Sal Terranova and Camden Templeton have survived their first year as co-owners of The Last Word Bookstore...barely. Just when things are starting to look almost normal, a stranger arrives and gives normal a whole new meaning. As Sal, Camden, and the rest of the staff are about to learn, books are one thing, but writers are something else entirely.
Paul Combs was born in Texas on the same day as Stonewall Jackson and Jack Nicklaus. Though not as famous (yet) as those two American giants, he can putt better than Stonewall and lead an infantry charge better than Nicklaus.
His ultimate goal (besides being a roadie for the E Street Band) is to make reading, writing, and books in general as popular in Texas as high school football. It may take a while.
I came across this book by a happy coincidence on Amazon for free. It is the second book in a series. I had already read the first one a while back, but at the time didn't know it was going to be a series. In all honesty I'm hoping that there is going to be the third one. I just like these books that much. This one is just as good as the first one, so I would like to give it, four and a half stars, as I had given the first one, but goodreads doesn't allow for that, so I'll let this one have five stars so the average is correct.
It reads a little bit like a short story collection, but one where the stories are all connected, so occasionally one comes across something that one might have liked that would have been allowed to develop for more than just one chapter, but this is a minor thing. Sal and Camden are an interesting pair, they are very different from one another and create an interesting dynamic in the bookstore. I still feel like Camden doesn't get quite enough space, but maybe the author feels the ex-con is a more interesting character than the ex-accountant, and maybe he is even right.
I'm not sure if this is right or not, but I felt like the support cast got a bit more room in this book, especially the writer in residence, Max, and that worked out rather well. The thing about this book is that I think a lot of the characters could hold up a book on there own, they are that interesting. The book doesn't have a very strong build up, because like I've already said it runs a little like a short story collection, but it is done with an amiable humor that I like very much.
Like I've already said before, I hope the is going to be the third in this series, and even if there will not be, I will someday read this and the first book again. I just have to meet Sal and Camden again, but if there will be the third book, I will have to pay for that on. I've got the first two for nothing, and am starting to feel guilty getting this series that I like this much for free.
“So tell us about your literary idols,” Sal asks the woman who could have easily been one of the Sirens.
“I really admire Dan Brown and James Patterson, she says enthusiastically. “I just love the way they can tell a story without using a bunch of big words.”
Sal looks from Camden to Max, then down at the woman’s application.
“On your application, you said you love the classics,” Sal says.
“Well wouldn’t you consider Angels and Demons a classic?” the woman replies. Sal thanks her and says they will be in touch, then sets her application on fire with his Zippo.-Paul Combs-Writer in Residence.
Although this snippet is near the end of the book, it’s this kind of scorching humor and righteous disdain that Combs delivers throughout. When his main character and co-owner of the bookstore happens to be ex-Mafia enforcer and thief “Sally Fingers,” you appreciate the finality his judgment delivers.
Aside from delivering jabs at the commercial cash machines of the literary lightweights like Brown and Patterson, Combs has his characters fight back by dropping in the Muhammad Ali’s of writing, such as Earnest Hemingway and Somerset Maugham.
In fact, the influence of Hemingway goes beyond admiration for one of Combs’ characters. For example, Heather, an employee at the bookstore, has a near Pavlovian response when anyone mentions “Papa” by name.
In the Last Word series, book two, Writer in Residence, continues the story of the highly likable Sal Terranova, his cousin, imported from England, Camden Templeton, and the rest of the staff of The Last Word bookstore.
In the opening book of the series, you quickly grow fond of the affectionate tough guy, Sal, who’s traded in a criminal life, throwing knuckles for New Jersey crime syndicate to a more serene setting, turning pages and hopefully a profit on the bookstore he and Camden inherited, located in Texas. But making money selling books is not easy, and Sal is always looking for an edge coming up with one scheme or another.
In this book, Sal’s newest ploy to help make the store profitable is tax avoidance — not evasion, the difference being that the former is manipulating the laws to benefit, while the latter is breaking them.
To do this, Sal wants to make the bookstore a legitimate church. But unfortunately, while Sal sees this idea as nothing less than inspired genius, cousin, and co-owner, Camden does not.
“A church?” Camden says, her tone now more frustrated than angry. “What in the world are you thinking? I hate paying taxes as much as anyone, but we are not a church.”
“I disagree,” Sal retorts. “In many ways that is exactly what we are: a place of refuge and inspiration and knowledge. Why not reap the benefits of that?”-Paul Combs-Writer in Residence.
