Book Chase

As Barnes & Noble Goes, So Goes the Future of Publishing

2012-01-28T19:36:00.001-06:00

A New York Barnes and Noble Location Not all that long ago, I was able to choose between buying a a recently published book from Barnes and Noble, B. Dalton, Borders, Book Stop, Crown Books, and even a handful of really good, but much smaller, booksellers. Now there are just Barnes and Noble and the Books-A-Million chains, the latter of which has never had much of a presence in Houston. When

Male Writer vs. Female Writer - Which Has It Tougher

2012-01-27T17:26:00.002-06:00

The Guardian pointed me in the direction today of an interesting "conversation" about male vs. female authors that has been going on for a while. Jennifer Weiner It seems that nine-time novelist Jennifer Weiner, whose most recent book is 2011's Then Came You, does not believe that the New York Times Book Review treats women writers fairly when it comes to reviews and feature articles. The

Full Dark, No Stars

2012-01-26T17:12:00.000-06:00

I have never been bashful about expressing my disdain for about 80% of the authors who dominate the big bestseller lists, having at times been particularly hard on the James Patterson factory and the novels of one Mr. Dan Brown. That has led several people to question my general fondness for the books of Stephen King, a writer whose work they characterize as a guilty pleasure of my own.

Short Story of the Week: "Tom's Husband" by Sarah Orne Jewett

2012-01-25T17:06:00.000-06:00

Sarah Orne Jewett, a well known novelist and short story writer in her day, was born in South Berwick, Maine, in 1849. At just a few weeks short of 60 years of age, she died there during the summer of 1909 after having suffered two strokes, the first of which paralyzed her. My only previous reading experience of one of Jewett’s works came from having read the novel, A Country Doctor (1884),

Phuket Is Not a Dirty Sentence, Amazon

2012-01-24T18:28:00.000-06:00

Fresh from the "this is the dumbest thing I've seen in a long time department" comes my frustrating experience trying to post the Vulture Peak review, as shown in the previous post, to Amazon.com (which was the source of my review copy, in the first place). It seems that Amazon has some kind of snazzy computer program that looks for offensive words and the program kept rejecting my review. I

Vulture Peak

2012-01-24T17:07:00.000-06:00

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Taking Flak: My Life in the Fast Lane

2012-01-23T16:50:00.000-06:00

The 1978 and 1979 Houston Oilers football teams came along at a perfect time in the city’s history. Houston, an oil boomtown for much of the seventies, was attracting jobs and workers from all around the country at an amazing clip. Local children amused themselves by counting the Michigan license plates they spotted on Houston’s freeways, and their parents felt a level of enthusiasm about

All I Did Was Shoot My Man

2012-01-22T16:56:00.000-06:00

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Book Chase Is 5-Years-Old Today

2012-01-20T16:59:00.000-06:00

Two of Book Chase's Biggest Fans Well, you know what Robert Burns said about the "best-laid plans of mice and men"? I am here to tell you that the man was right on the mark about that one. I had rather grandiose plans to work Thursday evening and Friday afternoon on the announcement that Book Chase has today officially reached the ripe old age of five whole years. I know that's not a real

A Single Vote Worth $3.5 Million

2012-01-18T18:06:00.002-06:00

We've all heard that "every vote counts" and, considering our most recent presidential elections, I think we all see the real truth in that old saying. On a much smaller scale, here's another good example about why it is a mistake to stay home and expect others to show up and carry an election in the direction you might favor. From Boston.com comes the story of how one single vote was enough

Caring Is Creepy

2012-01-17T17:12:00.000-06:00

Caring Is Creepy, in simple terms, is a coming of age novel about a rather naïve 15-year-old called Lynn Marie Sugrue. Lynn hasn’t had an easy time of it so far -her parents split when she was six and she hasn’t seen her embezzler of a father since he disappeared with a load of cash when she was eight. Now Lynn lives with her mother, a nurse who works way too many night shifts for Lynn’s

Sourland

2012-01-16T17:08:00.000-06:00

Sourland: Stories is a collection of sixteen Joyce Carol Oates short stories, fifteen of which appear to have been written in 2009 or early 2010. The third story in the collection, “The Babysitter,” was first published in Ellery Queen and was reprinted in Horror: The Best of the Year 2006. Readers who know something of Oates’s personal history will notice how clearly the tone of this work

Is Amazon Buying an E-Book-Selling Monopoly?

