Charleston Currents

REVIEW: It Ended Badly: 13 of the Worst Breakups in History

It is common knowledge that “breaking up is hard to do,” yet Jennifer Wright’s narration of the most extreme relationship collapses in history seems too bizarre to be factual.

by Charleston Currents · 12/21/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Mr. Mercedes

Fans of the TV shows Criminal Minds and C.S.I. will thoroughly enjoy Mr. Mercedes. This is the first hard-boiled detective novel written by Stephen King, the renowned author of the horror genre. King sets his novel in present day with flashbacks to the recession and a single event: the day a Mercedes sedan plows into a line of unemployed people waiting to get into a job fair.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 12/14/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: The Bees

The Bees, A novel by Laline Paull — Worker bee Flora 717 does not calmly enter into this world; she explodes into it, tearing through the waxy constraints of her womb room. Born into the lowest caste of the hive, Flora should be a mute bee who works her sanitation job diligently and without question, but that’s not the case.

by Charleston Currents · 11/23/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

A run-down motel in Allendale, S.C. Photo by Michael Kaynard.

REVIEW: Deep South

Deep South, Nonfiction by Paul Theroux

Reviewed by Andy Brack | Noted travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux’s new book about our region, Deep South, causes me to have very mixed reactions. On more than one occasion, I wondered, “Where does this guy get off saying that?” And I grab the book and want to hurl it through the window. These fits particularly came after one of Theroux’s elitist, degrading attempts at phonetically capturing the Southern accent.

by Andy Brack · 11/09/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Evolutionary Enlightenment

Nonfiction by Andrew Cohen: Up until recently, the sages of the past had a set formula and definition for enlightenment. Though the paths to enlightenment are varied and individualistic, the final goal is to transcend the ego and achieve unshakable peace. In Evolutionary Enlightenment Andrew Cohen proposes a new goal, a new awakened consciousness, expanding on the teachings of ancient sages.

by Charleston Currents · 11/02/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Moriarty

Moriarty is the second in the Sherlock Holmes series by Anthony Horowitz, the first being House of Silk. This is one of the few written works endorsed by Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. The plots from these two books are completely different and therefore they do not have to be read in order.

by Charleston Currents · 10/26/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: The ACE Basin: A Lowcountry Legacy

Nonfiction by Pete Laurie: The ACE Basin: A Lowcountry Legacy is a beautiful book. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to understand the importance of conservationists and governments working together to protect a wholly special place that stretches from the southern end of Charleston County through Beaufort County. With vivid color photographs by Phillip Jones, Laurie’s book explains the history since 1988 behind conserving more than 200,000 acres in the confluence of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers through purchases of large tracts of land plus dozens of conservation easements by nature-loving landowners.

by Andy Brack · 10/19/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things is the second humor memoir from popular blogger Jenny Lawson (The Blogess). In it, Lawson addresses topics light and serious with her signature cringingly honest, self-deprecating humor.

by Charleston Currents · 10/12/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget

This new memoir is an author’s dark yet comical passage in piecing together the nights she loses to alcohol induced blackouts, her decision to get sober, and her journey in sobriety. Sarah Hepola gives a revealing and moving look into the alcoholic mind.

by Charleston Currents · 10/05/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

REVIEW: The Poacher’s Son

A mystery by Mike Bowditch: The Poacher’s Son, the first in Edgar Award nominee Paul Doiron’s Mike Bowditch series, is set in the beautiful, vast, and treacherous wilderness of Maine. Doiron crafts a tortured, complex hero in Bowditch. Bowditch, a Maine game warden, struggles to prove his father’s innocence in the murder of a police officer, yet is haunted by his father’s past transgressions and inadequacies as a father. Bowditch’s investigation is inhibited by his colleagues’ disdain for his family, and by his own doubts in his father’s fiber.

by Charleston Currents · 09/28/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews