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Current books:
  • Treason on the Airwaves: Three Allied Broadcasters on Axis Radio during World War II

    Treason on the Airwaves: Three Allied Broadcasters on Axis Radio during World War II by Judith Keene


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Booking Through Thursday: Disappointment

Name a book or author that you truly wanted to love but left you disappointed. (And, of course, explain why.)

Sadly, there are a number, more so specific books than authors. For whatever reason, though, the one that comes immediately to mind is Norman Mailer’s The Castle in the Forest.

In naming it my “biggest disappointment” [...]

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Booking Through Thursday: Reading the reviews

Do you read book reviews? Do you let them change your mind about reading/not reading a particular book?

I’ve subscribed to the NYT Book Review for a number of years and, off and on, a variety of other book review (Bookforum) and book-oriented (The Believer) publications. And, of course, I have a number of book [...]

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Musing Mondays: Location, location, location

Where is your most often used (favorite) reading spot? Do you have more than one? What makes your favorite spot just that?

All things considered, my favorite spot is probably out on the deck of our house. Now, granted, it is far from a prime (or even desirable) location in the winter. But spring, [...]

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Booking Through Thursday: Bedside

What books do you have next to your bed right now? How about other places in the house? What are you reading?

This item comes late today because the answer isn’t that easy. It’s more a matter of numbers. My bed not onlyhas two small headboard shelves, there’s a small bookcase next to it. [...]

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Booking Through Thursday: Useful

What’s the most useful book you’ve ever read? And, why?

My “most useful” book isn’t one book, it comes from a series of books.

You see, law students rely on a couple commercial devices to help survive. They include outlines, such as “Gilley’s” (short for Gilbert’s Law Summaries), and the books in the West Nutshell Series. [...]

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Booking Through Thursday: Halfway booking

So … you’re halfway through a book and you’re hating it. It’s boring. It’s trite. It’s badly written. But … you’ve invested all this time to reading the first half.

What do you do? Read the second half? Just to finish out the story? Find out what happens?

Or, cut your losses and [...]

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Booking Through Thursday: And God said

God* comes to you and tells you that, from this day forward, you may only read ONE type of book–one genre–period, but you get to choose what it is. Classics, Science-Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Cookbooks, History, Business … you can choose, but you only get ONE.

What genre do you pick, and why?

*Whether you believe in [...]

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Booking Through Thursday: Sensual

Which do you prefer? Lurid, fruity prose, awash in imagery and sensuous textures and colors? Or straight-forward, clean, simple prose?

My journalism degree and background seems to almost demand simple and clean prose. That is called good writing. Now good writing can also be descriptive, but “lurid, fruity prose” would seem the antithesis of [...]

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Booking Through Thursday: Grammar

In honor of National Grammar Day … it IS “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?

More importantly, have you read them?

How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

I admit it upfront. The main — if not the only — reason I’m [...]

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Musing Mondays: Keepers

Do you keep all the books you ever buy? Just the ones you love? Just collectibles? What do you do with the ones you don’t want to keep?

I wish.

For a long time, I did keep virtually every book I bought unless it was one I really disliked. For a long period of time, the [...]

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