Sunday Salon - Hotel Stories by Mike Tyler

Would you like to live in a hotel for eight years? Mike Tyler author, poet, and singer(? see www.cutepoet.com) did. His girlfriend locked him out of his apartment and he settled in for while. He became the poet in residence.

Amy Hills saw this blog and sent me this book back in February and I guess I am not a "hip" reader.

Hotel Stores is a collection of short stories about Mike's life at the Carlton Arms in New York.

His style of writing is uncensored, true to life, and shows a no-holds barred approach. While I will not go into every detail of the book, you can imagine what really goes on in a New York City hotel for eight years!

Mike does show characters just as we see them in everyday life. Open, closed, sexy, pure, philosophic, drug users, and "friendships" are some of the traits shown in Hotel Stories.

My final thoughts are no this is not my kind of book, but you will have to judge for yourself!

Sunday Salon - Final Review for Iris and Ruby

As I read and thought about my Grandmother whom I called Nanny, my heart was yearning for the glorious cheese sandwiches she made for me when I slept over.

My relationship with Nanny was not as profound as Ruby's was with Iris. She did not have the past lovers or life setting that living in Cairo, Egypt provided. She also was not a doctor like Iris, but as a kid I thought she was a "healer."

This picture of life that Rosie Thomas so elegantly portrays in a manner that shows the link between two completely different people. There is more depth to the story than a love novel and this attribute leaves you thinking of the noble aspects of life.

Having never been abroad, the description of the beautiful Cairo made me want to be there. It seems as if during and shortly after WWII, Cairo was the place to be!

Wouldn't you like to read Iris and Ruby, I did!

Sunday Salon - Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas

You never know about a book until you open the cover and read the first page, well this morning I really became intrigued.

Iris and Ruby written by Rosie Thomas is a classic. With skillfully written narratives from the points of view of both Iris and Ruby, this moving story makes the book hard to put down.

From the first page you feel comfortable, intertwined, and vibrant as you read the relationship that develops between a grandmother and granddaughter.

I've only started with the first few chapters being spanned, but will finish this week and give a final review next week. 

I am really proud to be a part of Sunday Salon, we just keep growing! Remember we should have a convention!

Sunday Salon >>> Are You in the WITSEC?

Kate Raab seemed perfectly normal. Beautiful, fun-loving, and very smart. Had a great job that she loved, as a lab researcher at a college. Loved her family and was especially close to her Dad. Life is "grand."

Benjamin Raab makes great money at his own business in the New York diamond district. He buys and sells a lot of gold. Kate's dad had been doing well for over twenty years.

The FBI does not take kindly to money launderers and have burst into Mr. Raab's office to arrest him. Of course he denies the allegations, but is convicted and sent off to prison.

Sharon, Emily, Justin, and Kate are of course non-believing , but now must enter the Witness Protection Program because of Benjamin's under-handedness. Kate decides she will not go into the program and remains in New York.

Kate gets married and some months later notices strangers following her. Then a co-worker is shot in the head at close range and she knows that shot was for her. So Kate begins to search into her Dad's past and this turns her world upside-down.

A very tense, heart-moving, page-turning, jaw-dropping, and plot twisting novel that I would recommend to everyone. I have certainly used enough hyphens in the review. Oh, yes The Blue Zone  means the area when a participant has been compromised and is in danger.

Andrew Gross did a terrific job on his first single novel! 

  

Sunday Salon-Are You A SandHog?-Fact or Fiction

Could you be a sandhog? You could if you worked in the tunnels of New York.

This is my first Linda Fairstein novel although she has many to her storied career. Here is a list for you:

Killer Heat (2008), Bad Blood (2007), The Best American Crime Reporting 2007 (2007),
Death Dance (2006), Entombed (2005), Cold Hit / The Deadhouse (2005), The Kills (2004),
I'd Kill for That (2004), Final Jeopardy / Likely to Die (2004), The Bone Vault (2003),
The Deadhouse (2001), Cold Hit (1999), Likely to Die (1997), Final Jeopardy (1994),
Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape (1993)

Her novel centers around Alexandra "Alex" Cooper an assistant DA in New York. Alex is supported by NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace.

Amanda Quillian is found murdered and the "team" believes her husband has hired a hitman to pull off the crime. Brendan Quillian is coming into the court room when he grabs an officer's gun, leaves one dead, and several injured.

