Book Reviews
We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane. Kilgore Trout -Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions, Ch 1.
The fanatic is always concealing a secret doubt. -Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 2001 film, O'Connor & StraughanBook review, Title What Jesus Meant, Author Garry Wills, Rating 4.0,
What Jesus Meant
Garry Wills
Book review
Jesus, simply
Garry Wills, who is a believing Catholic, attempts to extricate the Jesus of the New Testament from the 1,700 year edifice of organized Christianity by doing his own translation of the koiné, or marketplace Greek ,in which the New Testament was originally written.
Is religious tolerance religious freedom?
The ensuing religious fragmentation of Western Christendom following the advent of the Reformation created fissures in the fabric of European society so large that, after a century of warfare, borne by the exhaustion of bitter hatred and its accompanying destructiveness, the only option left for a more peaceful existence was the grudging co-existence of groups with religious differences. Book review, Title The Swerve, Author Stephen Greenblatt, Rating 4.0,
The Swerve
Stephen Greenblatt
Book review
Swerving into modernity
Stephen Greenblatt's book The Swerve: How the World Became Modern is an excellent tale of the influence of Epicurus on the modern way of thinking. Epicurus spoke of change in terms of a 'swerve'; the author's allusion to a swerve otherwise is to the narrow and chance survival during the Renaissance of Lucretius' poem De Rerum Natura, a rumination and celebration of all things Epicurean, and whose influence in subsequent Western thought represents a giant swerve in cosmology, religion and natural philosophy away from Plato and Aristotle and towards Epicurus.
Book review, Title Harry Potter Septalogy, Author J.K. Rowling, Rating 4.0,
Harry Potter Septalogy
J.K. Rowling
Book review
Imagination nonpareil
This is some of the most imaginative writing I have read since perhaps Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, or some of the classic science fiction of Asimov and Herbert.
Book review, Title The Millenium Trilogy, Author Stieg Larsson, Rating 4.0,
The Millenium Trilogy
Stieg Larsson
Book review
Lizbet Salander, meet Inspector Maigret
Lizbet, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, carries the Millenium Trilogy. She is a private investigator, a severely withdrawn, highly intelligent young woman who has been terribly abused, both by her father and as a ward of the state. Lizbet trusts no one, and has developed world class computer hacking skills which serve her in good stead in her job as a private investigator and beyond. She teams up with an older investigative journalist, the fruit of said union providing a broad view of two generations of Swedish culture.
Book review, Title Cryptonomicon, Author Neal Stephenson, Rating 4.0,
Cryptonomicon
Neal Stephenson
Book review
The secret world sharply rendered
This is a long historical novel that dares to write with some depth around the subjects of cryptoanalysis, mathematics, computers, and operating systems. It is full of insights about the technology, about those who live that technology, and about the cultures they inhabit.
Book review, Title The Subject Steve, Author Sam Lipsyte, Rating 3.0,
The Subject Steve
Sam Lipsyte
Book review
(Post?) Modern tale of mortality
Is the Subject Steve dying? Aren't we all dying? Is the Subject Steve actually Steve?
Book review, Title Steve Jobs, Author Walter Isaacson, Rating 3.0,
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson
Book review
The Genius of Apple
Steve Jobs recent demise brought out many encomiums having at least one thing in common: An agreement that he was a genius. Jobs' genius (a notoriously fickle word) would appear to be in the realm of practical design. His early Apple computer was easier to use and more accessible to its consumers than those of his early competitors, and that was true of most of the subsequent devices produced by Apple on his watch, including the Macintosh windowing and mouse-driven operating system, the seductively simple iPod, the iPhone marriage of mobile phones with a personal digital assistant and its deft employment of touch screen technology, and the iPad tablet offshoot.
Book review, Title Maus: A Survivor's Tale, Author Art Spiegelman, Rating 5.0,
Maus: A Survivor's Tale
Art Spiegelman
Book review
Unforgettable, complete Holocaust story
If you were looking for just one story that would give you some sense of the personal impact of the Holocaust on its victims, survivors and their families, this is it. Spiegelman's cartoon version of his father's life before, during and after the Holocaust, of which he was a survivor, provides a more direct, complete and highly visual means of telling the story. Maus draws you close, and with each panel, you feel the emotional impact of this terribly difficult and sad world.
Book review, Title A Short History of Nearly Everything, Author Bill Bryson, Rating 4.5,
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
Book review
Taking fundamental science personally
Bryson has produced a brilliant exposition on fundamental science that is highly accessible and engrossing for any good reader. The author covers many topics of physics and astrophysics, including the origins of the universe, nuclear physics, and the origins and geological development of the earth.
