Tom Knapp: books

Tom Knapp is the founder, editor, publisher, designer, dishwasher, dog groomer and chief writer for Rambles. He is also a newspaper reporter and freelance writer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he amuses himself playing Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton folk tunes on his fiddle, bodhran, CD player and car stereo. Determined to share (or inflict, depending who you ask) his music in as many ways as he can possibly imagine, he joined forces with author Chet Williamson to form Fire in the Glen, a regionally prominent Irish traditional/Celtic eclectic duo with two CDs and a varied performance schedule under their belts.

A wild Celt by nature (and proudly eccentric), Tom collects swords and other sharp, pre-gunpowder implements of destruction, which he stockpiles against the day the Romans, Saxons or Normans decide to (re)invade. He shares his house with a dog, Morgan; two cats, Puck and Marlowe; a nameless ghost who mostly just lurks in the upstairs hallway; and a very unusual sense of interior design. Although he is well-versed in several brands of computer, he is a proudly devoted Mac head.

His personal website includes photos from Ireland, Scotland, England and Norway, plus Cape Breton in Canada, Walden Pond in the U.S. and Cancun in Mexico; a substantial collection of quotes from famous and esoteric sources; and a wide array of links. He can be reached via e-mail at rhymer@rambles.net.

Editing and publishing Rambles each week keeps Tom plenty busy, but he hasn't let that interfere with his writing. (Yet!) You can see lists of Tom's reviews, interviews and essays by clicking on the menu selections below. Thanks for visiting!

Book reviews by Tom include:

BOOKS

Mario Acevedo
• The Nymphos of Rocky Flats

Charles J. Adams III
• Cape May Ghost Stories, Book Two

Douglas Adams
• The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

Charles Addams
• The Charles Addams Mother Goose

Dennis Lee Anderson
• Arthur, King

Kevin J. Anderson, editor
• Star Wars: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina

Kelley Armstrong
• Women of the Otherworld #1: Bitten

P.C. Asbjornsen & Jorgen Moe
• A Time for Trolls

Margaret Atwood
• The Robber Bride

Avi
• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
• The Man Who Was Poe

Richard Bach
• Illusions

Camille Bacon-Smith
• The Face of Time

Kage Baker
• Or Else My Lady Keeps the Key

Nancy Baker
• The Night Inside
• Blood & Chrysanthemums
• A Terrible Beauty

L.A. Banks
• Vampire Huntress #1: Minion
• Vampire Huntress #2: The Awakening
• Vampire Huntress #3: The Hunted

Nick Bantock
• Kubla Khan

Marius Barbeau
• The Golden Phoenix (a.k.a., The Magic Tree & Other Tales)

Bob Barton
• The Bear Says North

Anne S. Baumgartner
• Ye Gods!

John Baur & Mark Summers
• Well Blow Me Down! A Guy's Guide to Talking Like a Pirate

Peter Benchley
• Shark Life: True Stories about Sharks & the Sea

Amber Benson & Christopher Golden
• The Seven Whistlers

Jody Bergsma
• Faerie

Elaine Bergstrom
• Nocturne

Holly Black
• Tithe
• Valiant

Keith Bowen
• Among the Amish

Gillian Bradshaw
• Hawk of May
• Kingdom of Summer
• In Winter's Shadow

Herbie Brennan
• Faerie Wars

Katharine Briggs
• An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies & Other Supernatural Creatures

Patricia Briggs
• Mercy Thompson #1: Moon Called
• Mercy Thompson #2: Blood Bound

David Brody
• The Fiddler's Fakebook

Max Brooks
• The Zombie Survival Guide

Robert Ellis Cahill
• Haunted Ships of the North Atlantic

Karen Elizabeth Chaney
• New England Remembers: Lizzie Borden

Charles Chapman
• Music Essentials: Basic Music Theory for All Instruments

Owen Chase
• The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex

Andrea Cheng
• Anna the Bookbinder, illustrated by Ted Rand

Frank Chigas
• The Damp Chamber & Other Bad Places

Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish, editors
• October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween

Catherine Christian
• The Pendragon

Joseph A. Citro
• Cursed in New England: Stories of Damned Yankees
• The Gore
• Passing Strange

Ronald D. Cohen, editor
• Wasn't That a Time! Firsthand Accounts of the Folk Music Revival

The Complete Works of O'Carolan

Max Allan Collins
• Calendar Girl: Sweet & Sexy Pin-ups of the Postwar Era

Eileen Colwell, editor
• Folk Tales from Asia for Children Everywhere, Book 1-2

Kim Cool
• Ghost Stories of Sarasota
• Ghost Stories of Venice

Peter Cooper
• Mel Bay's Complete Irish Fiddle Player

Susan Cooper
• The Boggart
• Victory

David Cordingly
• Under the Black Flag

Paul S. Cranford, editor
• Cape Breton Musical Heritage Series

William S. Crooker
• Pirates of the North Atlantic

William Crooker & Elizabeth Peirce
• Saladin: Piracy, Mutiny & Murder on the High Seas

Kevin Crossley-Holland
• Arthur, Book I: The Seeing Stone

Jennifer Crusie, editor
• Totally Charmed: Demons, Whitelighters & the Power of Three

Bob Curran
• A Field Guide to Irish Fairies, illustrated by Andrew Whitsun
• The Truth about the Leprechaun

Sheldon Currie
• The Glace Bay Miners' Museum

Les Daniels
• Yellow Fog

Mike Dash
• Batavia's Graveyard

Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, editors
• The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest
• Sirens & Other Daemon Lovers

Peter David
• Howling Mad
• Knight Life
• One Knight Only
• Sir Apropos of Nothing

MaryJanice Davidson
• Undead & Unwed
• Undead & Unemployed
• Undead & Unappreciated

Hubert J. Davis
• American Witch Stories

Terry Deary
• Horrible Histories: Ireland

Gideon Defoe
• The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

Tom Deitz
• Windmaster's Bane

Charles de Lint
• The Blue Girl
• A Circle of Cats, illustrated by Charles Vess
• Forests of the Heart
• A Handful of Coppers
• The Hour Before Dawn
• Little (Grrl) Lost
• Mulengro
• The Onion Girl
• Promises to Keep
• Quicksilver & Shadow
• The Road to Lisdoonvarna
• Spirits in the Wires
• Tapping the Dream Tree
• Triskell Tales: 22 Years of Chapbooks
• Triskell Tales 2
• What the Mouse Found & Other Stories
• Widdershins
• Wolf Moon

Charles Dickens
• A Christmas Carol (as told by Patrick Stewart)

Peter Dickinson
• The Flight of Dragons

Disaster Science

Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black
• The Spiderwick Chronicles #1: The Field Guide
• The Spiderwick Chronicles #2: The Seeing Stone
• The Spiderwick Chronicles #3: Lucinda's Secret
• The Spiderwick Chronicles #4: The Ironwood Tree
• The Spiderwick Chronicles #5: The Wrath of Mulgarath