“Not always night”
I was at an archdiocesan meeting the other day, and the remarks of a prelate in attendance seemed to argue that the Catholic Church has a corner on Truth. I [...]
Book review: “Rocket Ship Galileo” By Robert A. Heinlein
It happened that, a week or so after the death of Neil Armstrong, I picked up this 1947 novel, and to say it’s quaint is an understatement. It’s sort of [...]
Book review: “Millions” by Frank Cottrell Boyce
The final two sentences of “Millions” by Frank Cottrell Boyce are: Sometimes money can leave your hand and fall like water from a pipe onto the hot ground, and the [...]
Book review: “Eminent Victorians” By Lytton Strachey
Twenty years ago, a friend of mine, Steve Swanson, recommended Lytton Strachey’s “Eminent Victorians” as a classic in the field of biography — and a delightful read as well. I’ve [...]
Book review: “The Life of Pi” By Yann Martel
I finished “The Life of Pi” by Yann Martel a couple days ago, and I’m still not sure how to take it. […]
Book review: “The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson” By Robert A. Caro
On the final page of “The Passage of Power,” Robert Caro sums up the 604 pages that have come before with a single word. He calls Lyndon Baines Johnson “heroic.” [...]
It Wasn’t the Fort Dearborn Massacre
What happened two centuries ago on Aug. 15, 1812, on the Lake Michigan shore near what is now 18th Street has long been called the Fort Dearborn Massacre. But [...]
Dangerous Women
Back in the 1990s, I saw a movie, set in a big city, that focused on a small group of people who wore very distinctive uniforms. This group wasn’t carrying [...]
Book review: “Outliers: The Story of Success” By Malcolm Gladwell
I found “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell to be quick and entertaining to read — and ultimately dissatisfying. Part of it has to do with Gladwell’s glibness. [...]
Book review: “The Giant O’Brien” By Hilary Mantel
Midway through “The Giant O’Brien,” I was more than a little lost. I couldn’t quite figure out how to take Hilary Mantel’s tale of the 18th-century Irish giant Charles O’Brien [...]