Former surgeon Richard Selzer dissects ‘The Doctor as Writer’ By Leigh E. Rich It’s taken him 37 years, but surgeon-turnedauthor Richard Selzer knows his worth—at least as a writer. “It’s not much, but it’s something,” the soon-to-be 78-year-old says with a wry smile and a wink. No politician or pop star, Selzer undersells himself. The […]
‘Dream of the Great Blue’ eludes greatness By Leigh E. Rich Dream of the Great Blue By Don West Dancing Bear $22.00 Know thyself, Socrates instructed more than two millennia ago, because an unexamined life isn’t worth living. For Tucson author Don West, who’s penned three quarters of a beautifully written and quietly poignant novel […]
Books on the 1979 hostage crisis pertinent to today By Leigh E. Rich The Crisis: The President, the Prophet, and the Shah—1979 and the Coming of Militant Islam By David Harris Little, Brown and Company October 2004 432 pages $26.95/$39.95 (Can.) Dateline: Nov. 4, 1979—After a group calling themselves Students Following the Line of the […]
Whiskey Robber’s ballad a page-turner By Leigh E. Rich Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts By Julian Rubinstein Little, Brown and Company September 2004 304 pages $23.95 ($34.95 CAN) Perhaps few in the United States know much about Hungary, a […]
Someone needs to inject the lead character of ‘Chasing Rayna’ with a dose of intelligence By Leigh E. Rich Chasing Rayna By Sylvia Nobel Nite Owl Books $13.95. I too am chasing Rayna—into the arms of Gloria Steinem, who just might be able to slap some feminism into the sophomoric prosecutor at the center of […]
Latest book by His Holiness erratic, flighty By Leigh E. Rich The Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate Conversations and Journeys By His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Victor Chan Riverhead Books August 2004 256 pages $24.95 ($36 CAN) It might seem odd to have a Chinese writer interview the Dalai Lama. After all, the great Buddhist […]
‘Liars’ hauls in catch of laughs, lessons from the sea By Leigh E. Rich All Fishermen Are Liars: True Tales from the Dry Dock Bar By Linda Greenlaw Hyperion Books July 2004 240 pages All fisherman are liars—but for good reason. At least that’s the moral of the sea story Linda Greenlaw weaves in her […]
Susan Cummins Miller packs a ton of trivia—and death—into her latest compelling mystery By Leigh E. Rich Detachment Fault By Susan Cummins Miller Texas Tech University Press $24.95. If you’re in a Frankie MacFarlane novel, most likely, you’re dead. Bodies stack up throughout the pages of Detachment Fault, the second in Susan Cummins Miller’s MacFarlane […]
‘Naked Crowd’ asks price of shedding liberties By Leigh E. Rich The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age By Jeffrey Rosen Random House January 2004 288 pages 24.95 Our greatest fear just might be fear itself—especially with the din of pleas for heightened security in our post-September 11 world. But while […]
Rediscovering the life of the Monsieur de Saint-George By Leigh E. Rich Monsieur de Saint-George: Rediscovering the Life of the “Black Mozart” By Alain Guédé Translated from French by Gilda Roberts Picador December 2003 304 pages $26 U.S./$39 Canada “The more perfect a thing is,” so wrote Dante in The Divine Comedy, “the more it […]
‘Careless Love’ tells the story of a 19th-century Bostonian who travels to New Mexico in search of himself By Leigh E. Rich Careless Love: Or the Land of Promise By Kate Horsley University of New Mexico Press $23.95. Thomas Hall has issues. Caught in a life of quiet desperation, Thomas vacillates between hero and tragedian, […]