Men’s Fiction Book Reviews

Review: Brothers in Arms by Jack O’Riley ★★★

brothers in armsBrothers in Arms by Jack O’Riley follows a group of friends who spend a lot of time drinking (and drinking and drinking) who takes their antics too far and end up violently beating up a husband and wife with a pious vanity plate. The victims of the crime are then pegged as snobs as the small band of misfits then become a major phenomenon in the Twin Cities, and the city is plunged into a debate about the nature of crime and punishment.

There’s a distinct Raymond Carver feeling to O’Riley’s narrative, especially in the lack of quotes for dialog […]

2019-01-22T15:50:55+02:00January 15th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Divine Roosters and Angry Clowns by Frank Crimi

Divine Roosters and Angry ClownsIf there’s chicklit, Divine Roosters and Angry Clowns by Frank Crimi should be put in the category of Dude Lit. This is especially true because the novel is reminiscent of “The Big Lebowski” and the Coen brothers at their most zany. Tarantino is in there as well. Talking about filmmakers is an appropriate starting point because this novel is distinctly cinematic. Not because it reads like a screenplay but because there’s a very entertaining movie in this book crying to get out.

Divine Roosters is an apocalyptic novel, but in a way it’s an old fashioned one. It harkens back […]

2019-01-22T10:40:02+02:00November 18th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |

Review: Walking Up A Slide by Daley James Francis

Walking up a SlideDumped years ago by his college sweetheart Lila, and slightly lazy in his job going nowhere as a local hotel waiter in the same town he grew up in, Jason Chapman embarks on a quest chasing The One That Got Away when Lila sends him a wedding invite.

With no “plus one” to take along, he must spring into action with only his parents and slightly raucous and laddish best mates to assist him into firstly finding a date for the looming wedding so he doesn’t look desperate in order to impress and woo Lila out of her intended marital […]

2019-01-22T17:58:53+02:00October 25th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: High Andes by Rolf Margenau

High AndesHigh Andes is an international thriller with an ambitious and beautiful setting across times. The third book in the Wylie Cypher series, Rolf Margenau’s adventure follows Cypher through his “midlife crisis”, his marriage crumbling and his mind set on a trek across the White Mountains of Peru (the Cordillera Blanca) with his daughter, Mercy, stumbling into the depths of the effects of Peruvian socio-economic collapse in the 1980s as they weave the Inca trails, and unwittingly, a life and death case of espionage and smuggling with the CIA thrown in for good measure, as an exciting chase takes place to […]

2014-09-04T05:32:20+02:00September 4th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Slammin’ by Marcus Paul Cootsona

Slammin' ReviewAt fifty-three years old, lifetime tennis pro Wally Wilson has shelved his ambition for a comfortable and happy life as a tennis instructor for the rich and richer of Silicon Valley, under the watch of the questionable benefactor 17-year-old Ashley Margincall.

With the support of his loving though quirky family and the bankrolls of his eccentric clients, the slow and easy life of a teacher perfectly suits the old pro and his on-and-off heart problems. All is well, perhaps even mostly normal, until Wally’s wife is kidnapped on a business trip to Sweden, sparking Wally’s latent tennis-based superpowers and catching […]

2019-01-22T15:56:25+02:00July 16th, 2014|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , , |

Review: Dirtball: The Diaries of a Worthless Somebody by Eric Olsen

dirtballDirtball: The Diaries of a Worthless Somebody is an autobiographical first novel by Eric Olsen. The book follows character “EO”, a reasonably average young American man who realizes his need to change his life after an incident with a friend who calls him the personally poignant name of a “dirtball”. What follows is a recounting of the author’s attempt to turn around from his built-up bad decisions and bad luck by starting fresh, despite his adversity in problems old and new.

Whether he really can is one of the questions the book aims to provide answers to, but by far […]

Review: The Favorite by Franklyn C. Thomas

favoriteSecond chances are rare, no matter how much a person wants them. When Michael Dane is given a second chance he has to make the toughest decision in his life. What’s the decision? You have to read The Favorite to find out. It may shock you.

Michael Dane is a fighter who has a shot at becoming the IBF Light-Heavyweight Champion. He’s trained all of his life for this chance, but some mistakes almost ruined his shot. One blunder landed him in prison for eighteen months. Michael’s manager, Dante Alexander, helps Michael elevate his career and has helped him reach […]

Review: In The Name Of Vengeance by J. B. Bergstad

This second volume in the Hyde’s Corner Trilogy chronicles the continuing tribulations of Selmer Burks, sheriff of Sundowner County, Oklahoma. Before I go any further, let me warn you: This is a sequel, not just the second in a series. If you have not read the first Hyde’s Corner book, No Man’s Land: The Beginning, this one will be confusing, especially at first. It takes up the story at the cliffhanger ending of No Man’s Land and goes on from there with very little explanation about what happened in the first book. On the other hand, the story here […]

2019-01-22T17:15:26+02:00December 20th, 2013|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |
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