It’s hard to find an upside to terminal cancer. But Lennox Randon used that diagnosis to spur the writing of a slam-bang, take-no-prisoners, life-embracing crime novel. He also pulled together two other guys in a writers’ group, and they, too, have finished books. It’s not a stretch to call that making the best of a [...]

Scrawny, with a terminal case of goofy humor, Noah and Lee are the unlikely heroes of “Friends Dogs Bullets Lovers” (CreateSpace, 285 pages, $11.99), the first novel by Lennox Randon of Cedar Rapids. Noah and Lee are working in Dubuque, where Noah is a police sergeant and Lee an EMT, when they stumble across two [...]

Learning to read takes practice, and summer is the perfect opportunity for kids to “dig into reading” because it’s a chance to read for fun in a relaxed setting. Reading over the summer directly impacts children’s cognitive skills, increases their vocabulary and helps motivate them. “We encourage all families to make time for reading year-round, [...]

The person you are at 15 is not — thankfully — the person you are at 30. The time in-between can be a period of great exploration and change, especially for those who move abroad and then attempt to return “home.” This fleeting, often romantic notion of “home” is just one of many themes in [...]

Rob Cline doesn’t make it look easy yet, but that could be just around the corner for the Cedar Rapids author. Cline delivers an engaging yet inconsistent first novel in “Murder by the Slice” (CreateSpace, 302 pages, $11.99). The book displays considerable wit and charm in the form of lead character Paul Chambers, a philosophy [...]

It would be fair to wonder if Lawrence Block had run out of things to say about his fictional hit man Keller. In the last book to feature the antihero, 2008’s “Hit and Run,” Keller’s entire life had been upended in ways both positive and negative. It seemed possible that he might retire from the [...]

  IOWA CITY — The blue and white bus sat in the middle of the Ped Mall last Saturday, its new logo — Antelope Lending Library Bookmobile — encouraging people to stop and ask questions. “What it this?” “Will it work like a regular library with cards and everything?” “Do you need more books?” Antelope [...]

Heartwarming and humorous, this tribute to moms of the world gathers the best things anyone ever said about motherhood. From Dolly Parton to Dear Abby, women (and a few men) crack wise on the subject of the center of every family, Mommy dearest! “Mom’s the Word” by Allen Klein (Publishes June 6, Cleis Press, 224 [...]

Allow me to foreshadow the end of this assessment: I won’t be giving “Fifteen Digits” (Mulholland Books, 329 pages, $14.99) a rave review. Newly out in paperback, this thriller by Nick Santora — whose credits include writing for TV’s “The Sopranos” and “Prison Break” — almost lost me in the early going because of excessive [...]