By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez

“Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes)” by Lorna Landvik
c.2019, University of Minnesota Press
$25.95 / higher in Canada  306 pages 

They say you can’t take it with you.

The money you’ve amassed, the property you own, jewelry, art, and fancy cars won’t mean a thing once you’re dead and gone. No, you can’t take it with you, but in the new novel “Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes)” by Lorna Landvik, what’s been left behind?

If you asked Haze Evans how old she felt, she’d probably never say the truth (81), but not because of vanity. No, despite creaky knees and her status as the oldest employee at the Granite Creek Gazette, she preferred to focus on staying active, curious, and productive by writing a feature column several days a week.

The following review first appeared at the Lesbian Reading Room

By Velvet Lounger

Beowulf for Cretins, by Ann McMan
Print Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Bywater Books (June 26, 2018)

Take one rather lost and lonely English professor and sit her next to a gorgeous, intellectual and amusing woman on a flight to San Francisco. Bring them back together for a madcap costume party that evening, and make both of them brave enough to step out of their comfort zones and “go there.” That’s the basic plot of Ann McMan’s wonderful short story “Falling from Grace” in her anthology “Sidecar,” which led to the idea of “Beowulf for Cretins.”

Don’t worry if you haven’t read “Sidecar” (although if not, why not?) as the slightly amended story is repeated as chapter one of the full-length version. And once Grace and Abbie go their separate ways the morning after the party, with no contact details, not even last names shared, then surely it will take an act of fate, or possibly an act of God, to make their paths cross a second time.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez

“Hype: A Doctor’s Guide to Medical Myths, Exaggerated Claims and Bad Advice –
How to Tell What’s Real and What’s Not” by Nina Shapiro, MD with Kristin Loberg
c.2018, St. Martin’s Press $26.99 / $34.99 Canada  304 pages

For the last few days, you’ve had a tickle in your throat.

It’s not much, just a hrrumph that’s gone from occasional to annoying. You’ve looked it up online and, well, it’s either allergies, a cold, or you’re going to die. But, as author Nina Shapiro, MD says in her new book, “Hype” (with Kristin Loberg), be careful what you think you know.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez

“The Language of Kindness” by Christie Watson
c.2018, Tim Duggan Books  $27.00 / $32.95 Canada
336 pages

There was a time in your life when you tried everything.

Full-time, part-time, gig-worker, entrepreneurship, you changed jobs like most people change clothes. It’s exhausting and disheartening and author Christie Watson had the same experience: café worker, milk deliverer, video shop clerk, she tried them all but in the new book “The Language of Kindness,” she tells how she settled upon her best job of all.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez

“The Rest of It: Hustlers, Cocaine, Depression, and Then Some 1976-1988” by Martin Duberman
c.2018, Duke University Press $27.95 / higher in Canada
242 pages

Parts of your life are missing.

Maybe you’ve forgotten, purposefully or by accident. You were overwhelmed and didn’t look, too influenced by love, anger, or adult beverages to take full notice. Sometimes, you wonder what’s missing but in the new book, “The Rest of It: Hustlers, Cocaine, Depression, and Then Some 1976-1988” by Martin Duberman, one man’s gaps are filled.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Bookworm Sez

My Patients and Other Animal, by Suzy Fincham-Gray
c.2018, Spiegel & Grau
$27.00 / $36.00 Canada 288 pages

Lions and tigers and bears, Oh, my!

You probably don’t have any of those in your house right now – at least not in their full-size versions – but the kitty and puppy lying nearby might sometimes seem as ferocious as their larger cousins. Oh, my, as you’ll see in the new book “My Patients and Other Animals” by Suzy Fincham-Gray, we’re wild for our pets!