Hog Wild
Well-researched story of the fight for union representation in Smithfield’s North Carolina hog slaughterhouse. All the players in the union vs. Smithfield fight are examined in Hog Wild. The book also describes how modern vertical integration moved from chicken to hog slaughtering. It includes cringeworthy details of what the hogsContinue Reading
The Fallen
Another great police procedural, #4 in the Memory Man series. Amos and his partner, Alex, are on vacation when Amos sees something in a nearby house and investigates. Two bodies are found and Amos and Alex join the local police in searching for the murderer. Soon the opioid crisis, anContinue Reading
Chickens in Your Backyard
Chickens in Your Backyard is all anyone needs to know to raise chickens! Chickens in Your Backyard is newly revised and updated. It includes how to set up a coop, a run and a home for your new chickens. There are chapters on feed, eggs, water, cleaning, disease, breeding andContinue Reading
Archie Coe Vol 1
Archie Coe, hypnotist, cat whisperer and sucker to every dame he meets. The art and dialogue both up the 1940s noir feel in Archie Coe Vol 1. Jack Midland hires Coe to find the reason his wife, Hope, is frigid to him since their marriage. Hope insists that she andContinue Reading
Charmed Bones
Southern paranormal cozy mystery with ghosts, witches and a murder or two. Hope, Faith and Charity plan to open a Wiccan school and white witches’ potion shop in rural Sunflower County Mississippi. Sarah Booth Delaney and her partner in the Delaney Detective Agency, Tinkie Richmond, are paid to dig upContinue Reading
All the Answers
Families are messed up. Even, maybe especially, famous ones. The author of All the Answers is Michael Kupperman. He is a famous, Eisner Award-winning artist and writer. However, he continues to be haunted by his father’s aloof attitude toward him throughout his childhood and adolescence. The author believes that hisContinue Reading
Favorite Sister
Great finish almost makes it worth reading the rest of The Favorite Sister. Brett, Stephanie and Jen are the sole remaining season 1 cast members on the new season 4 of the Real Housewives-esque reality show, Goal Diggers. The show ostensibly empowers women, while provoking as many fights among themContinue Reading
Flaxborough Crab
“Something or other is sending half the over-sixties round the twist” in the Flaxborough Crab. A rash of panty theft, quick grope and runs, and window peeping has befallen Flaxborough. The perps are described as elderly men who scuttle away sideways like a crab. When an esteemed villager is accidentallyContinue Reading
Manga Classics Romeo and Juliet
“For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” Shakespeare’s words are the best part of his plays. However, I look to Manga Classics to shorten classic literature to manageable lengths. By including the entire play using Shakespeare’s original words, this book is justContinue Reading
Stalag-X
Ho hum space POW camp story. With this author’s background, it is surprising that Stalag-X contains nothing innovative or even interesting. A mysterious prisoner, known only as Joe Human, gets swept up in a space battle. Taken prisoner by the alien Krael, the other POWs at Stalag-X hate him forContinue Reading
Crooked Staircase
Cabals be caballing. In The Crooked Staircase, Jane Hawk is hunting more of the cabal that used brain nanobots to force her husband to kill himself. In this series entry, Simon Yegg is the so-mean-it-is-unbelievable type of villain. He tortures his ex-wives up to, and including, gang rape to getContinue Reading
Obscura
Page-turner is so overused that it has become trite. Here is how I felt about Obscura by Joe Hart. I…COULDN’T…PUT…IT…DOWN! Literally! I was reading my kindle at stop lights, during boring parts of a telephone conference call at work (with my office door closed of course) and when I shouldContinue Reading
High Tide Club
Romance, history, southern charm, friendships, family and secrets swirl in the High Tide Club. At 99, Josephine is dying on her half of an island off the coast of Georgia. She calls Brooke, an attorney, to help search for her best friends, Ruth, Millie and Varina, from over 80 yearsContinue Reading
Motorcity
Lisa is a new detective in Sweden. Up first is locating a missing person, who is deep in the raggare culture of vintage American cars and rockabilly music. His parents report him missing after he misses the annual local car festival, Motorcity. I expect more exotica from Europe Comics. SettingContinue Reading
Bats in the Belfry
Characterization is sacrificed for plot in Bats in the Belfry. There are a multitude of characters in Bats in the Belfry. Most are only vaguely fleshed out. We first meet the main players at a funeral where they begin to discuss how they would hide a dead body. Old AgathaContinue Reading
The Ghost the Owl
Despite being depressingly far from the suggested age for The Ghost the Owl, I loved this middle grade (ages 9-12) comic. The story was intriguing. The artwork is unusual but superb. It merges a picture book and a graphic novel into a surreal dream world of the afterlife. A girlContinue Reading