To say that Orhan Pamuk’s “A Strangeness In My Mind” is one of the best written and enjoyable books I have read all year is overshadowed by my embarrassment that it is the first of the Nobel Prize winner’s novels that I have read. Believe me I will be going back and devouring all of
Tom Heggen
My Vacation
Guess what readers? I am going on vacation! “What” you might say? “Why are you telling us this and why do we care? We’re not going on vacation and we don’t really want to hear about you having fun in the sun”–or something like that.
I am telling you because I will be gone for…
The American Lover – by Rose Tremain
“The American Lover” is a collection of 13 short stories with certain common themes and moods. There are no happy stories in the collection and the commonality includes stories depicting parent child relationships, parental expectations and disappointments, misguided and disloyal love, the cruelty of nature, World War II and wasted and beleaguered lives. Yet despite…
LaRose – by Louise Erdich
“We are chased by things done to us in this life…We are chased by what we do to others and then in turn what they do to us. We’re always looking behind us, or worried about what comes next. We only have this teeny moment. Oops, it’s gone.”
LaRose, by Louise Erdrich, is a story…
The Man Without A Shadow – by Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates, a prolific writer, has a very distinctive style and her books address societal issues in a consistent and often disturbing manner. Her story lines usually address issues of gender inequality, include some sort of sexual impropriety and the lead character frequently devolves into mental illness. These are the JCO constants which revolve…