Category: FOUR STARS ****

June 17, 2010

The Civil War by Bruce Catton **** of 4

I listened to it on tape. It’s a short history of the Civil War. Gettysburg takes about six minutes. The Monitor and Merrimack about two....

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June 17, 2010

A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan **** (of 4)

This book is a commitment. It contains seven interior books, 150 pages apiece. It is worthwhile, however, for anyone who cares about the hubris of...

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May 15, 2010

The Help by Kathryn Stockett **** (of 4)

The characters in this book – racist, southern white women in the early sixties and the black maids that work for them – are so...

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April 30, 2010

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs **** (of 4)

Jacobs takes a year to live strictly adhering to the bible. He doesn’t know bubkes when he begins and figures he’ll start reading Genesis and...

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April 30, 2010

What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers **** (of 4)

It’s hard to comprehend how anyone survives what Valentino had to in escaping Arab militiamen in southern Sudan and comes away only with excrutiating headaches....

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April 29, 2010

Small Island by Andrea Levy **** (of 4)

There’s a reason this book won the Whitbread Award for best book of the year, one of Britain’s most prestigious literary awards. It captures the...

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April 29, 2010

Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis. **** (of 4)

This short collection of short stories is a wonderful piece of honey cake with a glass of tea. A Jewish Russian immigrant to Toronto describes...

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April 29, 2010

The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World by E.L. Konigsburg **** (of 4)

Ostensibly a yound adult book, but like all of Konigsburg’s works, her protagonists may be young adults, but her themes are fully matured. Man, can...

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April 29, 2010

Mila 18 by Leon Uris **** (of 4)

One of my absolute favorite books about the Warsaw ghetto uprising. A real page turner with wonderful characterizations.

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April 29, 2010

Mercy by Toni Morrison **** (of 4)

A novella told mostly in the first person perspectives of an enslaved African woman, her daughter, a trader from the north, his wife, a Native...

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