There seems to be a trend in movies lately to make characters gray. They’re not bad, but they’re not all that good, either. With so many gray characters out there, finding a hero you can cheer for without any reservations can be refreshing. Jack Carr provides that kind of character, and though there’s an argument […]
Summary | On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
2022-04-28 · by ·
In George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, “thought crime”—a person’s politically unorthodox thoughts, such as unspoken beliefs and doubts that contradict the tenets of the ruling party—is an even more serious offense than committing an actual crime. In other words, even allowing yourself to have a thought that does not conform to what the ruling […]
Review | The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
2022-04-08 · by ·
Matt Haig’s books have the most interesting premises. In The Humans, his lead character is a body-snatching alien who occupies the body of a human. It turns out that the human wasn’t a very nice man, which the alien who now inhabits his body discovers when sent to hide evidence that the human has found […]
Spring Book Club Selections
2022-02-09 · by ·
The Book Club met this week, and here are the books we’ll read for the next six months: March: The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson (Clint nominated) April: Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe (Dan nominated) May: Presidents of War: The Epic Story, from […]
Review | The Law Says What? Stuff You Didn’t Know About the Law (But Really Should!) by Maclen Stanley
2022-01-15 · by ·
I don’t want to be a cynic or a pessimist, but I’m sure something of what follows is going to come off that way. Upon exiting the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked what sort of government the delegates had created. Ever the one to come up with a quick quip and memorable […]
Review: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
2022-01-05 · by ·
After The Bluest Eye appeared on a list of books to remove from the library shelves of a local school district, I decided I wanted to find out for myself what the hubbub was all about. Call it the Streisand Effect, but as I tweeted at the time, “if I hear someone wants a book […]
2021 in Books
2021-12-30 · by ·
There are always too many books and not enough time. More, there’s never enough time to apply, to share, or to discuss the things read. This last one—the discussion about the book—is always my favorite part and is the aspect of reading I wish I had more of when the book is done. The year […]
Review | The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society by Debra Soh
2021-11-26 · by ·
The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society by Dr. Debra Soh takes on controversial topics like whether transgender women are women, autogynephilia, Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, bathroom bans, and feminism. Critical to Soh’s argument is the theme that gender expression, limited only by creativity, should not be confused […]
On removing time-tested books from school libraries
2021-10-28 · by ·
Lord of the Flies, The Handmaid’s Tale, and To Kill a Mockingbird were removed from some libraries in Canada as harmful to some staff and students. (Setting aside for a moment the idea that a book can be harmful.) We will always make value judgments about the books we read and especially the books we […]
Why Mary Moody Emerson Intrigues me
2021-10-27 · by ·
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s aunt intrigues me. Her name is Mary Moody Emerson. Emerson biographer Robert Richardson, Jr. says that Mary provided the single most important part of his education, even in comparison to his curriculum at Harvard, then as now where the elite was educated. Waldo called her the “best writer in Massachusetts” in her […]