And for the religious texts, Combs once more offers writers worthy of praise from authors such as; Homer, Shakespeare, Dante, Hemingway, and JK Rowling and would begin with his parishioners reading Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You.
To combat Combs’s main character’s determination to dangle near the line of crime, the author inserts the influence of two important female characters. The first is his cousin Camden, who, true to her British upbringing, keeps a stiff upper lip and little tolerance for foolishness; alongside her is Sal’s girlfriend, Julia.
Knowing a good thing when he sees it, Sal keeps himself in good standing with the much younger partner by adhering to a promise he made to her — no criminal activity, a rule he bends from time to time but doesn’t break.
As for Camden? Well, if Sal can’t get his way, then the best use of his imagination is finding ways to gaslight the girl into a frenzy.
Sal has threaded the loopholes of the law and can almost see the collection plates overflowing, but he’s overlooked that his cousin is as crafty as he is clever, and she brings in a heavy hitter to extinguish the plan.
Salvatore Terranova is a big man, but all it takes is for the diminutive but powerful Sister Mary Louise to set him back on a righteous path. Sal is cured of his blasphemous plans in less time than it takes to say a Hail Mary.
As suggested by the title, the meat of this story is the development of another of Sal’s plans. However, this one gets Camden’s blessing — bringing in a writer in residence. Enter Max Luther, a somewhat famous novelist down on his luck.
Max, a faithful slave to his art, refuses to pander to the market, and instead of penning the cotton candy tropes of vampires, zombies, and cutesy romance, he sticks to his stories of a more criminal and dark tone.
The Last Word bookstore gives poor Max a couch to sleep on a table out front of the store, where the author writes flash fiction for passersby for ten dollars a pop. Combs’s writing shines with the jagged humor of men, women, and their relationships. This is hilariously and deftly accomplished with Max’s first customers.
A subdued husband and an overbearing wife approach the writer’s table and his waiting typewriter. The wife is immediately skeptical, dismissive, and condescending while the husband stays silent, but she employs the poverty-stricken writer for a story about her husband.
Max accepts the challenge and asks the husband for a theme.
“A theme?” Tony (the husband) repeats.”
“What would you like the story to be about?” Max clarifies. “You know, a chance meeting, something heroic, something criminal?”
Tony cuts his eyes over at his wife, then quickly back to Max, “Something criminal.”
Max understands immediately.- Paul Combs-Writer in Residence.
He pens the flash fiction starring Tony, a woman, and a hitman. I won’t spoil it because it’s perfect, but after Max writes the story and hands the sheets of paper over, the wife insists Tony read it aloud.
“Tony, the real-life one, looked up after he finished reading. His smile was wide; his wife’s was not.”-Paul Combs-Writer in Residence.
Read the book to fill in the blanks — it’ll put a smile on your face or, like me, a chuckle loud enough for my wife to ask, “What’s so funny?” — I declined to explain it to her.
The novel comes in at just over 200 pages, and I would have been happy to read two hundred more. Combs’s touch for humor in both the female and male voices is on point. His narrative is authentic, and an attentive reader can pick up on the crumbs from the author’s real-life experiences.
Combs also keeps Sal’s thrill of a past life alive. Hints of questionable tactics and traits solidify the main character as a flawed individual, and even though he’s lived a life on the other side of the law, through books one and two, the reader can’t help but root him on as he battles his way to stay on the straight and narrow.
Though not as dramatic and brutal as the Godfather III, Combs leans into the conflict of Sal, as a Michael Corleone type, doing his best to go legit, albeit with a light-hearted sense of humor. But lingering on the sidelines of Sal’s good intentions are two characters, Jake Donovan and Luis Ortiz. The pair mingle into the cast with a sketchy past and unclear present; I’m expecting more from those two in the sequels to this chapter.
This book is more than a novel; it’s a warm invitation to a family of characters and a bookstore where you want to be known by name when you walk through the doors.
And isn’t that what you want in a good book? To feel a part of the gang, to know the characters like friends and family? I know I do.
The Last Word bookstore, created by Paul Combs, is a place where you can hang out, get the gossip, share in the laughs and cheer them on. Writer in Residence is a character-driven, joyful read, and I can’t wait to be invited back with the next installment of the series, Book Town.
Writer in Residence fleshes out Paul Combs first book in the series The Last Word. Now that the shelves are full and the characters placed, Paul has added what every perfect bookstore needs, an honest to God published author. In the shadow of that great wordsmith and infamous drinker, Hemingway, we meet Max Luther. Max and Sal hit up a friendship destined to lead us towards the third book in this series, Book Town. No doubt the new book will include all the juicy guys & gals that belong to The Last Word and will continue the intrique, romances, balanced banter and humor plus great hints toward great reading that Paul slips in, but will also deliver a terrific storyteller adventure. Reading this series is a delight.
