Category: America

June 21, 2010

Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean **** (of 4)

Norman Maclean is like Roger Angell: an old school Master of wordsmithing. His command of English and of writing is simply superior. Maclean’s first great...

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June 21, 2010

Winter by Rick Bass *** (of 4)

At the age of 29, Bass forsakes his worldly belongings, save for his broken down truck, and leaves Houston for the very limit of the...

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June 21, 2010

Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson **** (of 4)

This was my first Bryson. It’s his description of walking the Appalachian trail. I can think of no other book that made me laugh out...

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June 21, 2010

Taking on the Trust by Steven Weinberg *** (of 4)

This is the story of how Ida Tarbell, one of the first women to attend Allegheny College, probably the first woman to be a paid...

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June 21, 2010

1776 by David McCullough ** (of 4)

A recounting of one year of the Revolutionary War, without explaining why the Americans are fighting the British, why fighting for independence was not the...

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June 21, 2010

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand *** (of 4)

The primary reason this story of a race horse, his owner, jockey, and especially, his trainer, became a best seller is Hillenbrand’s ability to create...

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June 18, 2010

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present by Howard Zinn **** (of 4)

Zinn flaunts his bias in an attempt to countermand the prevailing mythology of the U.S. and makes a convincing case that the country is not...

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June 18, 2010

No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin *** (of 4)

The book only covers five years, but it does it so thoroughly that it probably contains more than half a million words. Goodwin brings several...

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June 18, 2010

Nickled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich **** (of 4)

I wasn’t expecting to learn much, especially after the book’s introduction. A Ph.D., upper-class (relatively speaking), journalist and author agrees to foresake her ordinary life...

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June 18, 2010

Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick *** (of 4)

I listened to half the book on CD, read another quarter, and didn’t have time to finish Philbrick’s account of the interaction between the Pilgrims...

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