Category: Book Reviews

March 9, 2014

In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh *** (of 4)

Ghosh recounts the life of a Medieval Jewish trader, Ben Yiyu, who transported goods by ship from India to Egypt. Evidence of his trader emerge...

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February 23, 2014

We Need New Names by Noviolet Buluwayo *** (of 4)

A young girl growing up in the disintegrating country of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe escapes by moving in with her aunt in Detroit, Michigan. Her account is...

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February 12, 2014

Ninety Percent of Everything by Rose George ** (of 4)

I loved Rose George’s, The Big Necessity about toilets and the lack of them around the world. I’m also fascinated by the sea and even...

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February 9, 2014

Black and White and Dead All Over by John Darnton *** (of 5)

A despised editor of a very thinly disguised New York Times is found spread-eagled and more than dead in the basement of the paper’s headquarters....

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January 25, 2014

The Round House by Louise Erdrich **** (of 4)

Joe, the story’s thirteen-year-old narrator, is a Native American living on a reservation in North Dakota. His mother has just been raped, not unusual as...

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January 9, 2014

Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman *** (of 4)

It’s hard being female in a Hasidic community. It’s impossible to question authority in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, inside the dense community of Satmar Hasids. If, however,...

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January 4, 2014

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage ** (of 4) by Ann Patchett

This is a collection of Patchett’s non-fiction essays, all previously published. Well-written, autobiographical, unresearched, and self-aggrandizing. Patchett is not only a strong writer, but she...

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January 1, 2014

The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson **** (of 4)

Like a great general, not a good one, but a great one, Rick Atkinson tracks the final battles for European supremacy as the Second World...

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December 8, 2013

How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny **** (of 5)

The ninth book in the Detective Armand Gamache series is a completely lovable installment. Gamache must locate a missing person with a false identity at...

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December 6, 2013