Scarecrow Reviewed by Matthew Netland

I was first introduced to Michael Connelly by another suspense writer, John Sandford. Known for his popular Minnesota-based Prey series, Sandford was participating in a book reading a couple of years ago at the Galleria Barnes and Noble. A woman in the audience asked what he liked to read in his spare time and, after naming a few “literary” authors (no doubt to mollify the hipster-dufus contingent), he said his favorite guilty pleasure was Michael Connelly. When I left the bookstore that evening I had two Connelly paperbacks and he quickly became one of my favorite authors.

Connelly’s latest book is called The Scarecrow which is set in Los Angeles around the fast-dying newspaper industry. Jack McEvoy, a reporter for the LA Times, has just been laid off and learns that his final assignment will be the demeaning task of training his younger and cheaper replacement. Jack had gained fame years earlier after helping the FBI catch the notorious serial killer, The Poet, and subsequently writing a best-selling book detailing the investigation.

Now, nearing the end of his prime, he finds himself being ushered out of the only profession he’s ever known. McEvoy decides that to really stick it to the newspaper he’ll need to write the story of his life and leave on a high-note. With only two weeks until his exit, he immerses himself in the grimy details of a seemingly random murder but his investigation quickly uncovers several dark secrets. Jack may have dug too deep this time…

The basic suspense template - protagonist finds himself/herself in a tricky spot and must use either guile or brute force to correct the unbelievable situation - only works if there is a foundation of solid writing skill. This is especially true when carrying the same character through many books because the plots just get more and more unbelievable (like the show 24 – how could this many outrageous things happen to one individual?). Connelly succeeds because he is a very good writer and is able to sneak innocuous details in to help ground the story.

If you are borderline OCD like me, and need to read an author’s work in chronological order, you can start with his Edgar Award winning The Black Echo.


Reviewed by Matthew James Netland – Normandale Staff




Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (May 26, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316166308
ISBN-13: 978-0316166300
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

Quirk Books, publisher of the bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has released a book trailer for its next mashup, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Excuses Begone! Reviewed by Janet Red Feather

Divergent Roads

A Book Review of Dr. Wayne Dyer’s New Book, EXCUSES BEGONE!

Navigating the Self Help aisle is like pausing before Frost’s yellow wood--but with a plethora of divergent roads. Most authors offer the “quick fix,” enabling readers to traverse the more heavily trodden path toward manifesting wealth, eliminating clutter, or finding lasting romance in ten days. My higher self has, however, located a less beaten down but more efficacious path to personal transformation: I recently read Dr. Wayne Dyer’s wonderful book, EXCUSES BEGONE!

The book is a departure from the “quick fix”: it’s more spiritual and gradual. We shed old habits, stop asking “What’s in it for me?” and ultimately recover our own vitality, depth and compassion. Dyer begins with the clever directive, “Don’t believe everything you think!” and concludes by having us engage the buoyant new feeling that results from the release of weighty excuses.

My recommendation to you is unfalteringly, “TRY it—you’ll LIKE it!” Dr. Wayne’s engaging style is eclectic and syncretic. EXCUSES BEGONE! is neatly organized into three parts that ask readers to: 1) identify and remove old habits of thinking; 2) apprehend key principles for aligning with the “Excuses Begone!” philosophy; and finally 3) engage a “paradigm shift” by changing lifelong, self-defeating habits of mind.

For the more skeptical among us, Dr. Dyer offers a scientific underpinning. He explains in organic terms just how it is that people trick themselves into resisting change. These thoughts are as real as the viruses that cause the flu. They’re called “memes,” and we get them from our parents, our friends, and the social milieu that our conscious mind sifts and filters to our unconscious. Memes exhibit the same properties as viruses: they tend to proliferate, infiltrate and persist. Dr. Dyer helps us uncover and transmute these limiting, counterproductive thoughts.

After hearing his lecture on public television, I ran out to purchase the book and the eight-CD audio book. The whole transaction was “meant to be”; upon my arrival at Barnes & Noble, I noticed by the second-floor railing a point-of-purchase display entitled “New from Dr. Wayne Dyer.” The store offered generous discounts on his visual and audial media. As a B&N green card holder with a marked propensity to buy books first, food and clothing second, I was in heaven.

By following Dr. Dyer’s principles, it’s possible to eradicate time-worn excuses in the subconscious mind like “I’m too old,” or “It’s too hard,” or “This will cause family drama.” Dr. Dyer holds our hands and walks us down alternative paths of thought and affirmations that, if taken to heart and applied vigilantly, opens to the reality we long to enjoy.

I can honestly attest that reading Dr. Dyer’s book will have a more far-reaching effect upon your consciousness then the usual pulp novels and gossip rags we read for comfort while on “vacation.” As part of my summer journey, I’ve been watching the PBS presentations, reading the book, and playing the audio CD’s in my car. I’ve been able to interpret and understand my dreams; change my thoughts; use my time creatively; and feel an overall sense of well being that habit and fatigue had been depleting. EXCUSES BEGONE! has afforded me a much needed vacation from negative thoughts, regrets, judgments and excuses -- and going down that road has made all the difference.

Reviewed by Janet Michele Red Feather, JD, MA

English Faculty, Normandale 6/9/09, All Rights Reserved

Biography of Janet Michele Red Feather, JD, MA

English Faculty, Normandale Community College

Janet Michele Red Feather is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native born to educators in the Philadelphia School System. She has taught at the university, state college and community college levels. Janet earned a BA, cum laude in English from Albright College. While serving as a Lecturer in English, she earned her Master’s in English and American Literature from Case Western Reserve University. Although passed with recommendation for doctoral candidacy, she followed her heart and went to live in San Francisco, where she attended Golden Gate University School of Law, earning a Juris Doctorate. She then practiced Worker’s Compensation Law with a prestigious defense firm in the greater Los Angeles area. Following her exodus from the law, Janet resumed her teaching career with various schools of higher education in South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri and currently, Minnesota. Janet has taught at Oglala Lakota College, a tribal college in South Dakota, and has met and danced with people of many tribes, including the Wichita, Wyandotte, Ponca, Lakota, Mandan, Hidatsa, Cherokee, Mesquakie, and Iroquois Nations. Her interests include art, poetry, Native American dance, and Mandan culture and spirituality. Her most helpful insights have come from the Buddha, Lao Tzu, and her husband Cedric, a Mandan Waxikena (Turtle Priest).