Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review:  Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk by Buddy Levy

At the heart of this account of a compelling tragic adventure in the far north is a comparison of two very different styles of leadership: one single-mindedly selfish, and the other heroically self-sacrificial. Empire of Ice and Stone tells the … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

On Reading The Lord of the Rings for the Fifteenth Time; Part Three: The Return of the King and Appendices

The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is full of epic-scale heroic deeds: the passage of Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the Dunedain through the paths of the dead; the ride of the Rohirrim … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

On Reading the Lord of the Rings for the Fifteenth Time; Part Two: The Two Towers

As the middle portion of the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers has both strengths and weaknesses. I will touch on the weaknesses first, and before I do I want to emphasize that these stood out to … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

On Reading The Lord of the Rings for the Fifteenth Time, Part One: The Fellowship of the Ring

The last time I read (and commented on) The Lord of the Rings was in 2011, and you can read those reviews of The Fellowship of the Rings, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King in my blog’s … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise by Pico Iyer

This book is well-written and takes us to fascinating places, but it is suffused with irony. Iyer tours locations that for one reason or another have been considered forms of paradise, but most of them are fraught with violence, and … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha LaPointe

Not long ago I read Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk By Sasha LaPointe. This essay collection is a continuation of the thoughts and emotions expressed in that volume, albeit arranged thematically instead of chronologically. It … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review:  Cold Victory: A Novel by Karl Marlantes

Not long ago I attended an author reading at Third Place Books in Bothell, a suburb of North Seattle. Since I spend my days ensconced in my apartment doing remote work at my computer, I have been searching for opportunities … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorow

Recently I took a bus to a bookstore in North Seattle to attend a reading of a new book by Cory Doctorow. It turned out to be not so much a reading as a discussion between Doctorow and Neal Stephenson, … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Thoughts on Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller

Recently I started to read a science fiction novel written back in the seventies. This was an acclaimed novel that had even won awards, and yet somehow I had never got around to it. I thought it would be a … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Book Review: Silence: In the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge

Erling Kagge is a Norwegian explorer, writer, and publisher who was the first person to complete the Three Poles Challenge, namely to hike to the North Pole, the South Pole, and the summit of Mount Everest. I read this book … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments