The Poisoner’s Handbook
Murder and the birth of forensic medicine in Jazz Age New York
By Deborah Blum
Penguin Press
Hardcover $25.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
The title of this book sounds like a guidebook for Murder, Inc., but Pulitzer Prize winning science writer Deborah Blum has penned a non-fiction page-turner telling the story of forensic medicine’s role in crime solving. [...]
I Still Dream of You
By Fannie Flagg
Random House
Hardcover $26
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
No matter what Fannie Flagg writes, she is always going to be judged by her blockbuster novel, “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café.” Oddly, that was her second book, the first being “Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man.” Since that time [...]
The Confession
By John Grisham
Doubleday
Hardcover $28.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
Consider this: You are a Lutheran minister with a quiet, conservative congregation in Topeka, Kansas, miles from a Texas prison where within days Donte Drumm, a young black man is scheduled to be executed for the murder of a teenage white high school cheerleader – a crime he [...]
Missing Lucile
Memories of the Grandmother I Never Knew
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Hardcover $23.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
There are two kinds of book writers in this world. One writes fiction, sometimes mixing fact with imagination, but always with the flare of poetic license. The other is a non-fiction writer, who bases every written word on fact, gleaning [...]
The Wrong Side of an Illness
A doctor’s love story
By Owen Stanley Surman, M.D.
iUniverse Publishers
Paperback $17.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
As a people, we don’t like to talk about death. Despite all of our sophistication in communication, we still consider the term taboo. Even in death we shy away from the actual word in our acknowledgement of [...]
A Feather Duster Tail
By Areta BasSteele
Bravado Publishing
Paperback $10.99
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
Like most books of fiction, “A Feather Duster Tail,” has a disqualifier that says all names have been changed, etc., etc. But I know a secret, the veterinarian character in the story is a real veterinarian who lives and practices in Roseburg.
BasSteele doesn’t even [...]
Nothing Left to Burn
A Memoir
By Jay Varner
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Hardbound $23.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
As a writing instructor I have often taught a course in writing a memoir in which one of the toughest lectures is presenting students with the challenge of writing about the bad things that happen in family dynamics. Some of [...]
Did Not Survive
A Zoo Mystery
By Ann Littlewood
Poisoned Pen Press
Hardcover $24.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
My favorite genre in fiction is mysteries and detective stories. In fact most of the fiction I read is in that category, but as an information seeker while most of my book reading is in the non-fiction category. In good fiction, however, if [...]
Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs
Family, Friends and Faith in Small-Town Alaska
By Heather Lende
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Hardcover $22.95
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
Heather Lende writes fluff, the kind of fluff that made her writing famous through her first book, “If You Lived Here, I’d know Your Name,” about her duties as a [...]
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
By John Grisham
Dutton Children’s Books
A division of Penguin Young Reader’s Group
Hardback $16.99
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
“Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer” is vintage Grisham, but with a Grisham twist. This may come as a surprise to all his adult fans, but this tinkerer with the written word did not write this book for you. [...]
