Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review:  Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game by Oliver Stone

With its subtitle in place, this book has a long, long title. I’ve found that most nonfiction books have subtitles; publishers probably figure that buyers browsing in bookstores won’t pick up a book unless a bombastic title spells out the … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Elevation by Stephen King

The cover of this recent book by Stephen King says: Elevation: A Novel. In fact, though, it’s not a novel; it’s a novella, and a short one at that. We are all accustomed to King’s books being thousand-plus page brick-heavy … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson

This brilliant book is not an easy read, but it is definitely a rewarding one. The authors (both professors at MIT) delve deep into history and economics to explain why in our present era the very few elite prosper while … Continue reading

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Book Review:  At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life by Fenton Johnson

A while back I became aware that there was no quick cure for my living alone and being alone much of the time. To mitigate the loneliness, I looked for some books that might give some insight on turning the … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder

Rough Sleepers is a term used to refer to the portion of the homeless populace in Boston that sleeps outside on the streets instead of in shelters. This book tells of the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program, and specifically … Continue reading

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On Rereading Nexus by Henry Miller

Acquiring and reading Nexus came about through a visit to a small used book store I hadn’t been to in years. It’s had the same owner for decades, and I used to frequent it and stock up on books when … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann

The title of this book confused me at first; I thought it referred to a bet. In fact, however, The Wager refers to the HMS Wager, a British man-of-war named after Admiral Sir Charles Wager, which left England in 1740 … Continue reading

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Book Review:  The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes: The Adventures of the Great Detective in India and Tibet; also known as Sherlock Holmes: The Missing Years by Jamyang Norbu

Many novels and stories have been written by a variety of writers using the character of Sherlock Holmes. I have read none of these by other authors than the original until now. However, when I was young I read with … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

This new study on poverty in the United States and what to do about it is by the author of the brilliant study Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. In Evicted, Desmond focuses on about a dozen Milwaukee … Continue reading

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Book Review:  Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders

I have been eagerly looking forward to reading the latest short story collection by George Saunders, but I had to be patient, as it is a much-sought-after item at our local library. Now that I have read it, I can’t … Continue reading

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