Category: Book Review

FRANKENSTEIN

OCTOBER 23, 2024 – For book club this month—the month of Halloween—our group is reading Frankenstein by Mary Wollstoncraft Shelley. You all know the story[1]—man creates uncontrollable monster. Last summer the sequel was published under the title, Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, by one Ramin …

A FINE BALANCE

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024 – In late August, Lin of “Steve and Lin,” our wonderful next-door neighbors on the Cove handed me two brand new paperback books tidily bound by twine and ribbon. “I thought you’d appreciate these books,” she said. “He’s such a great writer, and they’re about India. I know you’ve been there and …

THE CLOSET

SEPTEMBER 21, 2024 – After breakfast on the porch I ventured out to the dock to survey the unsettled weather. The wind was picking up from the southeast, and dark clouds lined the horizon. It wouldn’t take long for a clearer picture to form. By 10 o’clock the wind was roaring at 20 miles an …

HISTORY LESSON (PART V)

JULY 31, 2024 – (Cont.) Back home other Nisei were exerting a different kind of courage in quite a different sort of combat. One of the leading “soldiers” in this regard was a conscientious objector by the name of Gordon Hirabayashi, who worked tirelessly in the pursuit of justice. A Ghandi-like character, he exercised unusual …

HISTORY LESSON (PART IV)

JULY 30, 2024 – (Cont.) The most remarkable aspect of racial discrimination against Japanese-Americans is that it didn’t discourage most Nisei (people of Japanese parentage but born in the United States) from joining the war effort. They signed up because they felt it was their duty—as Americans and in defense of American ideals and principles—and …

HISTORY LESSON (PART III)

JULY 29, 2024 – (Cont.) Ever since we invented ourselves, we humans have in the business of exploiting other humans. Every culture, nation, and people, it seems, has had a go at it. In the last decades of the 19th century, landowners in Hawai’i were breaking the backs of plantation laborers to bring in the …

HISTORY LESSON (PART I)

JULY 27, 2024 – We’re still at our Shangri-La on the shores of Grindstone Lake in northwest Wisconsin, and if you’ve followed my posts over the past few days, weeks, months, and now years, you know my attachment to this place. While I’m here I’m far more attuned to the dynamic beauty of our surroundings …

THE BOOK

JULY 14, 2024 – Today I finished reading The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes, a British scholar with serious academic chops and credentials. He’s written no fewer than nine books on Russian and European history, which have been translated into 30 languages. Yet, as is so often the case among academics, Figes has his …

CONSTANCY

MARCH 19, 2024 – (Cont.) One of the papers I wrote for that freshman year survey course in Western Civilization was about the sincerity of Constantine’s conversion. Was he truly committing mind, heart, and soul to Jesus or . . . being a supreme opportunist was he simply riding the rising swell of Christianity within …

HOLD ONTO YOUR HAT A LITTLE LONGER!

MARCH 18, 2024 – (Cont.) There on the top shelf was a book in mint condition. On its dignified spine was the incongruous title, A Short History of Byzantium: what could be short about a history of an 1,100-year empire? Were they still among the living, my college history profs would be impressed that I …

ALIEN ODDS

DECEMBER 25, 2023 – After Santa’s visit last night and in the calm before the Christmas celebration storm today, I heard an interview with a serious journalist, Garrett M. Graff, author of UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government’s Search for Alien Life Here—And Out There. I’m not particularly interested in the science (or …

MAXED OUT

APRIL 27, 2023 – Finally, 650 pages and the comprehensive survey of the worst conflagration the world has ever known are behind me. I speak of Inferno, The World at War, 1939 – 1945 by Max Hastings. Few books have had such an impact on my psyche and my world view generally. I could easily …

MAX TO THE MAX

MARCH 23, 2023 – A few posts ago I mentioned Inferno, a brilliant survey of WW II by the British journalist and military historian, Max Hastings. I’m now several hundred pages deeper into the conflict and to borrow a phrase that George W. Bush deployed in hubris when we invaded Iraq 20 years ago this …

THE UNCERTAINTY OF INEVITABILITY

MARCH 16, 2023 – Currently, I’m deep into Inferno by Max Hastings, a British military historian, who’s written extensively about the biggest conflagration ever visited upon civilization. I’ve read lots about WW II, and I wasn’t looking for yet another (650-page) tome on the subject. When a mint-condition copy of “hell on earth” surfaced atop …

ANXIOUS SPECIES

MARCH 9, 2023 – At the outset of last year’s personally notable medical expedition, I experienced unusual anxiety. Physically, I was feeling, well, not so well. The worst occurred when my side of the earth was turned away from our local star, and the worst of the worst was when I climbed into bed each …

HER GREATNESS

FEBRUARY 8, 2023 – Later known as “Catherine the Great,” Sophia Augustus was considered the most enlightened monarch of her era. Many historians today also conclude that of all absolute rulers of the 18th century, Catherine was a standout. I recently completed reading Robert Massie’s acclaimed biography of the thoroughly German princess who, by a …

LITTLE BOOK, BIG IMPACT

DECEMBER 6, 2022 – Sometimes little things make big impacts. In the case of books, Mao’s Little Red Book, held high by 100s of millions of Chinese, created a Great Red Wave. Another small book with a big effect is Planets, part of the collection of A Golden Guide shirt-pocket-size books. The little gem bears …

“PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN”

DECEMBER 3, 2022 – I’m currently reading Robert Massie’s acclaimed biography of Catherine the Great, Empress of all the Russias. I’d first read it a decade ago, and as I’ve discovered with multiple books lately—including other Massie masterpieces: Peter the Great and Nicholas and Alexandra—a second reading heightens retention as well as comprehension. I read …

NAIVETÉ

JANUARY 21, 2022 – Yesterday, to avoid invisible Greek inside the elevator at the specialty clinic, I trudged up four flights of stairs. Because of the extreme cold outside, I remained bound under extreme wraps inside. Plus, breathing was labored because of my tight-fitting, double mask. My upward plod in the stairwell became an enjoyable …

GOURMET WRITING

NOVEMBER 24, 2021 – I admit that writing a book review after reading a single chapter is as premature as reviewing a five-course meal after the appetizer. However, sometimes the writing—or dining—is so extraordinary, the reviewer feels equipped to express early admiration. The book, in this case, is Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Several years …

NOT BORN YESTERDAY

NOVEMBER 1, 2021 – Yesterday’s Times included the review of a “big picture” book, just released, written by British anthropologist David Wengrow and the late American anthropologist (and “anarchy activist”) David Graeber. By “big picture” I don’t mean large illustration. I mean a book that makes you question what billions of us have taken for …