Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review: World’s Best Science Fiction 1967 Edited by Donald A Wollheim and Terry Carr

I found this old paperback volume on a wire discount rack at Half-Price Books and bought it for a dollar.  It seemed that there were several classics by well-known science fiction writers within, and my plan was to compare what … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer; Part Two: The Frog in the Pot

Coming to the end of a great book is an exhilarating experience tempered only by the fact that the ride is over.  This book, though it is a work of nonfiction, concludes like a novel, with a buildup in a … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America by George Packer; Part One: My New Year’s Resolutions

You might be wondering what this book and my new year’s resolutions have in common.  Never fear, all will be made clear in due time.  I am a little more than halfway through the book, and it is one of … Continue reading

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Book Review: Year’s Best SF 17 Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer; or, What Constitutes a Good Story

Amazing how circumstance has a part in our lives sometimes.  My current poverty necessitates my getting most of my reading material from the local library, rather than used from the Internet as I prefer.  In my most recent foray there … Continue reading

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Book Review: Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders

I peruse the yearly shortlists of the major awards in search of good reading material. I don’t read it all, or even most of it – only what catches my eye. But because I am always reading something and can’t … Continue reading

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Book Review: Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall

Even more than the Korean War, the Vietnam War defined the political, cultural, sociological, and diplomatic landscape of America in the second half of the twentieth century. I grew up in its shadow, as anti-war protests enflamed college campuses and … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri; Part Two: The Book Itself

Before I delve into an appraisal of the novel, I need to mention something that struck me before I even read the first page.  The cover (of the first edition hardcover) is not worthy of the book.  It is bland, … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri; Part One: Background

I’m only about halfway through this latest novel by Jhumpa Lahiri now, but reading it stirs up so many memories I can’t help but write about it.  Lahiri is one of the few writers now working for whose books I … Continue reading

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Book Review: Reflections and Refractions: Thoughts on Science Fiction, Science and Other Matters by Robert Silverberg

Back in the early 1970s when I was intensely interested in reading a lot of science fiction, one of my favorite writers was Robert Silverberg.  His short story “Sundance” is one of my favorite short stories of all time, but … Continue reading

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On Rereading Martin Eden by Jack London; Part Three: The Finale

“Martin Eden” is not Jack London’s best book.  In fact, it’s not even one of his better books.  His best works are his short stories.  Not all of them, because he wrote many, but the ones in which he threw … Continue reading

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