Genre: Book   

Grade: A-

Notable People: Archer Mayor

Title: Fall Guy

Review: Mayors’ 33^rd novel featuring Vermont Bureau of Investigation stalwart, Joe Gunther, is a beaut. If you are a fan of: Archers’ works, police procedurals, great character development, serial stories or New England settings-this is for you. Gunther and his band of pranksters cross the big river to the land of Live Free or Die in this elaborate story of intrigue and mystery. Mayor would be a very good writer regardless of the genre, but he owns this genre sand is generally regarded as being at the top of his class by all the major reviewers. Just gets better and better.

Genre: Book      

Grade: A-

Notable People: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Title: The Water Dancer

Reviews: Suggested to me by my old friend, Budley, the first novel from the acclaimed journalist and later the winner of the National Book Award, tells the story of Th Underground Railroad, through its protagonist, Hiram Walker, a slave born of the union of” The Quality” (owners) and “The Tasked “(slaves). Rich in imagery and filled with magic and mysticism, it’s an utterly compelling portrait of a part of our shared history full of eternal shame. Walker is an inheritor of the powers of “Conduction”, allowing him to transport people out of their bondage, but with great risk and costs, the book, centered in slave ridden Virginia and free Philadelphia, is utterly compelling and brilliantly conceived, but very complicated and, at times, hard for me to read, which I did in short bursts. Took a long time, but extremely revealing. The abundance of horrors is unfathomable.

Genre: Book  

Grade: A-

Notable People: James Lee Burke

Title: Flags on the Bayou

Review: This 2023 standalone novel from the legendary and aged American icon is a wonderfully told story about the damages of war. Focused on the waning days of the War Between the States and told thru the eyes of five compelling characters, the book is classic Burke, one of the most eloquent and evocative voices of his (or any ) generation. Very fortunate to still have him around.

Genre: Book    

Grade: A-

Notable People: John McEuen

Title: Will the Circle Be Unbroken: The Making of a Landmark Album”

Review: This beautiful coffee-table size photo and story book came out earlier this year in honor of the 50th anniversary of this 1972 album that immortalized country music for a whole generation. Full disclosure; I am quite biased for anything to do with this record that turned me onto a musical journey and shook my counter culture brain open to a cultural phenomenon I had previously ignored. The recording sessions brought together the prototypical LA county rock band with the surviving royalty of founders/ giants of the bluegrass and country music world in late 1971, and made Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Mother Maybelle, Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin and Vassar Clements a new kind of audience and was cutting edge in Its ambition at the time. The book is a wonderful narrative of behind the scenes anecdotes, history and brilliant photos by McEuen’s late brother and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band manager, Bill. I started out perusing the book the local librarian had gotten for me while watching a baseball game on TV, and could not stop reading every inch until I was done and then looked back at all the photos yet again. An absolute must for any fan of the album and a pretty illuminating read for other music fans; only held back a wee bit by it being too McEuen-centric.

Genre: Book               

Grade: A-

Notable People: Martin Walker

Title: To Kill a Troubadour

Review: If is not yet apparent, I simply adore these Walker “Bruno” mysteries of the French countryside. Set in the fabled Perigord gourmand region of southwestern France- they ruminate on history, culture, food/wine, and inside dope on the French way of life. Walker is an excellent writer and food/wine connoisseur. This one includes terrorism from Spanish radicals (maybe Russia induced) to undermine the historical Catalan culture that has existed as a Spanish part of France for many centuries- derived from the Occitan language and descended from Elinor of Aquitaine. You will leave these books entertained and informed, and they are hard to put down. After years of barriers the Bruno cookbooks (only previously in German) are being released in English soon- a blessing to us all.

Genre: Book    

Grade: A-/ B+

Notable People: John Irving

Title: “The Last Chairlift

Review: this is the Titan of American fictions’ self-proclaimed “last big book”-and BIG it is at around 900 pages. Took me a month to finish it –both because of length and because I kept thinking I was reading every Irving book that proceeded it for the last 45 years. The themes are all there” woman who don’t speak, hating Ronald Reagan, wrestling, AIDS, the Iowa writer’s workshop, the Exeter academy, Vermont (where he lives), Vienna (where he has), bears, sexual identity crisis’ of every ilk). With the addition of Ghosts, and skiing which take up a big part of the book. I will say this a wind down for him, tho it as so familiar and, thus, hard not to like –for a huge fan like me (Did I mention I have a fist edition of every one of his books on my shelf?). the book has 3 massive chapters of screen play prototype, which I found really boring and hard to follow, but Irving’s writing remains crisp, stylish (his own) and insightful. If you are not a fan you will probably give this a lower grade-but it’s the end of an era for me, and felt very sentimental It’s ben na good run, Dr. John.