by Don Messerschmidt | Jun 7, 2017 | Archived Reviews (pre-April 2020), Books About Books, General Fiction
As soon as I began reading The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World: A Novel of Robert Louis Stevenson by Brian Doyle, I was hooked. Right off, I found myself reminiscing about Stevenson’s many novels of adventure, especially Treasure Island...
by Don Messerschmidt | May 15, 2017 | Archived Reviews (pre-April 2020), Historical Fiction, Mystery, Crime & Thriller
In rural England, shortly after World War I, Scotland Yard’s Inspector Ian Rutledge is called in to solve a series of suspicious deaths amongst a small group of men who drove fast and fancy motorcars. A year earlier, on the eve of the bloody Battle of the Somme in...
by Don Messerschmidt | Mar 3, 2017 | Archived Reviews (pre-April 2020), Biographies & Memoirs, Humor, Travel
The Prologue to this funny travelers’ romp, featuring Sue and Sara, begins with sage advice from Sue’s mother: “Wherever you go, whatever you do, just… don’t do anything stupid.” The lives of these two young women were stagnating. Both had backpacked a little, and...
by Don Messerschmidt | Feb 14, 2017 | Archived Reviews (pre-April 2020), Reference
“Ted Conover has ridden the rails with Hoboes, crossed the border with Mexican immigrants, guarded prisoners in Sing Sing, and inspected meat for the USDA” reads the book’s cover blurb. It’s all about going deep and spending time getting the story, then turning it...
by Don Messerschmidt | Feb 1, 2017 | Archived Reviews (pre-April 2020), Biographies & Memoirs, Travel
This is a book about those exceptional women around the world who have dedicated their lives to Buddhism. It covers the lives of Buddhist nuns in 20 chapters of personal stories. Ten chapters focus on the East: Nepal, India, Burma and Japan; and ten on the West: North...