As a historical romance novel, The Queen of the Night is engaging and serious. As literature in a historical setting, it is somewhat less appealing, though certainly interesting enough to provide some insights into the period – European high society in the late 19th century era of the Franco-Prussian War – and stir interest in the Read More …
Category: Book Reviews
These are my reflections on books immediately after I’ve finished reading them.
Book Review: A Sense of Wonder: Van Morrison’s Ireland
“A Sense of Wonder” is the third biography of Van Morrison I’ve read, and the best of the three. All of them pretty much describe a self-absorbed loner with little respect for his fans, but this one focuses much more on his song writing and its sources. In appreciating his music, I’m more interested in Read More …
Review of The Gangster by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott
I see a historical suspense book like this as a sort of palate cleanser between more substantial courses of reading, and in that role The Gangster serves very nicely. It’s historically accurate to the extent it needs to be, the plot moves along briskly, the characters are believable if somewhat one-dimensional and it builds suspense nicely Read More …
Review of Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson
The full title of Anderson’s history is Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East and it is a thoroughly accurate description. For, this book is about precisely each of the topics mentioned, and it weaves them together in such a thoughtful way that it is impossible not to contemplate their impact on and relevance Read More …
Review of “Becoming Madison” by Michael Signer
The author doesn’t say so in so many words, and I’m not astute enough to know whether it was his intent or not, but it’s next to impossible not to read Becoming Madison / The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father as a reflection on the conflict between government and the equivalent of the modern-day Tea Read More …
Review of Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
This is my third or fourth reading of this book over the course of the past 40 years or so, and I find it amazing how much of it I still enjoy, how much more clearly I understand it all this time and how much the clarity diminishes my general favor for the book. Actually, I Read More …
Book review: Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving
I’m not sure what to think of John Irving anymore, but I will say this was the closest of his more recent books that I’ve read to those early ones that I loved. Of the three most recent that I’ve read – Until I Find You, A Widow For One Year, and Avenue of Mysteries – this is the Read More …
Review: The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors. This is not one of my favorite books. It’s definitely not one of my favorite Bill Bryson books. I suppose that is because I am more a fan of Bryson the quirky history writer or witty autobiographer than of Bryson the clever travel writer. Had I read Notes From Read More …
Book review: The Quartet by Joseph J. Ellis
Joseph J. Ellis is one of those reliable chroniclers of American history – in the company of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough – who cover the most familiar historical ground, yet somehow reshape it into something new. The Quartet only reinforces this reputation. Here, Ellis examines the studied combination of efforts from four “nationalists” – George Washington, John Jay, Read More …
Book review: Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth
It would be very difficult for this book to live up to my hopes considering how strongly I feel about the BBC Television series it spawned, but it came close. To write prose with the elegant power that would be required to make the written word as moving, emotional and thought-provoking as the beautifully written Read More …