“Wayne Ogden is a prince of a fellow, as long as you judge this bad-boy protagonist of Scott Phillips’s caustic crime novel, THE ADJUSTMENT (Counterpoint, $25), according to his own perverse code of ethics. As a quartermaster for the United States Army stationed in Rome during World War II, Ogden had a rewarding career as …
Tag Archive: book reviews
May 22
Victoria Patterson on Radiance by Louis B. Jones
Author Victoria Patterson (This Vacant Paradise) reviewed Radiance by Louis B. Jones for Three Guys One Book. Excerpt: “Mark Perdue is the kind of perfectly flawed and contemplative character that I love, quietly tortured over everyday events—like being put on hold on the phone: “And with a clotting sound in the earpiece, the intelligible universe everywhere was …
May 22
Reading in L.A. review of Radiance by Louis B. Jones
“Every word of this short novel is relevant. Brilliant, actually.” ~ Reading in LA Excerpt: “The tension between Mark and Blythe’s undeniable attraction, (compounded by the increasing distance he feels from his aggrieved wife) and the necessity of maintaining narrative equilibrium, makes for some thoroughly good writing. But I think the most interesting part of …
May 14
Ashes of the Earth Review on Inkwatu
Pattison’s Sleuths Typically, Pattison’s sleuths all have a foot in both sides of the cultural conflict. Often he is a fallen and outcast hero of the culture of oppression who defends the oppressed culture as a side effect of his sleuthing. Here, too, is a feature of Pattison’s novels that set them apart from many …
Apr 26
LA Times Book Review of Victoria Patterson’s THIS VACANT PARADISE
LA Times Book Critic Susan Salter Reynolds discusses THIS VACANT PARADISE: Excerpt: One wants to like Esther, who has the potential to rise above it all, but she fails us: “No matter how much plastic surgery,” she thinks, looking at female competitors in a bar, “they would never be as physically attractive as she was …
Apr 05
Marry or Burn by Valerie Trueblood on Necessary Fiction
Here’s an excerpt of a wonderful in-depth review of Marry or Burn by Valerie Trueblood on Necessary Fiction: “The persistent reader develops a fuller, if uncertain, sense of Trueblood’s basic and continuing “intuitions.” These are suspicions about how life works and can be understood, a poetic sense of what’s happening, what matters, here especially among …
Mar 29
Review of This River by James Brown in The Oregonian
James Brown’s gift to write with such baring honesty about drug and alcohol addiction and how it took hold of his life earned praise in the Oregonian: “James Brown’s “This River” is a second memoir, after “The Los Angeles Diaries,” that deals in a down-to-earth way with addiction and its subtle grip on a man’s …
Mar 21
The LA Times Praises This River by James Brown
Here’s an excerpt from the The LA Times article: “In one of my favorite chapters, Brown writes about a Japanese student of his who has endured too many injustices in his short time in the U.S. and whose stories are filled with threats of violence. The teacher and the student are both living at the …
Mar 13
JDPR NEWS
Escapism Through Books Review of This Vacant Paradise by Victoria Patterson: “…Patterson most definitely allowed me to escape into this world. I felt like I was there, could hear the murmured conversations in the background, could smell the ocean, could see the brightness everywhere: the sun, the reflections off of the water, and waxed cars, …
Mar 06
JDPR NEWS
This River by James Brown Here’s a little teaser quote from the upcoming Booklist review of This River by James Brown. This River is the powerful follow-up to Brown’s cult memoir The Los Angeles Diaries, which has been reissued to accompany the release of This River so readers can enjoy and appreciate Brown’s heart-wrenching but …