I read these early in 2016: fiction and nonfiction, high- and low-brow, more or less in this order. Part 1 is here. FLEMING, Ian. You Only Live Twice and The Spy…
Did you ever wonder why the Tappan Zee Bridge was built at the Hudson River's widest point? To be as close to New York City as possible, without being within 25 miles…
I'm immersed in Robert Harris's Dictator, the third in his trilogy on Cicero. Spoiler: people die, by the thousands. The Roman Republic did not go gentle into that good night. But Harris,…
Over drinks with James Bond, Domino describes her first hero: the sailor whose face appears on Player's Cigarettes. The story she made up about him fills 3 or 4 pages in Thunderball, Ian Fleming's…
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy is a romping good story, and was the first novel to feature a fop who is a hero in disguise. That makes Sir Percival Blakeney…
After reading some of my favorite modern mystery writers (Lee Child, Dick Francis, et al.), I have trouble slowing down to the pace of Dickens and other 19th-century novelists ... but it's always…
If you know me from Facebook or ForgottenDelights.com, or have read my books or heard me lecture, you have a good idea of the type of art I like. This blog is…