Book Review: A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman and the Birth of Modern China, 1949 by Kevin Peraino In 1949, Chen Yong was an idealistic boy in his teens, his military uniform too large for him, cheering in Beijing as Mao Zedong declared that the People’s Republic of China was born. Now, he is an… Continue reading Book Review: A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman and the Birth of Modern China, 1949
Tag: Minnesota
Book Review: In Winter’s Kitchen
Book Review: In Winter’s Kitchen by Beth Dooley When Beth Dooley first moved to Minneapolis from New Jersey in 1979, she was dismayed by the poor selection of fresh food in the commercial supermarket. She’d heard that Minnesota was a farm state, yet the wilted vegetables and sallow fruit seemed to come from somewhere else… Continue reading Book Review: In Winter’s Kitchen
Book Review: You Can’t Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-Known Laws
Book Review: You Can’t Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-Known Laws by Barbara Seuling Laws have a purpose. It is not always a good purpose, but track them to their passage and you will usually see the reasoning behind them. With the passage of time, that purpose is obscured, and many laws passed to… Continue reading Book Review: You Can’t Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-Known Laws
Book Review: Seven Come Infinity
Book Review: Seven Come Infinity edited by Groff Conklin The title of this anthology refers to the phrase “seven come eleven” from craps, referring to the ways you can win. In the preface, it’s mentioned that there are a finite number of possibilities for the outcome of rolling two dice. But when you write a… Continue reading Book Review: Seven Come Infinity
Book Review: Enchantment Lake
Book Review: Enchantment Lake by Margi Preus Francine Frye isn’t a detective. She played a detective on TV. On a children’s show. For a few episodes. But that still makes her the closest thing to a detective Francie’s eccentric aunts Astrid and Jeannette know. So when a series of perfectly explainable but statistically improbable deaths… Continue reading Book Review: Enchantment Lake
Magazine Review: Fantastic Universe October 1955
Magazine Review: Fantastic Universe October 1955 edited by Leo Margulies Fantastic Universe was a digest-sized science fiction and fantasy magazine that ran from 1953 to 1960, originally coming out from King-Size Publications. Its quality is considered to have fallen off after 1956, with lesser stories and more emphasis on pseudo-science articles, but this particular issue… Continue reading Magazine Review: Fantastic Universe October 1955
Book Review: Stories from Sleep No More
Book Review: Stories from Sleep No More edited by August Derleth Sleep No More was a 1940s anthology of horror fiction put together by noted Wisconsin historical fiction (and horror) author August Derleth. It featured primarily creepy stories from the pulp magazines of the 1930s. In the 1960s, a paperback reprint came out. To make… Continue reading Book Review: Stories from Sleep No More
Book Review: Jefferson’s America
Book Review: Jefferson’s America by Julie M. Fenster In 1803, many people in the fledgling United States expected a Louisiana War, as the Spanish had forbidden American shipping from passing down the Mississippi and through the port of New Orleans. That didn’t happen, as the Spanish were induced to yield the Louisiana Territory to their… Continue reading Book Review: Jefferson’s America
Book Review: Life Is Beautiful
Book Review: Life Is Beautiful by Sarah M. Johnson In 2008, an airplane carrying humanitarian workers to a remote village in Guatemala, where they were to build a school, crashed and burned. The crew and most of the passengers were killed; one young woman survived relatively unharmed, though she had lost half her family, and… Continue reading Book Review: Life Is Beautiful
Book Review: Minnesota Vice
Book Review: Minnesota Vice by Ellen & Mary Kuhfeld As I have mentioned before, Minnesota has many fine mystery and crime writers. Mary Kuhfeld is probably best known under the pen name Monica Ferris, under which she has written nineteen Betsy Devonshire Needlework Mysteries. (Thus the subtitle “Monica Ferris Presents” for these self-published books.) Ellen… Continue reading Book Review: Minnesota Vice