Now the investigation really gets complicated when Alex discovers two feuding families, the Quillians and the Hassetts have hated each other for years.

Both families menfolks have been "sandhogs" for several generations and are very tough, no-nonsense kind of guys. Well as usual I will leave you hanging, so maybe you would like to purchase the book from here and finish this riveting story yourself!

PS: Still reading Hotel Stories...

March is Really Some Month!

Hello Everyone,

Yes, I know where have you been joeB? Well here we go! My dear ol' Dad has been ill for about a month now and his only son has been taking him back and forth to the hospital and doctor's offices for many, many, and many more tests. So far "we do not know", isn't that a great answer? Please remember him in your thoughts and prayers.

I have been able to read some, so Sunday Salonists never fear joeB is here! And , WOW, is our little group growing!

Talk to you Sunday!

Sunday Salon - Hotel Stories- And News

As I read this group of stories by Mike Tyler entitled Hotel Stories, I am just not sure...

Next Sunday maybe I can relate to you what this book is about, have not read enough to give a fair judgement.

I do believe now I know why I love mysteries and thrillers!
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This news about some of Charles Dickens' works are worth repeating.

Rare works by Charles Dickens, including a page from the original manuscript of "Pickwick Papers" and an illustration of the "Oliver Twist" character Bill Sikes, are going on the auction block.

The Kenyon Starling Library of Charles Dickens is expected to fetch more than $2 million when it is sold at Christie's on April 2.

Among the highlights is "The Uncommercial Traveller" (1861), inscribed by Dickens to novelist George Eliot. Its pre-sale estimate is $100,000 to $150,000.

A page from the original manuscript of Dickens' first novel, "Pickwick Papers," containing a comedic scene between Pickwick's valet, Sam Weller, and a gentleman, John Smauker, could sell for $150,000 to $250,000.

The collection also includes a number of original drawings by Dickens illustrators Hablot K. Browne and George Cruikshank. An early Browne illustration is the only drawing from "Pickwick" to appear at auction in at least 30 years, Christie's said. It could bring $15,000 to $20,000. An original Cruikshank sketch of Sikes, the menacing criminal in "Oliver Twist," and his dog could sell for $12,000 to $18,000.

The collection also includes The Daily News No. 1, the liberal newspaper Dickens edited in 1846.

Kenyon Starling, who died in 1983, left his Dickens collection to the family of William E. Self, a collector of English and American literature and film industry executive. NEW YORK (AP)

An Interesting Invitation! ?HOTEL STORIES?

I received an email from Amy Hills, Literary Manager of The Art Cannot be Damaged, Inc. Ms. Hills graciously invited me ( yeah me) to a release party in New York at the Carlton Arms Hotel, 160 East 25th Street at Third Avenue, Friday, February 29, from 6pm- 9pm for Mike Tyler's new book, a collection of stories titled Hotel Stories.

Sorry Ms. Hills, but I will not be able to attend the party, but I would like to read and review the new book. The gracious Amy said yes and I received Hotel Stories today! Thanks Amy for the chance both to read and report on a new author and his book.

Rest of the story coming soon!

Sunday Salon - The Assassin - Andrew Britton

Andrew Britton's political thriller sets up a reality that may distract some readers from a decent if unremarkable plot centering on terrorist plans to attack the U.N. and leave clues pointing to the Iranian government.

Dennis Hastert is Speaker of the House, and the American political leadership is debating whether to withdraw troops from Iraq, but the U.S. president is David Brenneman not George W. Bush, who's facing a fierce re-election opponent in California governor Richard Fiske, who's surely not Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The characters, including Jack Ryan-clone Ryan Kealey and the action-from the discovery of a high-ranking mole to the obligatory under-fire romance-offers nothing new. The path by which Kealey uncovers Vanderveen's subterfuge and ultimate trail moves a bit slowly at times during the book's first half, though much of this is due to Britton's painstaking insistence on getting his world right.

To his credit, he does not take intellectual shortcuts or talk down to his reader. If anything, it gives us time to catch our breath between flash fires and explosions, which are more than plentiful in THE ASSASSIN. 

It's exciting to watch someone of Britton's talent build a career from the ground up. This is the first Andrew Britton novel for me having not yet read his first, The American.