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P.G. Wodehouse on Google Books Introducing NOOKcolor(TM) with Wi-Fi for just $249 plus Free Shipping – Buy Now! Banned books Books I’ve read (small sample): Bill’s bookshelf: read More of Bill’s books » 50 word fright Word of the Day (just because we felt like it): Bailiwick (click here) Free translation of Schopenhauer’s “The Art of Controversy” here! It’s basically a manual on how to argue.   Nonfiction books under $5

Slight Detour by Bill Holmes Dark comedy/adventure. A man and woman — both victims of circumstance, but from two very different worlds — collide in a globe-trotting struggle to find some semblance of sanity. A beautiful young “black ops” agent on her first assignment tries to turn an “average Joe” into her own counter-terrorism asset, just to prove she can. When he loses his job, then his girlfriend thanks to her, she thinks he’s putty in her hands. When he’s told he has cancer and decides to go out with a bang, she’s afraid she’s overplayed her hand. She commits the cardinal sin of actually starting to like this guy, and now questions her own motives. If her handlers become aware of this, both she and her “asset” are dead.  eBook: $2.75.  Click here for a preview. Lottery President by Bill Holmes For most people, winning $296 million in the lottery would be enough. They would buy a big house, travel the world and retire. Not Benny. The house he had in mind was the White House. He didn’t want to travel the world so much as save it … from politicians. Retire? “I’ll retire when I’m dead!” he would say. He didn’t realize so many people had a retirement plan in mind that would make him very dead. Welcome to the world of politics, Benny.   … but I digress The autobiography of Bill Holmes.  Download: $2.75.  Click here for preview. Temporary Insanity Before ever winning the lottery and running for president, Benny was living in L.A. making a living as a temp word processor. For his latest assignment, he thought he was taking just another temp job. He didn’t anticipate Venelia and the Dynamos. What the hell’s a Dynamo?  Download: $2.25.  Click here for preview. Russian Adoption The complete blog of the Russian adoption experience of Bill and Tara Holmes.  Download: $2.75.  Click here for preview.

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Thoughts on writing

Louis L’Amour once said that he could write while sitting in the middle of the freeway. That didn’t impress me much at the time, but now it does.

Old reviews

by Bill

Tell No One

by Harlan Coben

This one was pretty good. Once I got used to the narrative switching back and forth, by chapter, from first-person to third-person, I couldn’t put it down. Really good plot. Here’s a hyperlink to his web site: http://www.harlancoben.com

Killing Time

by Caleb Carr

This one stank. I’d read The Alienist by the same author several years ago, so I gave this one a chance. Bad choice. I don’t know how many times I threw it down in disgust. I get that way when a book doesn’t keep my interest. Anyway, click on the following hyperlink for a copy of its back cover on Amazon’s web site. Something, probably its juvenile quality, tells me he wrote this as a teenager, dragged it out of the closet, and submitted it to his publisher merely for the sake of having something to publish. Its locale and discussions of terrorism are eerily prescient in light of September 11, but that’s pretty much all that it has going for it.

Big Trouble

by Dave Barry

Yes, that Dave Barry. It was actually a good, funny, light-hearted action adventure novel. Maybe you’ve seen the movie they made out of it? Anyway, I’m always surprised when a novel can keep me interested and turning its pages, which this one definitely did.