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There should be and will be a measure of a good writer, which is the number of words it takes for the reader to be INSIDE the story. Up, up and away. Peter Robinson: 10. Kristin Hannah/Hannah Kristin: 25. Ernest Hemingway: 4.

19 Years of Reviews

Well crafted character flaws in this 21st century noir detective story with a cheating wife and an ex-circus dick. Reading: Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan read by Paul Hecht

Imagine yourself in every drawing room of mature Washingtonian society, amidst the pouffy hair, the polka dot dresses, the over-used jokes, and the starchy defensive hawkishishness of 1973. The wives, too, are overused. Pat Nixon is brittle; Dorothy, wife of the ex CIA agent and Watergate burgler E. Howard Hunt,Watergate by Thomas Mallon read by Joe Barrett

The salad dressing was the only one Partain ever used: "9 parts olive oil, one part red wine vinegar, vinegar soaked salt, ground black pepper and more garlic than most people liked." Write this down. Ross Thomas' recipes are rare, legendary and authoritative. As are his stories, his characters, andAh, Treachery! by Ross Thomas read by Frank Muller

If you walk into a bar and hear a bunch of guys wondering about why angels have to sit on clouds "as if they don't got chairs in heaven," you're probably in a Dortmunder novel. If the guys are hunched over their drinks with that 1000-yard stare that suggests thatMetaphors as Politics: Donald Westlake: Watch Your Back!

The voice is soft, delicate, unfinished. It tells a story about Noelle, a "human resources" admin with an infamous British great aunt whose estate she has just inherited. Long ago, her past had mixed with her aunt's and her aunt's paintings -- but for years they had not communicated.Painting the Moon by Traci Borum

What starts off as a sweetly original, Jobs-like desire-mined story about a woman's relationship with the net: before and after marriage, turns into a stupid, GOOFY-Lucy-type plot about a wife and mother who tries to hide her need to be free from her straight laced and slightly idiotic husband. TooHacker Mom by Austin Rachlis

There is a kind of being found among artists, a being-with peculiar to art school graduates, children of artists, girlfriends of artists, gallery owners and oglers and agents and wives, proximate to art, attached to it but uncertain of it, what or where or whose it is. BothThe Forgery of Venus by Michael Gruber read by Eric Conger

Friendly, low-key, perspicacious suggestions on how to think about a marriage, how to prepare for it, and how to judge a potential marriage partner. Humorous anecdotes drive home the way to work your beliefs into your relationships. A mother who believes in original sin knows that every human being isWhom Not To Marry by Father Pat Connor Read by Robin Sachs

It is so civilized to recognize that one is old, so English. Mary Sharp is a spritely, frank, practical English lady, retired, and almost 60. She has lively, vivid opinions and wobbly upper arms and lives in a not very nice part of West London with a sweet young lodger.No! I Don't Want to Join a Book Club by Virginia Ironside Read by Sian Phillips

Within the first minute and 34 seconds you know you are going to understand this book because Denning quotes James Dyson: "Of the world's ten largest corporations by revenue, 9 make big, heavy things, like cars." This is easy to follow, sensible stuff - and just the kind of obviousness thatThe Bull Hunter by Dan Denning

Campbell Smith wants only to lie behind the S of Mrs Douglas Alexander, soon to be Senator from the great state of Delaware, a place where Washingtonians go to hide. But a woman who is hiding does not make a good political wife, and Campbell soon takes to gardeningOut of Order by Bonnie MacDougal read by Barbara Rosenblat

A conspicuously intelligent society wife with perfect manners and an unfaithful husband is driving home from the country club and her BMW is hit by a huge truck. Stuck inside the car, she promises the Gods to do good, if only she does not go up in flames. She doesThe Social Climber of Davenport Heights by Pamela Morsi read by Isabelle Gordon

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that Messrs. Gates and Jobs joked about the famous Apple commercials showing a boring P.C. suit and an eternally nerdy Mac user at a Carlsbad, California D: All Things Digital conference. "The art of those commercial is not to be mean. It'sBill and Steve and the Wall Street Journal's bad grammar

A catholic tailor used his life savings to go to the Vatican. When he returned his parish gathered to find out what he had seen. "What kind of a fellow is the Pope?" they asked him. "44 Medium," he said. This is the kind of obsession Buffet is lookingWarren Buffet's Management Secrets by Mary Buffett & David Clark. Performed by Mary Buffett.

The spunky wife of a floor licking, scum sucking, receptionist-nailing hack accountant discovers her husband's infidelity and writes up the dastardly deed in his monthly newsletter which she emails to kith and kin and customers. She accumulates notoriety ("SCORNED LOCAL WIFE SUED FOR SCATHING E-MAIL") , attractsAnd One Last Thing by Molly Harper read by Amanda Ronconi

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