Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Young Adult Author
Bottom of the Ninth, by Michael Shapiro, is about ex-Pirates/Cardinals/Dodgers manager Branch Rickey and his plan, starting in 1958, to create a new major league to compete with the existing National and Americal Leagues. HIs partner in this effort was New York attorney Bill… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself”
Fourteen-year-old Aku is learning the hard truth about being a king… When he must send off a ship called the Cloud Strider, newly-enthroned king Aku wishes he could join the crew. After all, they’re bound to experience an unparalleled adventure. The vessel of discovery… Continue Reading “Daughter Cloud Out Now!”
Are you tired of generic fantasy? Well, here’s a book that feels personal, a true expression of the author’s individual vision. The Guardian Forest, by Sandra Hunter, is a bit rough around the edges. To be honest, it could have used a pass by… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: Guardian Forest”
If you like my Last Days of Atlantis series, I think it’s a good bet you’ll like Inker and Crown, by Megan O’Russell. They’re both multi-character-arc epic fantasies with a flawed scribe as a main character. And they both have multiple related organizations that… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: Inker and Crown”
Bruce Kuklick is a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and his book To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia is a labor of love on his part. It’s also the kind of book I personally love–a mix of baseball… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: To Every Thing a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia”
Markos is better known as the Gospel of Mark, but in Sarah Ruden’s new translation of the Gospels, she hews more closely to the original Greek than most versions. Hence, Mark becomes Markos, Matthew becomes Maththaios, Luke becomes Loukas, John becomes Iohannes, and Jesus… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: Markos”
The Giants’ Spear is the final book in Jamie Edmundson’s Weapon Takers Saga, and all the various story arcs come to their final conclusion here. (I also reviewed the first book in the series, Toric’s Dagger; the second book, Bolivar’s Sword; and, the third… Continue Reading “What I’m Reading: The Giants’ Spear”
I’m engaged in a project with my twelve-year old daughter to watch every single Twilight Zone episode and rank them. We watch and run them through a rubric to give them a score from 0 to 7. The episodes are graded in three categories:… Continue Reading “Ranking the Twilight Zone”