Books

Author Donna Tartt’s expert craft in word choice, phrase construction, paragraph progression, and plot architecture combined with narrator David Pittu’s deep, exact pronunciation and dramatic inflection made all 32 hours of listening to The Goldfinch (2013) audiobook—simply delicious. The novel centers around Theo Decker, a young man who lost his mother through tragedy and gained a priceless…

As one who has done a fair amount of research on World War One and whose great uncle died in that war, I was especially eager to read Bill Welch’s book, Duty, Terror and Survival: The World War One Diary and Art of Doughboy Cp. Harold W. Pierce. Bill and I were part of the Erie…

It’s been a long time coming, but the Dimorier Project finally has something to show for decades of research and writing and thousands of dollars to honor a good man—William E. Dimorier. After numerous efforts to get William’s story published in the traditional way, I finally decided to publish his biography myself. It is now…

I met author Amy B. Chesler in October of 2018 at a DVD Netflix top influencer event in southern California. Amy was definitely the most animated, upbeat, and funny member of the group. As I sat across from her at dinner on the last evening of our fun-filled trip, though, there seemed to be a slight shadow…

Sometimes I’m disappointed with movie remakes, but that’s not the case with Fahrenheit 451. The theme of the first film, and the novel it was based on, is actually strengthened in the 2018 version. Both versions have just enough similarities and differences to make them both worth watching. I’d recommend reading the novel by Ray Bradbury…

Our local paper runs a column on history, and every morning, I like to review the notable events that happened on that date. Yesterday, I read that on April 21, 1977, Annie opened on Broadway, and its run totaled 2,377 performances. This started me on a path of Annie reminiscence, and it grew into this post. Annie in Poetry Many people…

Here are seven bits of inspiration from the documentary, Martha of Lattimore, about Martha Mason, paralyzed by polio, who lived in an iron lung for more than six decades. Why am I sharing this list with you? I recently saw a post on Facebook about the iron lung, a massive mechanism invented to breathe for people who had become…