonist, sport’s agent Myron Bolitar.  Mickey, whose father has died and whose mother is in rehab for heroin addiction, begins his sophomore year at a new high school in a new town.  He has lived in third world countries…

Iron House by John Hart is an action-filled thriller about a man trying to escape a life of crime.  Michael is a character with flaws.  At least he could be considered such if you count murder as a sin.  For years he has worked as a hit man for the mob leader who pulled him from…

I began reading The Emperor of all Maladies with reservations.  After all, how entertaining can a book about cancer be?  To my surprise, the author, Siddhartha Mukherjee swept me into his world and kept my attention for the entire book.  The work is intended for lay readers, but it manages to relay a tremendous amount of medical…

In Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, Walter Isaacson brings to life one of Americans greatest scholars, scientists, and philosophers.  Franklin was born in Boston in 1706 and died in Philadelphia in 1790, a period of great turbulence in the new world filled with wars and struggles for freedom that culminated in the creation of a new…