Paul’s Book Reviews
Eight short book reviews: fiction, science fiction, mystery, thriller, horror, young adult, fantasy.
Paul’s Book Reviews: My Top Reads for 2018
This is going to be a short list. Looking back over the books I read in 2018, only three stand out—and by “stand out” I mean books I’d happily read again. Two are new, published this year or in late 2017; one is from 1998 but new to me. Two are mainstream fiction with historical […]
Paul’s Book Reviews: Playing Catch-Up
My book review posts don’t normally have a theme. They are what they are: reviews of the latest books I’ve read, fiction, nonfiction, thrillers, whatever. This time, though, I include three books I’ve had on the to-read shelf for years … more than a decade in one case … that I finally got around to […]
Paul’s Book Reviews: Horror/Fantasy, Nonfiction, Science Fiction
“People are masks, with masks under those masks, and masks under those, and down you go.” — David Mitchell, Slade House Slade House David Mitchell Slade House is a companion (not exactly a sequel) to Mitchell’s previous novel The Bone Clocks, but it is a more compact and to-the-point story, as readable as anything Mitchell has written. Like […]
Paul’s Book Reviews: History, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult
The Museum of Funeral Customs is on the edge of Oak Ridge Cemetery, a five-minute walk from the tomb. Supposedly the fellow who swoops over to greet me is the museum director, but he speaks in the hushed low voice of a funeral director. He warns me about “the sensitive nature of our exhibits.” Please. […]
Paul’s Movie Reviews
“I’m a psychiatrist, Miss Taylor. Normally, when people hit things with their car, there are skidmarks on the pavement. A brick wall is a pretty good reason to use the brakes, turn the wheel. You didn’t do that.” — Jude Law as Dr. Jonathan Banks in Side Effects Side Effects (2013, USA) A subtle mystery […]
Paul’s Book Reviews: Fiction, Nonfiction, Fantasy, SF
I went outside and smoked a cigarette, looking this way and that, the very picture of an American idler in Mexico, right down to the grass-green golfing trousers. They had looked all right on the old man from Dallas but they made me feel like a clown. They were hot and sticky, too, made of […]
Paul’s Movie Reviews
Short reviews of rental DVDs