Jennie’s Boy - A Newfoundland Childhood by Wayne Johnston, Knopf, 2022 - Wayne Johnston has lived an unusual life, two portions of which he has now shared through his writing. In his earlier book, ‘The Mystery of Right and Wrong’ (reviewed July 21, 2022) Johnston explored the nature of evil using his late father-in-law as …
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE
I was watching an episode of the ‘The Good Wife’ (a CBS television series that ran from 2009 - 2016) the other day. For those that don’t know the series, it was a legal/political drama where the main character, Alicia Florrick (played by Julianna Margulies) is forced to return to legal practice after her husband …
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
The Thursday Murder Club, Netflix 2025, directed by Chris Columbus and based on the 2020 book of the same name by Richard Osman - Enter the Cooper Chase Retirement Home. It’s an old manor house redesigned for the elderly and, from the look of things, available only to those with substantial life’s savings. Elizabeth Best …
CHARLIE WHO?
The Rumpettes (formerly the Publican Party) are making much ado about the senseless killing of Charlie Kirk. According to His Highness Ronald Rump, the assassination of Kirk, not to mention all the rest of the violence in ‘Murica, is perpetrated soley by hateful left wing radicals, a sentiment that might be a tough sell for …
THE COVENANT OF WATER BY ABRAHAM VERGHESE
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, 2023 - This ‘Oprah’s book club choice’ novel is mostly focussed on three generations of a family starting in the early 1900’s. The setting is generally in the rural town of Parambil, located in the state of Kerala in the south western portion of India. For …
THE GERMAN MIDWIFE BY MANDY ROBOTHAM
The German Midwife by Mandy Robotham, HarperCollins, 2018 - Imagine a midwife, sometime in 1943, who has been sent to Ravensbruck (one of the notorious Nazi labor camps) not because she’s Jewish, but because she’s a politically unreliable German who provided services to the Jews in the ghetto. By 1944 she is forced to provide …
MAJOR PETTIGREW’S LAST STAND BY HELEN SIMONSON
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson - Random House 2010 - Major Pettigrew retired to Rose Lodge, his home in the small English village of Edgcombe St. Mary. Edgcombe St. Mary is a typical English country village of its time, populated with people who consider themselves fortunate to be English, the superior beneficiaries …
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LET’S MAKE A DEAL
Wow! The world’s two greatest comedians are set to battle it out in Alaska tomorrow for the TITLE OF ‘KING OF COMEDY’. Yes, Vlad (the Impaler) Poutine of Rooskie is going head to head against the DEFENDING CHAMP, Ronald Rump, Grand High Imperial Twitterbug (GHIT) and PREZ for life. They will take centre stage in …
MAKE IT GRATE AGAIN!
Trouble at home? Is your neighborhood in decline? Do not despair! You need only start applying the lessons given from on high by the CHOSEN ONE of ‘Murica, the Grand High Imperial Twitterbug (GHIT), PREZ for life and World’s Greatest Comedian - the one, the ONLY, *Ronald Rump*. Let’s start by affirming that a home …
REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES BY SHELBY VAN PELT
REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES BY SHELBY VAN PELT, Ecco and HarperCollins, 2022 - Set in the Puget Sound area of Northern Washington state in the small fictional town of Sowell Bay, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a story about two lost souls being connected by Marcellus, a sixty pound giant Pacific octopus who has been trapped in …
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Richard's Left Bank 