Category: America

June 12, 2023

Gangland by Chuck Hogan *** (of 4)

Based on the true story of Tony Accardo, Al Capone’s protege, the undisputed mob boss of Chicago in the 1970s. Accardo’s mob runs all of...

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May 19, 2023

A Fever in the Heartland by Timothy Egan **** (of 4)

Following more than 100,000 American casualties in WWI and the death of 450,000 Americans from viral influenza in 1918, most Americans roared into the 1920s...

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April 21, 2023

American Gods by Neil Gaiman *** (of 4)

Neil Gaiman, a British author, has written an Icelandic saga about American gods. Equal parts fantasy, history, sociology, and Americana, Gaiman’s protagonist, and our guide...

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March 21, 2023

These Truths by Jill Lepore **** (of 4)

It is no small feat to write a history of the United States. Choose any event, say, for example the Presidency of George Washington, The...

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February 2, 2023

What it is Like to go to War ***(of 4)

There are not a lot of books about the philosophy of war, but there should be, especially as we are a country that in the...

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January 17, 2023

Mercury Pictures Presents *** (of 4) by Anthony Marra

Anthony Marra starts off well enough. His lead characters Art Feldman, a 1940s B-lot movie producer and his plucky assistant, an Italian immigrant named Maria...

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December 7, 2022

Ultra by Rachel Maddow **** (of 4)

Not a book or, at least, not yet a book, but a podcast. The genius of the production is that it is ostensibly a recounting...

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December 7, 2022

The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian *** (of 4)

A somewhat predictable, but well-told story about a motherless, white daughter with an abusive father living in a 1920s Mississippi swamp. Once Dad disappears from...

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November 18, 2022

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich **** (of 4)

A fictionalized account of Louise Erdrich’s grandfather, who worked as a night watchman in a factory on the Chippewa nation in North Dakota. He battled...

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October 24, 2022