Tom Nash seemingly has it made. He’s a retired British spy. He lives on the Cote D’Azur, the French Riviera, hobnobs with artists and writers and expatriates like Gerald and Sara Murphy.

by Dave Wood I was told years ago by my English teacher Sara Keeler that one should never judge a book by its cover.

by Dave Wood I was happy to see the return of Tom Hegg to the circle of winning Minnesota authors.

by Dave Wood Several years ago, Geoffrey Wolfe wrote a gripping biography of his father called “The Duke of Deception.”

by Dave Wood It’s always eye-opening to read a foreigner’s take on life in these United States.

by Dave Wood Here’s a book that should make it from the region all around the country. It’s “A New Billy Collins: Keeping an Eye on Death,” by Joy Lee Davis (Trade Press, Inc., 4312 Pond View, White Bear Lake, 55110, $20.)

by Dave Wood I remember my political science prof telling us naïve freshmen that if you took strip of plastic and bent it into a hula hoop, fascists and communists would end up together at the juncture where the two ends meet.

by Dave Wood White Bear Lake author Julie Kramer is on a roll.

by Dave Wood Tired of crime novels set in Frisco, The Big Apple, LA?

by Dave Wood Too often we read of important pioneering families trailing off after several generations into the world of the jet set, Eurotrash and worse.

by Dave Wood Milkweed Editions of Minneapolis has figured out a way to kill two birds with one stone.

by Dave Wood Readers and playgoers interested in Shakespeare and those who aren’t will find much to enjoy is a new book by Minnesota-born Arthur Phillips.

by Dave Wood Around and around we go when it comes to conversations about “proper” English. Or “proper” any language.

by Dave Wood Peg Meier has hit the jackpot. Peg is a former colleague of mine and has written a passel of bestselling books of popular history, including “Bring Warm Clothes,” gleaned from newspaper reports and the rich data stored at the Minnesota Historical Society.

by Dave Wood It’s always fun to get a novel written primarily for adolescents and find that it works just fine for old fogies, as well.

by Dave Wood Two memoirs today. One from down south, the other from close by.

by Dave Wood Forty years ago, my wife and I and toured the concentration camp at Dachau, just outside Augsburg, Germany.

by Dave Wood My father wasn’t much for poetry. He was more of a Zane Grey man.

by Dave Wood St. Paul Poet Laureate Carol Connolly came to our house in Wisconsin for dinner last month and dropped off a book that’s going to come in handy for yours truly.