Recent Reviews and Posts

Happy birthday, Stephen Ambrose

I'm reading D-Day by Stephen E. Ambrose, and it also happens to be his birthday (January 10). I've also by him on my shelves I've got Nothing Like It In the World and Undaunted Courage. He was born in Decatur, Illinois (1936). He was 28 years old when a small university press published his first book, Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff (1962), a biography of General Henry Halleck. Only a … [Read More...]

Looking back on 2023’s non-fiction reads

"Imagine a marketplace teeming with vibrant stalls, each overflowing with treasures not of gold or silk, but of words and worlds waiting to be explored. This, my friends, is the bibliophilic bazaar I invite you to wander today, where each book beckons like a whispered promise, a portal to hidden dimensions of experience." Thanks for that intro, Bard AI, but I'll take it from here. Talk of … [Read More...]

Short Review | Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen

This summer our 12-year-old started a book club with her friends. I expected them to settle on something more fantastical--maybe Brandon Mull or Jessica Day George. Instead, they chose a more serious-looking story, Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen, about a young girl in Lithuania in the late 1800s. I was intrigued and decided to try it for myself. It was a time when Russia occupied and … [Read More...]

Review | The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Opening this weekend, Chris Nolan’s "Oppenheimer" has a run time of 3 hours, is very light on CGI, and is rated R for sexuality, nudity, and language.* Released in 1986, Richard Rhodes’ The Making of the Atomic Bomb is 896 pages (or 37 hours on Audible) long, has zero CGI scenes, and, well, is not rated by the MPAA (and I’m not sure why it would be–it’s heavy on theoretical physics and history, … [Read More...]

Short Review: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman has his fans, and they are passionate. I've enjoyed a book or two of his, myself. But when Norse Mythology came out in 2017, it felt like the Gaiman fans turned out in droves to read (what looked to me) an opportunistic money grab by the famous author. Thor: Ragnarok, the second—and best—of the Marvel Thor trilogy came out that year and was a huge blockbuster. What better time to … [Read More...]

Happy Birthday, Tom Clancy

My first introduction to Tom Clancy and his world of espionage and military techno-thrillers was The Hunt for the Red October. Dad handed it to me sometime in my early teens, and I remember seeing the movie with him shortly after it came out. I'll never forget it. it. I remember Sean Connery's character, Russian submarine captain Marko Ramius telling Alec Baldwin's CIA analyst character Jack … [Read More...]

Review | The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

As I write this, it is March 5, the anniversary of the Boston Massacre (or an "Unhappy Disturbance" if you were British) on a cold night in 1770. It started as an argument between a British soldier and several Boston residents and soon escalated as a crowd gathered, chasing the soldier back to the Customs House, where a sentry stood guard. Other British soldiers came out to defend the soldier as … [Read More...]

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