Those readers familiar with this website probably have visited the webpage “Steve’s Bookshelf” at least once.  A new addition to the subsection “Non-Fiction Recommendations” is Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia. I also have introduced the new subsection “Stealth Reads—Books by New And Promising Authors” where you will find Donna Carrick’s The First Excellence and Carolyn J. Rose’s Hemlock Lake.  Each of these books receives my recommendation, as does every book that appears on this page of my website.  I should hasten to add that neither Donna’s nor Carolyn’s novels is related to Matt’s book—they are associated only in that they appear in the same update to this webpage.  Matt’s blog can be found at the Rolling Stone website.  Donna and Carolyn also have their own websites.  All can be found on Facebook.

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Amidst the discussions to-and-fro about the Iraq War, the slovenly state of VA hospitals became a hot topic.  The moldy and dingy state of Walter Reed, the top VA hospital in the country, only emphasized the deteriorated state of a system that was a big news story in 2007.  The VA system had languished ever since WWII.  Veterans were calling the state of their hospitals their Katrina moment.  The system was incapable of handling the wounded vets that were returning home, first with Iraq and then with Afghanistan.  Although steps were taken after 2007 to improve the system, it is still woefully inadequate to treat veterans’ mental health issues.

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With the Middle East crises and the three stooges, Michele, Sarah, and Christine, the last few blog posts have been a little on the heavy side, so today let me sail into smooth seas and soft breezes to discuss a trivial thing that sometimes irks the hell out of me:  series in fiction.  It’s a criticism of my own writing profession—a self-criticism, in a way.  We all have our favorite characters and we tend to look for sequels where they appear again and again.  However, what I’m complaining about is when writers’ do it just for the almighty dollar.

Fictional characters become famous largely due to series, of course.  Sherlock Holmes would not be as famous if Conan Doyle had only written one Holmes mystery.  Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot would not be as famous if Christie had only written one of their mysteries.  John Carter, nearly forgotten by now, I suppose, would not be as famous if Rice Burroughs had written only one Martian story—and probably Star Wars would never have been made for lack of all those names lifted from them.  We readers love our series because we love the characters in them.

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