Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review:  The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light by Paul Bogard

This is a fascinating and deeply absorbing travel book, but one with a most unusual theme. The author roams the world searching for pockets of natural darkness. Along the way, he makes a compelling argument for the inestimable value of … Continue reading

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Book Review:  In Praise of Paths: Walking Through Time and Nature by Torbjorn Ekelund

This pleasant, well-written book begins with the author’s admission that after he was diagnosed with epilepsy he was no longer allowed to drive. This caused him to rely on walking to take him from place to place. As a result, … Continue reading

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Book Review:  A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko

This book reminded me of Bill Bryson’s classic A Walk in the Woods in more ways than one. There is the title, of course, which is meant to be ironic, as Bryson’s was. The expression “a walk in the park” … Continue reading

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Book Review:  A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness by Michael Pollan

The title of this book is from a quote from Being You by Anil Seth: “I open my eyes and a world appears.” It is an inquiry into what human consciousness really is. Pollan starts from a perspective of ignorance … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Writing Creativity and Soul by Sue Monk Kidd

I’ve never read any of Sue Monk Kidd’s books before this one, but then again, she probably hasn’t read any of mine either. Be that as it may, I was drawn to Writing Creativity and Soul because I hoped that … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story by Jeffrey Kluger

To me, this new book on the Gemini program is like a blast of nostalgia from the sixties. I was a child during the era of Project Mercury and Project Gemini and a teen when some of the crew of … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Front Street: Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia by Brian Barth

I have great sympathy for the homeless, or as the author of Front Street says is more politically correct, the unhoused. For years, during my road days, I had no dwelling place to call my own. I would simply roll … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Picks and Shovels: A Martin Hench Novel by Cory Doctorow

It’s been decades since I became absorbed enough in a novel series to read one book after another as soon as they came out. I thought those days were behind me. But then along came Cory Doctorow and his novels … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultra Rich by Evan Osnos

This is a most unusual, entertaining, and appalling collection of essays by a National Book Award-winning author about the fraction of one percent who hoard most of the wealth in the United States. And goofy title aside, it is one … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee; Part Two

As I read on in The Emperor of All Maladies, some sections I find absorbing and fascinating, while others, such as those describing the efforts to understand the intricacies that lie within cancerous cells, are sometimes hard for me to … Continue reading

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