Whole graduate theses are written about the meaning of this book and the purpose of given characters, situations and practically any given sentence, so if that’s what you’re looking for, I’ll let you turn to other, more astute and reliable sources. I just want to talk about the experience of reading the book and reading Read More …
Category: Book Reviews
These are my reflections on books immediately after I’ve finished reading them.
Review of ‘The Color of Magic’on
‘The Color of Magic’ is a highly imaginative, sometimes a little funny fantasy that I just did not enjoy. I’m not really sure how reflect on the book. It’s satisfactorily well written. The characters are at least mildly interesting and the plot movements are OK. I just could not keep my attention from drifting throughout Read More …
One Hundred Years of Solitude
I have to be honest. I really didn’t like this book. My first memory of it was from an English professor at Sauk Valley College, circa 1978 gushing over how unbelievably good it was. I resolved to read it someday, and after hearing repeated reverential praises for this masterful moving book, I finally got around Read More …
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve
I wasn’t sure that someone could make talking about the fairly straightforward Garden of Eden story interesting for several hundred pages, but I’ve always been interested in the implications the story has for Christianity and spiritual philosophy, so I decided to give this book a try. What a great decision. Yes, it was a bit Read More …
Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan
I did not read the volume that preceded this book, “Ghost Wars,” but that was no handicap in quickly getting into the story of Directorate S and its peculiar role in the , essentially, defeat of American goals in Afghanistan. Coll’s incredibly vivid descriptions of characters, events and competing political and ideological interests in Pakistan, Read More …
Book Review: Divine Fury
The best part of Divine Fury is the final 30 pages, wherein McMahon reflects on the impressively diverse and thorough research that is reflected in the rest of his discussion of the nature of “genius” and how our understanding of it has changed over the course of the centuries. In his epilogue, he reflects on Read More …
Book Review: Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind
I was expecting this to be a lesson in evolution. and anthropology, especially regarding the origins of humans, and it was that – but in ways I never expected. Beginning with a review of the science about humankind’s origins, Sapiens does a wondrously thought-provoking job of showing what evolutionary success really means for species like Read More …
Book Review: Season of Lies
Season of Lies is a tremendous followup to Hetzel’s first book in this series. It brings back the key characters and manages to realistically draw them into a new drama that mixes a new World Series bid, celestial mysteries, a presidential race, divisive politics and a tender love affair. It’s a creatively told story that Read More …
Book Review: Five-Carat Soul
This book was a reminder of the particular pleasures of the short story. Some of the stories in the collection aren’t that short, really, but all were manageable in a single sitting and were compact, complete works. And a really nice effect in a book of this type is the range of emotions and the Read More …
Book Review: A Study in Scarlet
I’ve read only a few Sherlock Holmes stories but am of course familiar with various twists and turns the myth has taken in movies and pop culture. But this was a singularly enjoyable experience to tap into the origins of the myth and see Holmes and Dr. Watson “in the raw,” as it were. I Read More …