This book is in the awkward position of being like a middle child: between its precursor, The Last Word and the next, Book Town, it balances a little precariously. We know the characters already and don't need much background on them, so the story is much more lean than otherwise, but it never seems to go anywhere, either - maybe a function of its gap-bridging place between two other books with heftier narratives. In any case, it is as episodic as The Last Word, with a new unifying story this time: the perils of a bookstore under new management has given over as a theme to that of the perils of a bookstore under the aegis of a writer in residence. It's a novel notion; how many bookstores actually have writers living in them? And how many of those are faint Hemingway re-enactors? It poses some cosy plot threads, but doesn't take them up in a very satisfying manner: The story belts along happily and then, suddenly, it's over, as if the writer ran smack into a wall.
Adventures in Literature That was an interesting ride for a sequel. Writer in Residence continues the Last Word’s tale as the owners struggle to succeed against tall odds. When an author walks in one day, they create “Writer in Residence”. This is quite an interesting take on bookstores when chains replaced independents and online upstaged them. And now I want to know more about the lost manuscript. Excellent cliff hanger sir!
I enjoyed this second book about The Last Word bookstore, and mingling with the characters old and new. The ending came unexpectedly it seems like, in this second book, I was engrossed and then it was over. (I had a hard time with the character Camden in the first book, and I've decided I just don't like her at all in this one.) I am looking forward to the next book.
Took awhile to get to this one. I'm glad I did. . No murders of explosives, just a very good story about people and books. My two favorite topics. Thanks Paul. Number 3 is out there and I will add it to my collection
Second novel in a series of three, it's a pleasant tale of a bookstore run by an eclectic bunch. I found it a little better than the first novel, The Last Word, which featured more of the backstories of the same characters.
This is a quirky book. It is a non dependent sequel. It is the story of a book shop in Fort Worth, TX and the employees, owners and their friends. Each chapter is like a stand alone short story. You don't really need to know who the characters are, or it will be explained.
The owners of the store are cousins, one from Trenton, NJ and the other from the UK. Their styles are very different. Sal, may be a little mobbed up. Camden's husband left her for his badminton partner, and he didn't play mixed doubles. (nudge nudge, wink, wink - you know what I mean.)
The book is set in a time before Kindles, when a real book store with a heart of gold still had a chance against the big guys and "Blue Nile" They end up with a homeless writer living in the store to add a bit of charm. He churns out customized short stories for $10.00. And giving talks to writers.
The author through the characters disdains most 'popular fiction', and best sellers. It is very odd. The book has a noirish feel , with all the women employees being gorgeous 'sirens' and all the men having a slightly criminal background.
This book is Paul's second novel, and continues the story of the owners and employees of The Last Word, a bookstore co-owned by a (mostly) reformed NJ gangster and a British (former) accountant. I read a review here on Good Reads that made me chuckle, as I see her meaning. She stated (paraphrasing) that it reminds her of a British sitcom... Nothing monumental happens in the grand scheme, but all the situations these characters find themselves in are entertaining.
With this installment, we see the introduction of Max, a down-on-his-luck writer who meets and befriends Sal (the aforementioned NJ-ian). He is invited to stay at the bookstore to work on his new novel and help out a bit. The main characters are all still up to plenty, but Max is a welcome addition to the "family."
I did feel the ending was a bit rushed (esp. Max's "ending"), but only because I wanted to keep reading!
So, I didn't realize this was a sequel until after I had finished reading. I guess that's a good thing since I didn't feel like I was missing some information or I wasn't being properly introduced to the characters. And I really liked the episodic nature of the story. Nothing big and dramatic really happens. There are no deaths, no romantic plots. It legitimately feels like a British sitcom, but set in Fort Worth. The biggest reason I gave a 4- instead of 5-star review was because of the first chapter. They went through a lot of work to try and get a tax write-off. Because this was the first chapter I\d read in the series, it put me off the characters for a quite a few chapters.
I received Writer in Residence as part of a Goodreads giveaway. Enjoyed the book, I did not realize it was a follow up to Last Word. I will go back and read the first installment of this series and anxiously await the 3rd and to explore what else Combs has to offer.
I really enjoyed the characters in this book and felt that I was there to watch their interaction. This book is enjoyable as a stand alone but is enhanced by having read the previous book Last Word.