Though it has its moments, The Darkest Place is disappointing.  Rich with noir, it fails to deliver, and the villain’s revelation is anticlimactic. Despite this, Judson tells an entertaining tale, but it’s best enjoyed as a whole, and not for its “ironic twist” ending that falls flat.

Deacon Kane is a professor and sometime author drifting on the edge of self-dissolution. Grieving his son’s drowning and his ruined marriage, he’s ensnared in a torrid affair with a married woman, drowning himself in booze, risking both his position and career. When a string of “suicides” emerges in Southampton, Kane finds himself inextricably involved in a Draconian plot that makes no sense, one in which he’s drugged and set up as a suspect.

For the record, let it be known that Saint Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics does not sit on my bookshelf in vain. Someday I’m going to read it. Someday, my time spent at the secondhand shop will be rewarded. Saint Thomas is going to set me straight about the purpose of man and the order of the universe, all for a bargain-basement price.

Some back-story for my defensiveness: I like reading. A lot. I grew up in a household that made library trips almost weekly, never returning home without shopping bags busting at the seams with books. While great for my developing brain, those times early in my life made me what I am today: a person with a book accumulation issue.

In an age before political correctness, in 1936 Warner Brothers released The Green Pastures, a movie in which an all black cast play out Bible stories as told in the Deep South. We see white-robed winged angels at a grand fish fry. One still has his cook’s cap still on. They’re waiting for De Lawd, a white-haired and bearded black gentleman in a black frock coat, who smiles and says, “Let the fish fry begin!”

J. Stephen Lang’s The Bible on the Big Screen has many such wonderful details in it. Lang, a prolific author perhaps best known for his Complete Book of Bible Trivia, has compiled a thorough look at films that deal with Bible themes or stories. Running from 1897 to 2007, Lang gives a synopsis, background to the making of the film, and includes a short evaluation without providing an absolute “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.”

Damnation Street is a gritty novel superbly blending contemporary themes with traditional pulp fiction.  With crisp narration, it takes readers to a familiar place: the world of noir/crime fiction, but in new ways.  Sporting archetypal characters that are fresh and inventive, this is a crime fiction delight.

Scott Weiss is a private detective with an instinctual sixth sense giving him special insight into human nature. He’s always one step ahead of clients and suspects alike. A Nero Wolfe of the streets, Weiss lives a lonely life – which makes his obsession with runaway prostitute Julie Wyant dangerous. Even though Weiss “knows” it can only end badly, he pushes on in his pursuit anyway.

We all have different favorites, but last year these titles were consistent top-sellers, right into the final moments of 2007.

 

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) - J. K. Rowling
• Deceptively Delicious - Jessica Seinfeld
• Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
• A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
• The Dangerous Book for Boys - Conn Iggulden
• I Am America (And So Can You!) - Stephen Colbert
• Double Cross - James Patterson
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The good news is, you’re reading this. Yay! You’re among the most literate of our nation, and we love you for it. Now the bad news.

The fifth annual rankings for the 2007 America’s Most Literate Cities is out, and it isn’t a pretty picture. That is, unless you live in Minneapolis.

The study, issued by Central Connecticut State University, compiles data for cities larger than 250,000 in six indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, highest level of education, and Internet resources.

Oil! is the inspriation for Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie, There Will Be Blood.

 

Upton Sinclair’s prophetic and humane Oil! begins on the new but empty winding roads of Southern California in the 1920s.  “Dad” (also known as J. Arnold Ross) is an oil operator, cruising over the hills and plains with his son “Bunny” (Arnold Ross Jr.).  As they coast along, future possibilities appear open, free, serene and as unpredictable as every bend and turn wrapping around the glorious and twirling Southern California hills.  Bunny observes this freedom as a dreamer, explorer and most importantly, as young child ripe with a teachable eye for what’s right and good.  He admires his father’s plain and practical business approach, and yet is also keenly aware of the money rushing greed behind every oil strike he makes. 

Jacen Solo is a very bad man.  What started as a series of calculated steps down the Dark Side ladder has escalated into a full-scale freefall.  After the burning of the forests of Kashyyyk, his torture of Ben Skywalker, and his attack on the Millennium Falcon there is only person left in the galaxy who loves him… his young daughter, Allana, currently in the custody of his jaded lover, Tenel Ka.

Desperate for the affection he once held, Jacen makes a desperate bid to keep close the last thing in the galaxy he holds dear.

Fury, as is appropriate to the title, focuses on Jacen’s slide into irrational rage as the Dark Side of the Force begins to cloud and shift the noble ideals that initiated his fall to darkness.  In the beginning of the series he used his power in subtle ways, making surgical strikes to upset the balance of power in his favor, maintaining the mantra that his actions were for the betterment of the galaxy.  Now he seems to be crumbling under the division of his attention between winning a galactic civil and keeping his daughter safe, using his power less like a scalpel and more like a club.

For Nathan Hurst, a music store detective, "miracle" isn't a word in his vocabulary. But when Nathan meets a young woman whose child seems to have some very special abilities, he finds himself believing in things he never thought possible.

The story begins with Nathan remembering his childhood, haunted by family trouble, Tourette’s syndrome, and an overwhelming sense of guilt over his brother’s death. These early wounds have shaped the person that he has become, a man who is both cynical and emotionally fragile. Stuck at the airport while traveling for his job, Nathan shows uncharacteristic kindness towards a woman named Addison Parker. In return, her young son Collin gives him such an extraordinary gift that Nathan doesn’t even believe it at first. Collin gives Nathan his health back.

Illuminated by Matt Bronleewe combines human failings, street-smarts, and old-fashioned sleuthing in a mad dash to find the Templar Knights’ lost treasure. The clues are hidden in rare Gutenberg Bibles, and only one man, August Adams, a rare-book hunter, can decipher them. But the lives of his family are at stake if he fails. Bronleewe plots an intriguing, international suspense that’s just plain fun to read. He graciously consented to an interview about his novel and future books in the works with Thomas Nelson Publishers. Illuminated released in August, is already in its third printing!

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Vicki: Talk about the premise of Illuminated.

Bronleewe: It started with two ideas. The first idea was very simple: I wanted to write a book about a book. The second idea was slightly more complicated: the book I wanted to focus on was the rarest book in the world – the Gutenberg Bible. They say if the Gutenberg were auctioned today it would fetch over $100 million dollars. That’s quite a book!  As I dug into the real history behind the Gutenberg Bible, I knew I had no choice but to write a modern-day thriller around it.