Empire by Mitchell Pacelle

The Empire State Building is iconic. Its image has appeared on everything from spoons and thermometers to snow globes. In films, it’s where women go to meet King Kong or Cary Grant. Built in 16 months at the beginning of the Great Depression, it was the tallest building in the world when it opened in [...]

Read Full Post »

Coming up on Vulpes Libris

It’s a passionate week on Vulpes Libris as the Foxes tackle the grandiose, the difficult and the disappointing.  We do like a challenge! On Monday, Jackie looks at an American icon in Empire by Mitchell Pacelle. On Tuesday, Sharon enjoys Posy Simmonds’ take on Far From The Madding Crowd. On Wednesday, Anne admits to being [...]

Read Full Post »

The Ice Man by Philip Carlo

Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer At the end of last year, regular Vulpes reviewer Jay Benedict mentioned to Moira that he was reading a particularly gripping, if extremely gruesome, book for the Royal National Institute for Blind people – Philip Carlo’s biography of mass-murderer Richard Kuklinski, who reputedly killed over 200 people and went [...]

Read Full Post »

Kama Sutra: sex tip book or philosophical treatise?

Review by Audrey Chaix. Written in the 5th or 6th century AD by the sage Vatsyayana, the Kama Sutra is probably one of the most famous Indian books in the West. Although very few people have actually read it, there are a many fantasies and myths floating around in the collective psyche. According to these [...]

Read Full Post »

The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness

“Not everything is black and white, Todd. In fact, almost nothing is.” The Knife of Never Letting Go ended on a cliff-hanger. Having spent the entire book fleeing for their lives across New World, with a marauding army laying waste to towns and villages behind them, a psychopathic preacher trying to kill them, and with [...]

Read Full Post »

What I read on my holidays: books for all occasions

Picked up at the train station: Göttin in Gummistiefeln (originally published as The Undomestic Goddess), by Sophie Kinsella (Goldmann Verlag, ISBN 978-3442460878) As a rule, I don’t enjoy Kinsella’s books at all, but I had only a few minutes before departure to choose something to get me through the train journey (and the tram, and [...]

Read Full Post »

American On Purpose and Official Book Club Selection

Last year saw two of my favorite comedians with books on the New York Times Bestseller list: Craig Ferguson and Kathy Griffin. Having been longtime fans of both, I was pleased at their success. Unlike Sarah Palin, each are articulate enough to write their own books. Watching Kathy Griffin spend New Year’s Eve trying to [...]

Read Full Post »

Coming Up on Vulpes Libris

It’s a new year, (a new decade, even) and the Foxes are back from their holiday break all rested and sparkly. Of course, that last could just be the tinsel that hasn’t gotten quite put away yet. We’re starting the year with such topics as sex and murder, so you can imagine the excitement we’ve [...]

Read Full Post »