Category: Book Reviews

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 21, 2010

A Darker Domain by Val McDermid ** (of 4)

A famed British mystery writer, with 23 books beneath her belt takes on the tight society of British mine workers and the psychological devastation accompanying...

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June 20, 2010

The Lost City of Z by David Grann ** (of 4)

Percy Fawcett, one of the last of the iconic British explorers, ca. 1920, khaki get-up, pith helmet, and scraggly beard spends most of a lifetime...

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June 20, 2010

The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett *** (of 4)

Burdett’s Thai detective travels to Nepal for this fourth in the series (search my earlier reviews under “Burdett”) and then travels very deep into Tantric...

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June 18, 2010

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Aza Nafisi *** (of 4)

Nafiisi believes democracy can only succeed in conjunction with a fundamental human right to imagination. She demonstrates its value by documenting the deteriorating lives of...

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June 18, 2010

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein *** (of 4)

Just like the authors say, “understanding philosophy through jokes.” The book is twenty percent philosophy – ethics, existentialism, epistemology, relativity, meta-philosophy – and the rest...

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June 18, 2010