2012-01-14T18:19:00.000-06:00

Say what you will about the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, it has become a bonanza for self-published authors savvy enough to take advantage of it. The way I understand the process is that independent authors willing to give the Kindle Store exclusive rights to sell their digital work for a 90-day period can also opt to include it in the KDP Select program. This becomes a big deal because

World Book Night 2012

2012-01-12T20:21:00.000-06:00

"Do you love a book so much you want everyone to read it?" If so, now is your chance to place 20 copies of that book in the hands of people who deserve to fall in love with it the way you did. World Book Night fast approaches, but it is not too late to apply for a spot as one of those directly involved in giving 1 million books to people who have still not discovered the joy of reading. All

The Sense of an Ending

2012-01-11T16:57:00.001-06:00

The Sense of an Ending is a little book that won a big prize. Depending on whether you count “blanks” as “pages,” the book comes in somewhere between 155 and 175 pages in length. Julian Barnes packed so much into these few pages, however, that he won the 2011 Man Booker for his efforts. But it is only when this character-driven novella finally shifts its emphasis to a dramatic plot

Short Story of the Week: "Probate" by Joyce Carol Oates

2012-01-10T19:06:00.000-06:00

Although I have written quite a few posts about short stories for Book Chase, most of those posts have pertained to collections rather than to individual short stories. I find it easier to write about collections than about single stories because, with single stories, I have to fight my tendency to give away too much. I hate reading spoilers and I try not to write any. That's easier said

The Angel Makers

2012-01-09T17:13:00.000-06:00

Jessica Gregson’s debut novel, The Angel Makers, is one of those novels that will make a reader question his feelings about crimes committed by otherwise admirable people. Is a murder committed with good intentions any less a crime than a murder committed in the midst of rage or lust? Would a good person allow other innocent lives to be taken simply because she does not want to be exposed

Where's Sam?

2012-01-08T21:59:00.001-06:00

This is not exactly a "bookish" post, but it explains why a whole weekend has gone by without me posting on Book Chase. Most of you know that the NFL playoffs are in full-swing as of this weekend - and I confess to watching too many hours of football, both live and on television. Before a new work week begins, I just wanted to check in and post these two pictures of where I spent a large

Push Has Come to Shove

2012-01-06T18:32:00.002-06:00

As the grandfather of three children who suffer learning disabilities, I take great interest in books, like Steve Perry’s Push Has Come to Shove, that offer new ideas about educating this country’s children. I also share the sense of urgency implied by the title Perry chose for his book – including its subtitle: Getting Our Kids the Education They Deserve – Even if It Means Picking a Fight.

No Mark upon Her

2012-01-05T17:31:00.000-06:00

I do not come to Deborah Crombie’s No Mark upon Her as an experienced reader of her Kincaid/James mystery series. That lack of background allows me to point out that No Mark upon Her works very well as a standalone mystery – so well, in fact, that I am now thinking about starting the series from the beginning. Crombie’s character development and side plots are that good. Crombie fans, too,

Overkill vs. Lesson Learned

2012-01-04T17:20:00.001-06:00

Just Kidding... What do you think? Is this a prime example of "overkill" or a valuable "lesson learned" for one little girl and her mother? It seems that local cops, at the request of the little girl's library, showed up at her front door and left with the overdue library book her parents had checked out for her. Of course, there's more to the story, some of it involving a misunderstanding

The Detour

2012-01-03T17:53:00.000-06:00

Andromeda Romano-Lax (more on this fascinating name, later) struck it big in 2007 with her debut novel, The Spanish Bow, a story set in Spain and Western Europe from the days of the Spanish-American War to the beginning of World War II. That fascinating novel became a New York Times Editor’s Choice and was ultimately translated into eleven languages. Her follow-up novel, The Detour,

Somebody Jump-Start Me, Please

2012-01-03T13:47:00.001-06:00

For some reason I can't pin down, it's taking me longer than usual to get back into regular posting this year. Maybe I just got exceptionally lazy with all the vacation days I saved up for the end of December, but it's not as if I quit reading. I already, in fact, have two really good novels under my belt for 2012. It's more, I think, a case of being overwhelmed by the number of reviews (5)

Book Chase 2011 - in Numbers

2011-12-30T18:09:00.000-06:00

Being the statistics nerd that I am, I've managed to pull together some end-of-year numbers that reflect the kind of reading year 2011 was for me. I think I was more consistent in my reading this year than I ever have been, with seven months at 10 books read, three with 11 read, and two with 12. I didn't hit one of my normal "slump" periods in 2011, and that probably means that I chose my

Authors, Poets, and Playwrights Lost in 2011

2011-12-29T15:18:00.001-06:00

As happens every year, 2011 claimed a long list of writers, poets, and playwrights from around the world. Here's the list that I've pulled so far - with just three days to go (the ones in red are simply the ones most readers will be familiar with):  <!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE