The next time you're at the beach, grab a handful and sand and hold it in your palm.  How many grains are there?  A thousand?  Five...

Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook A New York Times bestseller, and with good reason....

This trip was instigated because of the easy accommodation in Sedona, Arizona by Martha's friend, Laura McCarthy, who, along with her...

A best seller and widely acclaimed. A retelling of the Mark Twain story of Huckleberry Finn....but through the eyes of his slave...

As the years increasingly do, this one passed in a blur - though we had a lot to show for it. January and February were routine,...

= The death of my mother-in-law and a dear childhood friend got me thinking about death - as it might for anyone.  The specter is never...

I've been a devotee of these Reacher books for quite a few years. It's my pulp indulgence. Several books ago Lee Child, who had started...

Religion - Jan. 7 To even try to understand the enormity of the universe you have to come to the conclusion that the god we have...

The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. I can't recommend this enough. Brooks is easy to read and offers insights on a...

The Conspiracy Cranks Building on the previous column regarding impatience with the lack of public understanding of government,...

I have always suffered under the impression that others knew at least as much as I did, which not only fed some insecurities but also...

Random entries of personal insights, analysis and whining....... Self-Actualization Sunday, August 16, 2020 10:35 AM I've hit upon this...

But the Republican factional divide differs in key respects from the Democrats’. On the Democratic side, most of the party’s technocrats...

Originally Posted on " Slippery Slope" Sunday, February 7, 2016 Ted Cruz A good column by Dana Milbank. The Utter Nastiness of Ted Cruz. ...

Grisham revisits Camino Island and his cabal of writers on the beach. This is his third in the series. The plot centers on the story...

A surprise discovery; she's a talented writer with a gift for descriptive phrasing that transports the reader to another world. In this...

The story of the months after Lincoln's election up to the Confederate assault on Fort Sumter that ignited the Civil War. Larson always...

David Foster Wallace; called the writer and voice of his (my) generation. Venerated as an exceptional talent, he was also from Illinois...

Reading this new series by Baldacci I couldn't help but hear his publisher - or him telling them - 'we need to come up with a Jack...

We all have secrets. Some would rock our world if they were exposed. Imagine a stranger coming up to you and telling you all about your...

For a serious, non-fiction book, this was engaging and eye-opening. A broad sweep of human history that puts us and our civilization...

Remember 'The Firm?' Grisham's first novel that launched his career (although I think he had a previous attempt that was overlooked). ...

The best work of historical fiction. A Pulitzer Prize winner. I read this years ago and my memory of it was so enjoyable, I had to...

It had been a long time coming.  Throughout 2023 Martha and I had been discussing and debating our next overseas trip.  Portugal? ...