Category: America

May 29, 2016

The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan **** (of 5)

The immortal Irishman is Robert Meagher, surely the most famous and interesting person I’ve never heard of. Meagher (pronounced Mar) was an incomparably gifted nineteenth...

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February 28, 2016

Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya ** (of 4)

In the first half of the book, Pasha, an intentionally depressive poet, because without depression there can be no decent poetry, arrives from Odessa to...

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February 19, 2016

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell ** (of 4)

I love Sarah Vowell’s hip hop style of writing and she is hooked on an interesting fellow. The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in the American...

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February 7, 2016

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell **** (of 4)

This is a tale both microscopic in scope and biblical in scale. The scene is 1920s Illinois before the age of machines and corporations when...

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January 29, 2016

The Town that Food Saved by Ben Hewitt ** (of 4)

Hardwick was a down and out village in rural Vermont. Unemployment was high, farmers were struggling, and main street was worn out. As if almost...

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August 27, 2015

The Son by Philipp Meyer **** (of 4)

This history of Texas is told through the lives of four generations of the McCullough family. Eli, the patriarch, is captured by Comanches as an...

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August 2, 2015

Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews *** (of 4)

An American CIA agent, Nathaniel Nash, is sent to Russia to manage a key asset at the same time a Russian intelligence agent, Dominika Egerova,...

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June 14, 2015

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown **** (of 4)

On the face of it an uplifting story of a group of eight hayseeds from Washington state who come together to become the world’s best rowing...

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June 4, 2015

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis *** (of 4)

This first novel captures the bleak experience of Hattie, the black mother of a dozen kids, who has come north as part of The Great...

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April 24, 2015

March: Books 1 and 2 by John Lewis **** (of 4)

These graphical biographies cover the early years of John Lewis, now a congressman, but formerly a preacher and activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Book one...

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