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Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel poses interesting questions. Can an extraordinary person murder an inferior person and avoid punishment? Is this exceptional individual above the law? Didn’t he do humanity a good deed by eliminating a useless being? As Arte Johnson on Laugh-in would...

Nobody's interested anymore-it was fun for awhile, so long. ricksreviews.blogspot.com

The first phone call from heaven: This is the story of a town’s somewhat cavalier attitude towards the possible presence of heaven. When confronting the possibility of heaven existing versus not existing, the idiom... it’s better to be safe than sorry... comes into play. The town of Coldwater...

ABOMINABLE: It seems to me that the latest novel by Dan Simmons is receiving unjustified criticism. If you have read 'The Terror', 'Drood', or 'Black Hills', you will realize that this is how he writes. Yes, his older novels contained more horror and fantasy, but I think he has moved on to...

A GORDIAN WEB: I was pleasantly surprised with Guy Butler’s second novel of a proposed trilogy. While it didn’t have the suspense of Ken Follett’s Eye of the Needle (1978), or the drama of Alistair Maclean’s The Guns of Navarone (1957), it did have it’s moments. I didn’t read the first novel...

:star3:DEAD ENERGY: This novel is satisfactory at best. Mr. Corkill displays raw talent, but is still in Double A ball. I can see that he is trying to create a character similar to Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt, but it’s a ‘no cigar’ comparison. I had a hard time believing in Alex Cave’s...

PARASITE: About a third of the way into this novel, I became aware of the dreaded words on page 502, “To be continued…” Mira Grant, are you kidding me? I don’t like reading trilogies unless all three books are available to read now. By the time the next novel comes out, I will have forgotten...

ZEALOT: This book by Reza Aslan flitters around a lot, but is an unqualified eye-opener. It’s the gospel Jesus versus the historical Jesus. Who is right and who is wrong is up to each reader to decide. Mr. Aslan has certainly done plenty of research, but he has the undertone of a former Muslim...

THE ONE-EYED MAN by L.E Modesitt, jr.: This novel should be titled 'The Sleepy-Eyed Man', because that’s what happened to me everytime I sat down to read this semi-monotonous work. I liken this novel to watching grass grow. How exciting can this statement be?(to paraphrase): “He packed his...

DIVERGENT: Okay, I know the book was a hit because it will be a major motion picture in March 2014. Not bad, Veronica Roth. However I’m getting a little tired of YA dystopian novels. For this reviewer, the novel was adequate but unremarkable. After reading the 487 pages and all the extras, I...

THE CROSSING: The gloom master is darker than normal in this second book of the Border Trilogy. Published in 1994, Cormac McCarthy once again takes the reader across the border into Mexico through the eyes of a young man. Has anybody ever seen Cormac smile? In a rare interview with The New York...

I, The Jury: Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer transcends toughness in his 1947 debut novel that sets the tone for this vigilante Private Investigator. Hammer’s attitude towards criminals is defined on page sixteen when he says, “They crack down on society and I crack down on them. I shoot them like...

Thanks for your care, Ricko

To Meadow337: I think it is sensible to examine the thoughts of all authors, especially the notable ones like Steinbeck. As much as it pains me, Steinbeck’s novels about the foibles of mankind are mostly true. I once had a problem reading the dark stories of Cormac McCarthy with his lack of...

THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT: The Nobel Prize winning novel (1962) examines this question: Can one take a respite from good morals, do things totally out of character, and then switch back to good? That is the dilemma our protagonist, Ethan Allen Hawley, faces as he struggles to regain past...

INFERNO: Dan Brown should be named the comeback writer of the year after his mediocre novel, The Lost Symbol, crashed and burned in 2009. Though I enjoyed this novel, it did cross my mind that this Robert Langdon character should be put out to pasture. I’m growing weary and bored with this...

And what happened?

NEW EARTH: The premise of this novel was innovative and ingenious for the first hundred pages or so. Then it sputtered and fizzled out like a dud firecracker. Why? Ben Bova is a six-time winner of the Hugo Award. What made this promising story turn into a turkey? Umm, I think it’s a case of a...

I think this was a great discussion, but it should be noted that my beginning entry was solely the first paragraph of my review of Proof of Heaven. I have to admit that I have no prior knowledge of NDE's, other than the book I just read by the doctor. If you haven't read it, you should, just to...

That is about as profound as an answer can be. You bring up a good point about why only some people are chosen for this death bed insight. I think we can now bury this issue unless someone else has a comment. ricksreviews.blogspot.com