PREFACE

My bicentennial issue is finally finished. Two hundred reviews and four Rambling Comments (with Rick, of course). I believe that I and my four contributing reviewers have covered every genre of literature known to mankind. I want to acknowledge Deron O, Kai O, Patricia K, and Jennifer O for submitting their wonderful guest reviews. Thanks guys! I would also like to thank the numerous authors who e-mailed me regarding my review of their books. Every time that I was contacted by an author was memorable for me. Writers are truly "the salt of the earth." Followers of my reviews know that I love metaphors and idioms, and by the way, "the salt of the earth" was supposedly first used by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. He said to the fishermen in attendance, “Ye are the salt of the earth.”
  
Anyway, I do enjoy writing reviews the protracted way. What I mean is that my reviews will not consist of one liners, such as "The book stinks" or "Great book." So what did these authors tell me about the reviews I wrote? Believe it or not they liked my constructive criticism. They enjoyed the way I compared their book with similar books and authors. And they absolutely loved my in-depth analysis of their story and characters. In other words, I gave them something to chew on (I told you that I like idioms). I also try to make my reviews entertaining besides being unbiased. I would love to leave some of the comments the authors e-mailed to me, but I don’t think it would be fair since I haven’t asked them for permission. I can tell you that one unnamed author said that my review made her “blush”. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Finally, I would like to enumerate the ten best books that I reviewed in order of attachment, or liking, if you will, and of course, with a brief comment:

1) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (see my review of 12/09/2012), Perhaps America’s most significant novel ever.

2) Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (see my review of 3/12/2012), Hercule Poirot’s classic investigation.

3) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (see my review of 7/29/2015), One of the first mystery thrillers.

4) Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (see my review of 1/26/2015), Classic work by a great descriptive writer.

5) The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (see my review of 1/26/2012), Murder and the 1893 World’s Columbian Expo in Chicago.

6) Black Hills by Dan Simmons (see my review of 12/23/2010), Who can forget the merging of Paha Sapa and Gen. George Armstrong Custer via ‘counting coup’.

7) Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (see my review of 6/07/ 2011), The magical novel.

8) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (see my review of 2/17/2013), This WWII comedy is a riot.

  9) All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (see my review of 4/02/2013), The first novel in The Border Trilogy.  

10) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (see my review of 11/08/2012), A breath of fresh air from America’s greatest author.

I have five honorable mentions in no particular order:

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker; Zealot by Reza Aslan; I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, and Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey.

The writing of the reviews has been a blast, I hope I have enough of time left in life to publish my tricentenary edition. If not, I will save you a barstool upstairs (hopefully). Front cover picture of Rick O and Shirley O & back cover of Deron O and Jennifer O (lot's of O's) having breakfast along the Arkansas River on the Royal Gorge Train in Colorado.

Rick O