Book review, Title The Blue Mountains of China, Author Rudy Wiebe, Rating 4.0,
The Blue Mountains of China
Rudy Wiebe
Book review
Wandering Mennonites
The Blue Mountains of China is compelling and candid historical novel that tells the story of a set of Mennonite immigrations from the Ukraine SSR to Siberia, Canada, Paraguay, and briefly, China. The novel begins with a series of loosely connected chapters which move forward in time, and focus on i
Book review, Title Europe Central, Author William T. Vollmann, Rating 4.0,
Europe Central
William T. Vollmann
Book review
Totalitarian Zeitgeist
William Vollman's Europe Central is a layered novel that provides various perspectives of World War II through the thoughts and activities of selected historical actors from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, including Käthe Kollwitz, Kurt Gerstein, Dmitri Shostakovich, General Paulus and General Vlasov, among others. Each character carries their particular tragedy forward within the context of the times and the two totalitarian regimes.
Book review, Title A Place of Greater Safety, Author Hilary Mantel, Rating 2.5,
A Place of Greater Safety
Hilary Mantel
Book review
Storming the Bastille, then laundry
'Today we stormed the Bastille; I got there late; I heard it was bloody. Then I went home and had an argument with my mistress about the laundry. She spends too much time gossiping with the concierge. Hmmm, what's that I smell for dinner?'
Such parody is a little harsh, but it serves to underline the overall pedestrian nature of this historical novel; the author's subject deserved better. That subject is the French Revolution as seen through the eyes of three major characters: Desmoulins, Danton and Robespierre, two of whom were members of the decidely unsafe Committee for Public Safety, all three of whom were consumed via the guillotine in the most unsafe year of 1794.
Book review, Title Relentless Pursuit, Author Donna Foote, Rating 3.5,
Relentless Pursuit
Donna Foote
Book review
Teach for America
Donna Foote's book Relentless Pursuit: A Year in the Trenches with Teach for America describes the controversial teacher program, following five of its young college graduates who immediately out of college and just after a short training stint, are teaching for the first time, and in failing inner city schools.
Book review, Title Absence of Mind, Author Marilynne Robinson, Rating 2.5,
Absence of Mind
Marilynne Robinson
Book review
Parascience: Fair – or not
In the very first sentence (above) of this collection of essays, who's full title is Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of Self, Marilynne Robinson fires an immediate broadside as she sails the still uncharted territory of consciousness, or perhaps, the territory of charting consciousness. The title 'Absence of mind' appears at least a double entendre: The removal of the mystery of the mind by sloppy, imprecise parascience (a word Robinson uses more in the sense of scientism) and a poke at those who would arrogantly misuse the authority of science as being absent of mind.
Book review, Title The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary, Author Ambrose Bierce, Rating 4.5,
The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce
Book review
Cynicism of the highest order
Ambrose Bierce is one of America's most celebrated cynics, along with Mark Twain and H. L. Mencken, and others too various to mention. His Devil's Dictionary provides ample dollops of irony, much of it directed seemingly at others while instead pointing directly at one's self.
Book review, Title The Pacific, Author Hugh Ambrose, Rating 2.5,
The Pacific
Hugh Ambrose
Book review
Too pacific
I picked this book up on whim, to fill the hours of a long plane ride, mostly because of my admiration of the The Band of Brothers HBO series. I had read that the new HBO Spielberg-Hanks production The Pacific was also excellent, but I do not have access to HBO and was waiting for the series to be published in blue-ray. So I thought, the book The Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose, upon which the HBO series was based, was very good, so why not just read The Pacific in anticipation of that TV series?
Book review, Title Angler, Author Barton Gellman, Rating 3.0,
Angler
Barton Gellman
Book review
The historic Cheney Vice-Presidency
Bart Gellman's book Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency is a competent and sometimes surprising look at Dick Cheney's vice-presidency. The most surprising revelation? Cheney's fall from W.'s grace.
Book review, Title Sh*t My Dad Says, Author Justin Halpern, Rating 3.5,
Sh*t My Dad Says
Justin Halpern
Book review
Candid, loving portrait of Dad
Pungent humor is the outward appeal of this loving and candid portrait of Dad; that it is often poignant and contains a surprising amount of insight is the hidden delight.
Book review, Title Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend, Author Gary L. Roberts, Rating 3.0,
Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend
Gary L. Roberts
Book review
Doc Holliday’s story
Robert's book Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend is a solid effort to document the life of one of the main participants of the shootout at the OK Corral, and provides a dramatic rendering of that famous event. I found it a nice diversion.
Book review, Title The Death of Adam, Author Marilynne Robinson, Rating 2.5,
The Death of Adam
Marilynne Robinson
Book review
Modern Jeremiad
Marilynne Robinson's The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought could just as well have been entitled 'Modern Jeremiad', as its tone is often bleak, accusatory, and angry, sure that the world, and America in particular, has taken a set of massively wrong turns in terms of both its thinking and its behavior. This is a book that marks modern thought as empty of spiritual meaning, and continually contrasts secular (mostly failed) ideas and behaviors with Christianity's spirituality and ability to offer meaning and moral structure in a modern human's life. The essays are wildly uneven, and the variation in quality is quite wide; most are readable, but several are nigh on unreadable. If you were to read this book from back to front, you would, roughly speaking, be reading from the best essays to the worst.
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