<img src=”http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/f4ndP.gif"> Hello my few but valued readers! I’ve been absent for quite a while, and I’m sure y’all have noticed how very behind I am in writing my blog reviews. I’d like to explain my absence and my seeming negligence. …

Richard Derus (ExpendableMudge) digs into five noir thrillers by Georges Simenon that are perfect for your Memorial Day travels. Most really serious mystery readers are familiar with Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret. The series ran for 75 books, after all, and from my experience with it, you can pick up any one of them and go from there, with no loss of understanding. …

It’s February already? I thought it was moving too fast until I thought about what was passing with the time: each day behind us is another day closer to the end of this political nightmare. That’s a good and heartening thought, don’t you agree?

It was not a happy week chez moi. Friday’s inauguration felt to me like an enshrinement of the kakistocracy that, from the 2010 midterm victories of the Teabillies, has steadily entrenched itself in US institutions created to oppose it. My book-review blog’s 2017 focus, promoting the realization that #ReadingIsResistance to…

It’s 2017…do you know where your values are? Mine, on this Martin Luther King, Junior, Day are aligned with Dr. King’s as outlined in the linked speech. On Friday the 20th, a new administration will formally begin. For many of us this is a tragedy out of Greek drama. It…

Book bloggers are a mouthy lot, including me. This blog post outlines my 2017 blogging goals. Hint: they are all about social justice, economic fairness, and cultural inclusion. In 2017, I’m using my unusually unfettered time to read and review books that support and advocate social change for the better…

The Wheel of the Year approaches its darkest point. While I wonder if we shouldn’t put the darkest point of 2016 on the 8th of November, the Winter Solstice is on December 21st and its influence on our human bodies and spirits is profound: Increased incidences of depression, decreased production…

11–25–2016 Lose the 10 pounds I must have gained while eating stuffing, potatoes, peas, stuffing, cranberry sauce, stuffing, a good half-dozen pears, stuffing, and the tiniest sliver of dark meat I could locate. Also stuffing. 2. Get up and move! Long Island is enjoying seasonable weather. A cold snap gifted…

By Richard Derus (ExpendableMudge) Richard Derus talks up 5 stunning novels that he’s thankful were published this year. It’s the Turkey Holocaust again! I love everything about this meal, except the turkey — No fan of dinosaur meat, me — and the family. Stuffing, brussels sprouts, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie: all those are a go for my dinner plate. My solitary-except-for-a-book dinner plate. Almost 49 million US residents…