Sleuth By: Anthony Shaffer

A couple of snarky narcissistic guys try to one up each other in a deadly game-it is brilliantly structured and not everything is as it seems.  Such a great piece!

Murderer By: Anthony Shaffer

As student of famous murderers, this was right up my alley! A delightfully twisted play, with the most delicious double twist at the end! 

 

Run Rose Run By: Dolly Parton and James Patterson

From a Patterson book (solo or in collaboration), I'm used to a fast paced read with tidbits from the past leaking into the story as it whips along, so that the big reveal at the end ties everything up leaving me with a satisfactory sigh.  With Run Rose Run, I got none of that.  While the characters where interesting the story itself plodded along, the attacks on the main character came out of nowhere and took me out of the story because I had no information to make the attacks credible.  The reveal happened too close to the end, was a little too pat and didn't leave me satisfied.

The Cripple of Inishmaan By: Martin McDonagh

Rereading McDonagh's the Hangmen put me in the mood for more of his works, so I reread The Cripple of Inishmaan.  McDonagh's knack for writing characters/actions that are the complete opposite of the point he's trying to put across is astonishing.  The characters in this play are horribly rude to each other-I mean REALLY RUDE and yet they have each other's back and it is incredibly touching, heart-warming and sweet in McDonagh's own unique way!

The Guardians of Zoone By: Lee Edward Fodi

 

This was fun.  Not having read the first book in this series, I was worried that I might get lost-but everything is explained without giving away any action that happened in the first book.  An interesting world, with REALLY unique characters. A great sense of self and family (blood and chosen) is imparted in this great adventure.

I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir By: Harvey Fierstein

I can not rave enough about Harvey Fierstein's memoir.  Hell I can't rave enough about Harvey Fierstein. As a little gay boy doing theatre he was my idol-as a middle aged gay man still doing theatre-Harvey holds my history.  His career and life as laid down in this wonderful memoir will be fascinating to read for theatre folk, will amaze those folks who love a good memoir/autobiography, and affirm (or in my case, re-affirm) Mr. Fierstein's rightful place as an icon in theatre and a hero to us gay boys!

Three Shots to the Wind By: Sherry Harris

 

I was lucky enough to read this in manuscript form, and I'm thrilled to say I was just as surprised then, as I was now with who did it!  Harris has an ease in her writing that makes the reader feel like their sitting on Chloe's back porch listening to her tell a story.  And what a story!  Plenty of twists, turns, red herrings, laughs and heart...and the last two are why I LOVE this series!

A Visit From The Goon Squad By: Jennifer Egan

I'm not quite sure what I just read.  It was well written and it was laid out and written in a new and fascinating way, but I'm not quite sure why.  It felt like I was reading an Altman movie.  Lots of stories from lots of different characters that are interwoven over the length of the book.  The characters were definitely interesting and it kept my interest enough that I wanted to finish it, but overall...I liked it, I just wasn't wowed by it. 

Hangmen By: Martin McDonagh

On a second read trough I found this much creepier than his other works-still riotously funny, but very dark!

Take Me Out By: Richard Greenberg

This is my second read of this hilarious, and moving play, and I as much as I enjoyed it when I read 19 years, I find myself finding it's brilliance even more so now!  This play is a huge onion-layers upon layers to be picked apart; it's brilliance lies sin the fact that all of those layers are so deeply interwoven that you can talk about it endlessly and all that talk will need to new layers.  It's a play about baseball; it's a play about male relationships; it's a play about loneliness; it's play about self; it's a play about friendship....this list goes on and on on!  Absolute brilliance!

 

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher By: Kate Summerscale

 

A documentary in print-that's what this brilliant book is.  It combines social commentary on the Victorian age and this crime's place in shattering a lot of social myths.  It is a social history of policing in Britain, and the creation of the detective squad within Scotland Yard.  This case also leads to the rise of British Detective fiction.  There are so many layers to this book, and at the center of it is the indomitable and unflappable Detective Jack Whicher.  This read is pure brilliance!

The Skin Of Our Teeth By: Thornton Wilder

As I started reading this, my first thought was: "What in the hell is this?!" It was extremely odd, yet oddly funny, and I trundled on.  Look at it as a whole, I have to say this is a brilliant allegory of everyday life, told in the most bizarre way possible. AND, despite being 80 years old is completely relevant today!  A side kudos to the original set designer and run crew for this piece-creating and accomplishing the complicated set and it's machinations 80 years ago is an astonishing achievement!

 

American Buffalo By: David Mamet

 

I've never been a Mamet fan, and this is my second time reading American Buffalo and I still don't get it.  Lots of swearing, lots of half conversations, letting the audience fill in the blanks as to what the three characters are really talking about/dealing with.  Despite that, there is something intriguing about the play where you can't turn away you have to finish it.

A Question of Betrayal By: Anne Perry

Elena Standish, finds herself on a new assignment involving someone from her past which makes for a REALLY interesting set of circumstances.  Lucas and Josephine are fast becoming my favorite characters in this series!  The ending was a little too quick and convenient for me, and stretches the boundaries of believability...but knowing Perry's work, I'm sure it will be flushed out int he next book.

 

Pitcairn's Island By Charles Bernard Nordhoff & James Norman Hall

A devastatingly brutal, yet hauntingly peaceful conclusion to the remarkable Bounty trilogy.  Pitcairn's Island follows the mutineers' journey after hey set Bligh adrift.  The reader will easily see where their unfortunate story will lead, but one can't look away.  This trilogy has been around for almost 100 years, and there is a reason for this...it's damn good!