*FREE BOOKS* There has been a great deal of activity in the 27th Street Book Box lately. When we started this a few years ago we had no idea if it would be popular or not. There are some book boxes or “little free libraries”… Read More
Charles Portis died while I was off enjoying a trip to Hanoi, Vietnam. A few years ago, I stumbled upon a book called Dog of the South by Mr.Portis. It’s about a guy named Ray, a guy on a mission. His wife Norma ran off… Read More
There is an excellent selection of titles currently available in the 27th Street Book Box. These include Redemption Falls by the excellent Irish author, Joseph O’Connor, a couple of the Godfather books, two of Patricia Highsmith’s novels, and many more. You’re welcome to take a… Read More
A benefactor dropped off a heaping helping of good books for the Twenty Seventh Street Book Box today and there are plenty of new titles to choose from + we have lots of back-ups to keep the box stuffed with good reading. The box is… Read More
Recently we watched the first two seasons of the British television mysteries Shetland, set on the Shetland Islands. I thought the show was very good, although I found I had to be very attentive because I wasn’t used to the accents, and as well, the… Read More
There are some excellent titles available for free in right now in the 27th Street Book Box. These include a collection of stories by songster Steve Earle, called Doghouse Roses and the new biography of one of Mr. Earle’s pals, Guy Clark, called Withour Getting… Read More
I came to read this book through an unlikely coincidence. I was walking to a restaurant to meet up with some folks I worked with before my retirement from the workaday world. I was a little early, and along my walk came across a “fiercely… Read More
Late last night I finished reading Garth Risk Hallberg’s sprawling epic first novel, City on Fire. I bought the hardcover one day, wandering through a bookstore looking for something I could really sink my teeth into. City on Fire served up as much as I… Read More
The Whites is a pretty good bit of crime fiction. Gritty cop/ex-cop drama, curiously propelled by the actions of one of the characters many years before. Perhaps too many characters for me to cope with. Plenty of detail. Several murders. This was a “notable book… Read More
Last month, when I visited Chicago, I found myself with an hour or so to kill up in Old Town. I had enjoyed dinner with my friend Candy Minx at a place called Mash, across the street from the Old Town School of Folk Music… Read More
27th Street 