“What is the good of pretending to be what you are not? Well, even on the human level, you know, there are two kinds of pretending. There is the bad kind, where the pretense is there instead of the real thing; as when a man pretends he is going to help you instead of really […]
Review & Thoughts | The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History by Darren Parry
2020-03-15 · by ·
I want you to read this book. Darren Parry is Shoshone and The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History is as much a memoir of his grandmother, a work of family history as it is a history of his people. Though it does not read like something written by a trained historian (to my knowledge, […]
Review | Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
2020-02-10 · by ·
“Going to the woods is going home, for I suppose we came from the woods originally. But in some of nature’s forests, the adventurous traveler seems a feeble, unwelcome creature; wild beasts and the weather trying to kill him, the rank, tangled vegetation, armed with spears and stinging needles, barring his way and making life […]
Book Thoughts | How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth, Karen Dillon
2020-01-07 · by ·
”For many of us, as the years go by, we allow our dreams to be peeled away. We pick our jobs for the wrong reasons and then we settle for them. We begin to accept that it’s not realistic to do something we truly love for a living. Too many of us who start down […]
Short Review | In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
2019-11-30 · by ·
I suppose this is a classic of the genre, and it IS the second best-selling crime novel of all time, so…it must be amazing, right? In the early morning hours of November 15, 1959, Richard Eugene “Dick” Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, robbed and murdered Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon Clutter of Holcomb, Kansas. The […]
Brief Comments | Insights from a Prophet’s Life: Russell M. Nelson by Sheri Dew
2019-10-11 · by ·
To members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson is a prophet, one who stands on the mountain top and warns of dangers ahead. While I’ve listened to him speak at the General Conferences of the Church over the years, I knew little about him. For example, though I knew […]
Summer of 2019 Reads
2019-08-31 · by ·
The summer reading season isn’t over, but I want to share a few of the great books I’ve been reading during the warm months. I’m woefully behind reviewing them, but there are several here that I think you should check out. In the non-fiction world, I kicked off the summer with Them: Why We Hate […]
Book Review | More Walls Broken by Tim Powers
2019-07-12 · by ·
There’s something charming about the well-written novella. And “More Walls Broken” is as charming, clever, and enjoyable a novella as they come. I like the way a novella boils a tale down to a meal-sized portion, something that can be digested in a seating or two. No commitment to a three- or five- or ten-book […]
Review | Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
2019-07-09 · by ·
First off, let me just say: this might be the book most recommended to me this year. Or last year. Every time I ask for recommendations from the social media crowd, at least one or two folks will list and recommend it. And after reading it, I understand why. Bryan Stevenson has a compelling subject […]
Review | The Infinite Future by Tim Wirkus
2019-06-15 · by ·
What just happened? That’s the end? I mean, I think it was brilliant…or crazy? As in, crazy like a fox? I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m supposed to think. I was glued to the story–the stories–because they’re good, and then after writing 40-odd stories within stories, suddenly Tim Wirkus decides to…drop his narrative […]
