Murderous Husbands, Flapper-Era Gun Molls and Korean Assassins: The Best Winter Thrillers

apparently finch knows NOTHING about AA meetings, which more often than not are filled with raucous laughter. as with “mom “ tv show, there may well be ‘ the cryer ‘, but even those will end with laughter. the AA motto is ‘ happy, joyous and free ‘.

The kilometer comment refers to the figurative distance between the ranch in the boonies and the urban culture of Brisbane. Look at the author's clue in the following sentence about Nathan Bright being even further isolated by his past.

I was somewhat surprised to see that the reviewer felt that the milieu of The Milkman was in any way adrift, however minutely, from human lived reality. The sectarian conflicts of the troubles during the later twentieth century in Northern Ireland were all too real for those who lived through them, and what is perhaps more surprising in The Milkman is the moderation, and rootedness in human relationships and aspiration, of this exceptional novel. No dystopian fantasy here, alas. One would have more confidence in the judgments of a reviewer who understood this.

This review article was somewhere between a Girls! To Do list and a college paper. Too long, too many books, lacked an internal structure. Should have done the old standby, Compare and Contrast, using one or two themes and app,yin’s those to each volume. My only takeaway is that the whole lot are poorly done.

I liked this compendium of reviews by Mr. Finch very much. I LOVED the artwork by Kristian Hammerstad.

Wow, talk about damning with faint praise! Finch may be right about every book, but it wouldn't hurt to be a little less patronizing.

The "thriller" we are living in is not boring--it's terrifying. I'd give a LOT to be living in "boring" times: with a smart, competent, compassionate, scandal-free President who believes in the oath he or she took; who knows what the job requires and how to do it; who understands he or she works FOR the American people--ALL of us--not vice-versa; who knows and honors how our system of government works; and who actually DOES work every day to "Preserve, Protect, and Defend" the Constitution of the United States. We had one of those presidents just two years ago.

Thanks so much for this terrific list of recommendations! I have added most of them to my To Read list in Goodreads. Very helpful!

Yes, clearly the line about kilometers to miles was a joke. It simply is not a funny one. First, kilometers are a smaller unit of measure than a mile. So saying 1,500 is akin to a billion when the unit your comparing is smaller is not smart humor. Second, making fun of America for still using imperial is too easy. Yes we should have changed, and most in science or academic fields already use metric and understand its conversions well. Needless to say, the idea that making fun of those that use imperial is tired ground to be walking. All together this parenthetical aside acts only as a gratification for the author of this article as it is neither witty nor relevant. If the purpose of this article was to entice readers into reading the books of these authors it has failed because all I can focus on is why an editor allowed this aside through the publishing process.

I just had a conversation this morning with a book-loving friend wherein we discussed the seemingly inexhaustible English language and came across this article and the word “ contrapuntal”. Serendipity.

1500 km is roughly equivalent to 1000 miles, not 1,000,000,000 miles.