Category: History

April 29, 2010

Nuremberg: The Reckoning, by William F. Buckley * (of 4)

It was surprisingly bad. I learned a fair amount about the Nuremberg trials after WWII, but was shocked by how trivial the plot was and...

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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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April 29, 2010

Martin Dressler: The tale of an American Dreamer, by Steven Millhauser *** (of 4)

The title character, Martin Dressler, is the son of German immigrants in New York City who’s dreams and successes coincide with the burgeoning of the...

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April 29, 2010

Inheritance by Natalie Danford ** (of 4)

A too carefully crafted book of remembering and forgetting. A 30-something daughter of an Italian immigrant father with Alzheimer’s returns to Urbina, Italy to discover...

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April 29, 2010

The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton *** (of 4)

In one of Crichton’s earliest books, he retells the adventure of professional, upper crust burglar who spends a year and a half masterminding the heist...

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April 23, 2010

East of Eden by John Steinbeck **** (of 4)

A retelling of the stories of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel transposed to three generations of two families living mostly in Salinas, California during the...

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April 23, 2010

Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres **** (of 4)

On its surface it is a story of the Italian occupation of the Greek island of Cefalonia during WWII. Captain Corelli, of the Italian armed...

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April 22, 2010

Betrothed by S.Y. Agnon

A wonderful little novella that I listened to on tape about a botanist who arrives in Palestine in 1909 (I think) is quickly surrounded by...

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April 22, 2010

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie ** (of 4)

Listened to on tape, December 2004. It was a good story, but had two strikes against it. The author is Chinese. The book was written...

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