An odd Christmas present, for sure, and rarer still, a book, but my sister’s gift of “The Looming Tower,” by Lawrence Wright (a 2007 Pulitzer Prize winning bestseller) was captivating from the get-go. The book’s subtitle—“Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11”—pretty much...

I must confess that I’m a slow reader, not special-ed slow mind you, and my comprehension is fine (I’m particularly baffled how, way back when, I scored higher on the Math side of the SAT), but I generally plod along at a rate of 2 minutes for your standard, dense...

When the evening news broadcast offers little of interest, my wife and I, as is often our habit during dinner, turn our attention to reading and writing. Last night she asked, “What should I read now?” Having just finished “A Sense of an Ending” (read on my...

The spot stood out a short distance right of center whenever that space was white or projected with only light color. It was only a few inches oval (the exact size hard to determine given the immensity of the screen) and could’ve resulted from a lousy tear repair, or,...

I must admit I was late to the Julian Barnes and Jonathan Franzen reading experience. I’d purchased “The Corrections” years ago, but it sat idly—on a musty, basement bookshelf no less—until the release of “Freedom” motivated me to catch up. And I loved it! Who could...

Every year as advertisements hurtle us all into the “holiday spirit,” I’m painfully reminded of one of my greatest frustrations, one that easily overshadows even my bulging file of short story rejections: Flavored Vodka How did I miss that one? And not just me, but my...

We’ve all sat through writer’s variations on the classic “story arc”—my favorite simplification being the idea: Get your protagonist up a tree, throw rocks at him, then bring him down. But here comes an old clip of Kurt Vonnegut doing what he does best; namely, he...