Books

December 1st, 2020

Crime novel puts an Icelandic lawyer in Greenland

The front cover of my copy of The Day is Dark by Icelandic crime writer Yrsa Sigurðardóttir sports a blurb from a review that appeared in the Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. “Iceland’s answer to Stieg Larsson,” it says, referring to the late Swedish author of the Millennium trilogy.

November 23rd, 2018

A decade later, Tursten’s inspector Huss still solves odd murders

A series of ritualistic murders keep a slightly older Detective Inspector Irene Huss busy as she continues to balance the demands of a two-career family in one of the most recent crime novels by Swedish writer Helene Tursten to be translated into English.

August 18th, 2018

Primer on website design explores new approaches to CSS

Two decades ago, I taught myself how to create websites using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Come fall semester, I again will be teaching undergraduates how to do the same. To brush up on some of the latest thinking about how best to blend HTML and CSS to reach a desired outcome, I picked up Rachel Andrew’s The New CSS Layout.

June 22nd, 2018

Guide to writing a lot is perfect kick in the pants

If someone told me they had just read Paul J. Silvia’s How to Write a Lot and now were doing just that, I would scoff. I don’t need some book to tell me that writing according to a schedule is better than “binge writing.” But I do.

February 5th, 2018

Guide to teaching journalism in college arrives just in time

University graduate programs in journalism and mass communication should adopt a new tradition: Give a copy of Master Class to everyone along with their diploma.

January 7th, 2018

Cycling novel gives insight into mind of athlete

It’s been a very, very long time since I’ve read a book about sports, so Tim Krabbé’s The Rider got to break the spell. First published in 1978, the book is considered a classic in the bicycling world.

August 6th, 2017

Plan to re-read Swedish crime novels begins with Irene Huss story

Kurt Wallander, Martin Beck, and now Irene Huss. Over the years, I have worked my way through the stories of these three fictional Swedish police detectives and have decided to revisit them, one by one.