Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Bingo: Justice I saw the movie Mystic River, based on Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same name, years ago. I remember thinking it was very good. I forgot most of the plot, so I picked the book up. The story features Jimmy, an ex-con. When he was young, his friends Sean and Danny were playing when a car pulls up to them. The men inside kidnap Danny and he escapes four days later, having been sexually abused. The book then jumps 25 years in the […]
The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie’s The Moving Finger is a Miss Marple mystery that features very little Miss Marple. The narrator is Jerry Burton, who has come to a little village with his sister Joanna to recover from an injury. He unfolds the story and Miss Marple doesn’t show up until sixty percent in. Even then, she plays a minimal role except at the end when the mystery is solved. The village has been plagued with anonymous poison pen letters sent to various residents. Jerry and Joanna even […]
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is an account of one man’s experience in a Soviet labor camp after World War II. Russian Ivan Denisovich–known as Shukhov throughout the narrative–was captured as a German POW and when released, was accused of being a spy by the Soviet government. Although innocent, he is sentenced to 10 years in a forced labor camp. At the time of the book, he has served eight years already. Even after the 10 years are up, Shukhov […]
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair is a curious book. On the surface it is a recollection of the beginning and end of an adulterous affair, an all consuming passion that rocks back and forth between desire and hate. This is set against characters’ wrestling with the existence of God, making the story a rather religious treatise in some ways. The narrator, Maurice Bendrix, takes the reader through his affair with a married woman named Sarah Wiles. Meeting at a dinner with Sarah’s husband […]
A Burst of Light and Other Essays by Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde had a tremendous impact on my thinking when I read Sister Outsider over 30 years ago. She blew my mind open on issues of race, sexuality, class, capitalism, power, and oppression. This collection of essays, A Burst of Light, was just as powerful. The book consists of five essays, the longest one is a diary of Lorde’s struggle with liver cancer, which had metastasized from an earlier bout of breast cancer years before. The first essay examines the power dynamics in BDSM, where […]
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Stephen King’s 11/22/63 is by far the best book I’ve read by him in ages. I absolutely loved it from beginning to end–especially the end because I find King so often duffs his endings. But this one was perfect. 11/22/63 is the story of Jake Epping, who is introduced to a time travel portal by a resident, Al, who owns the local diner. Al tells Jake about traveling to the world of 1958. Every time he returns to the present time, the timeline is re-set, […]
