Gregory McDonald is known mostly for creating the character of Fletch, made famous in the movies by Chevy Chase. As a kid, I read many of the Fletch novels, so I was happy to review another of McDonald’s books. To be more accurate, Snatch is actually two distinct books (Who Took Toby Rinaldi and Safekeeping) […]

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of In Sunlight or In Shadow for review purposes. I’ll read anything with Lawrence Block’s name associated with it, so when I had the chance to receive a copy of an anthology he edited (and contributed to), I jumped at the chance.  All of the stories in In Sunlight […]

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Sinner Man for review purposes. If you’re a long time reader of The Soap Boxers, you’ve probably read others articles I’ve written about Lawrence Block.  If not, you can find them all here.  Block is my favorite author.  He’s been writing professionally since the 1950s, and as a result has […]

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Quarry in the Black for review purposes. Quarry in the Black is the 13th in the series by Max Allan Collins.  I hadn’t read the previous twelve books in the series, so I was jumping in blind.  There’s always a danger in doing that, as there can sometimes […]

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of Daniel Godfrey’s New Pompeii for review purposes. A quick glance at the book’s synopsis had me hooked.  A company has found a way to bring people from the past forward through time and land them in the present day.  Their biggest challenge so far was to rescue the population […]

I recently decided to buy a tablet.  I’ve thought about it in the past, but recently received a financial award at work and decided to spend a (small) chunk of it on myself and save the rest. We do already have some tablets in the house: A Kindle Fire 1st generation – Fewer and fewer […]

Things have been very quiet around here lately, mostly because work had been consuming my life for the year or so.  The good news is that my work hours have now dropped off significantly (to 40ish, down from 65 or 70 recently).  That should give me quite a bit more time to write. I’m probably […]

Late late year I (along with several others) was contacted by the publicist for my favorite author, Lawrence Block.  Would I like to receive an Advance Review Copy of his forthcoming book.  Absolutely!  I’d read the book and then write a review soon after. Life got in the way, as it tends to do.  Winter […]

Keith Law is a baseball writer for ESPN who focuses primarily on prospects (players not yet in the Major Leagues).  He’s also a bit of an anti-Jenny McCarthy, never missing a chance to point out studies that show no link between childhood vaccines and autism. Reading the responses to his tweets is often, um, educational. […]

300 wins and 3000 hits have long been the benchmarks for a hall of fame player.  Hit well enough, hit high enough in the order, play enough years, and avoid taking a lot of walks, and a hitter can reach 3000 hits without much help from his teammates.  It is a largely team-independent stat.  The […]