Category: Books
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Review: McDougall’s Natural Born Heroes
Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance Christopher McDougall The second book by Christopher McDougall, the author of the bestselling, and controversial, Born To Run, this book attempts to cover the guerilla war on the Island of Crete during WWII, parkour, and high fat diets.…
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Review: Swanson’s Manhunt
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer (P.S.) James Swanson I am an American male who has reached middle age. This means I must read at least one civil war related book a year for the next twenty-five years. This year, I read this gripping account of Lincoln’s assassination, the flight of his killers, and…
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Review: McCarry’s Miernik Dossier
The Miernik Dossier Charles McCarry A clever spy novel written as a series of dossiers from the various spies and spy agencies tied up in a confused cold war battle for influence. All the classic spy novel motifs are here: betrayals both political and personal, glamourous and troubled women, troubled and glamorous men, sex, booze,…
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Review: Morrison’s God Help the Child
God Help the Child: A novel Toni Morrison A minor work by a major author, this slim book by one of the greatest American novelists is beautiful and haunting. It moves back and forth from the allegorical to the realistic tracing the story of Bride, a wounded child who grows into a celebrated, but wounded…
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Review: Harrington’s I’ll Have What She’s Having
I’ll Have What She’s Having: My Adventures in Celebrity Dieting Rebecca Harrington When I decided to do this project where I reviewed every book I read, I thought about how embarrassing some of my selections would be. This is one of those embarrassing selections. A throw-a-away type book in which young comedy writer tries a…
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Review: Price’s The Whites
The Whites: A Novel Richard Price Richard Price is the best crime writer working today. Perhaps that is because he isn’t really a crime writer. Price is a writer of the lives of ordinary, damaged people trying to make sense of a confused, violent, world. In his books, those people tend to be cops and…
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Review: Side’s Hellhound on His Trail
Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History Hampton Sides Hampton Side’s gripping, almost moment by moment, recounting of the events surrounding the assignation of Martin Luther King is a must read if the history of the civil rights movement, and the attempts to destroy it, mean anything to…
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Review: Walton’s The Just City
The Just City Jo Walton Top notch speculative fiction, except here, the speculation is that Greek gods create a social experiment where they bring people from throughout human history to attempt to live out the ideas of Plato’s Republic. What to the who now? Exactly. This kind of thing can go off the rails very…
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Review: Bennett’s City of Stairs
City of Stairs (The Divine Cities) Robert Jackson Bennett As the brilliant and exceedingly well read Cosma Shalizi would say – mind candy. A well done fantasy (dare I say “urban” fantasy?) about the goings on in a once great city protected by ancient gods who may or may not be reappearing to save the…
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Review: Gifford’s Spring Chicken
Spring Chicken: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying) Bill Gifford This will come as no surprise, but the older I get, the more obsessed I become with aging and how to stay physically and mentally healthy as the number pile up. Gifford does a good job here of reviewing the latest science and behavioral studies…
Milo and the Calf 