Looking Back on Good Intentions
Sometimes, in reaction to today’s state of rapid publication of almost avalanche proportions, it seems wise to pause and scrounge through those books purchased from a used bookstore’s bin of near-giveaways or that rolling cart parked by the shop’s front door and filled with titles whose remainder marks are fading or who have outlived their […]
The Fleet at Flood Tide
THE FLEET AT FLOOD TIDE, AMERICA AT TOTAL WAR IN THE PACIFIC 1944-1945 As a history, The Fleet at Flood Tide is both more and less than its title might suggest. The result is a book that may even appeal to those who normally might cringe at the thought of reading a military/naval history. The […]
Wartime Devotion – Heroism, Friendship and Sacrifice
Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice If you are thrilled by the fantasy of hurtling through the air at four hundred miles per hour pulled by a hugely powerful propeller driven engine, you will probably enjoy this book since Makos’s descriptions of aerial artistry often reach 5 G’s. Alternatively, if you are […]
The Fly Trap
The Fly Trap When I began reading Frederik Sjöberg’s The Fly Trap, I hadn’t a clue as to what a hoverfly is, does, or looks like. Moreover, I had little curiosity about them until I had read about halfway through the second page. Sjöberg hadn’t yet mentioned hoverflies, but he was recounting his somewhat absurd […]
Finale
Finale – A Novel of the Reagan Years Political junkies, rejoice! Thomas Mallon has written another novel fictionalizing American politics. I recently reviewed Watergate for “Bookin’ with Sunny,” which blends fact and fiction to tell the story of Richard Nixon’s final year as president. Now I’ve just read Finale, which also blends fact and fiction, […]
The Mare
THE MARE For those of us who know what it’s like to love horses, The Mare is so much more than another story about a horse and a girl who loves the horse. It is also the story of the mother who loves the girl, and another woman who longs to be a mother to […]
The Consolations of Philosophy
THE CONSOLATIONS OF PHILOSOPHY, A PRIMER FOR THOSE WHO DID NOT STUDY PHILOSOPHY I think, therefore, I am. Descartes, right? And if wrong, it shows my education lacks rudimentary philosophy. If, however, I’m right, it goes to show that when necessary, I can drop at least one philosophical plum. For those of us who did […]
Mr. g
MR. g Alan Lightman, author of the celebrated Einstein’s Dreams, has taken his latest fiction, Mr. g, even further, inviting the reader into the imagined realm of creation; from the world of Void, into time, to space and, well, “…if you tried to picture wind or stars or water, you could not give form or […]