Book review: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
There is so much that is wonderful — and scary — in Richard Rhodes' 1986 history of the creation of nuclear weapons, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb." For me, [...]
Book Review: A People’s History of the United States — from 1492 to the Present by Howard Zinn
There is much in this book that's infuriating. I'm not referring to the myriad ways in which the people of the United States (and earlier in the American colonies) have [...]
Book Review: A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
If Emily Dickinson had had a sense of humor, she might have written "A Girl Named Zippy." And if she'd been born in 1965 in Indiana. That's when and where [...]
Book review: “General Grant by Matthew Arnold, with a Rejoinder by Mark Twain,” edited by John Y. Simon
In 1867, the British poet Matthew Arnold published his 37-line lyric poem "Dover Beach," which concludes with this stanza: Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the [...]
Book review: “In Rough Country” by Joyce Carol Oates
I don't usually read books like this, collections of smaller pieces. In this case, six essays and 23 literary reviews. I call them "literary reviews" rather than "book reviews" because, [...]
Book review: “I Shall Wear Midnight” by Terry Pratchett
Starting to read a new Terry Pratchett novel, for me, has been a different experience since December, 2007. That's when Pratchett announced that he was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease. [...]