Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

Another belated review for a Librarything freebie book, here. This one is tough for me to post, for reasons I imagine will be obvious… I try not to be too negative when I review books, stories, or other creative work. For one thing, I know what it’s like to have someone slam my work when they clearly haven’t understood it even slightly. I know what it feels like to see someone who doesn’t care either way about me and my work to stand up and dismiss it — online, which makes it harder because any twit can write a nasty …

Continue Reading

The Life and Loves of Mr. Jive Ass Nigger by Cecil Brown

I read this book quite a while ago, and meant to post a review. Librarything is now saying, no freebie books if I don’t, and anyway, I do want to review it. But this is a bit from memory. Anyway, here’s what I posted on the Librarything website: This is, as someone else put it, a novel of a time and place. But it’s an interesting and somewhat alien time and place, even though it’s not so very long ago. Maybe it’s just because I’m projecting onto this text, but some other books that came to mind when one reads …

Continue Reading

IPA, or, The Boys Done Good…

Yeah, yeah, yeast is not gendered. I’m calling them that because the Belle & Sebastian song “The Boy Done Wrong Again” is in my head. (I never saw that video before looking it up just now — how gloomy — so no, that’s not a cry for help.) Anyway… the IPA I bottled a couple of weeks ago has mellowed some, and the carbonation on it is just excellent, excellent. Okay, the head still isn’t staying long — well, maybe the ring around the top, but not a thick creamy head — but that’s okay. It tastes good, good enough …

Continue Reading