My feelings on The Underground Railroad are so mixed that I’ve changed my rating several times, first from a mere three, then up to a four, and back to just three stars. With much to think about and, yet, much that felt lacking, I think I’ve settled on a rating that perhaps underrates Colson Whitehead’s […]
Book Thoughts | Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
2016-12-29 · by ·
I’m not entirely sure that I can adequately review Thinking Fast and Slow. It’s so chock full of fantastic ideas, insights, and information that I’m afraid even trying to comment on it will make me look like a fool. Let me just say, then, that Thinking Fast and Slow is absolutely fascinating, a book worth […]
Short Book Review | The Name of the Wind (Kingkiller Chronicle #1) by Patrick Rothfuss
2016-12-28 · by ·
What follows is a gush of a review…but I really did like the book. So, allow me to gush for just a moment. I had heard that The Name of the Wind was a good read, but I had no idea how much I would end up enjoying it. I seemed to keep bumping into Patrick […]
Book Review | El Deafo by Cece Bell
2016-12-24 · by ·
I loved reading El Deafo to my daughter. With El Deafo, Cece Bell proves she can broaden and deepen her reader’s lives with a fun and beautifully-told story. Bell makes the experience of being deaf and separated from others, a handicap shared by many, accessible to children and, at least in my case, adults. The […]
Book Review | Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
2016-12-23 · by ·
What King Henry wants King Henry is going to get. It’s his world, and everyone else is just living in it…or rather, is scraping and scrapping to get ahead in it. With the future of the kingdom at stake and England’s master without a male child, Henry VIII decides he must marry Anne Boleyn in order […]
Book Review | Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick
2016-12-12 · by ·
Joby Warrick’s Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS makes a complicated mess easier to understand. Readable and accessible to anyone with an interest in how we ended up with ISIS, his Pulitzer prize-winning narrative of the rise of the terrorist cum state of the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq is a must-read. If there’s anything I […]
Children’s Book Review | Nanette’s Baguettes by Mo Willems
2016-12-10 · by ·
Mo Willems is a brilliant artist, and the simplicity with which he does it is absolutely genius. When my better half brings home a load of new picture books to test drive, we usually end up with a slew of duds, a few fun ones, and, if we’re lucky, a genuinely good find. With Mo’s […]
Book Review | The Circle by Dave Eggers
2016-10-20 · by ·
Holy frack, that was scary. In the not too distant future, the Circle has replaced Google, Facebook, and Amazon to become the dominant information technology of the Internet. As the Circle becomes the central driver of content, the engine for 90% of searches on the World Wide Web, and the holder of patents for a […]
Book Thoughts | How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams
2016-09-24 · by ·
This book is appropriately named, though perhaps another subtitle could be added: “or how to fake it until you make it.” Scott Adams is known best for Dilbert, a “satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring engineer Dilbert as the title character” (to quote Wikipedia). After listening to his story in How to […]
Book Review | The Godfather by Mario Puzo
2016-09-23 · by ·
I’m one of the few people I know that has not watched Francis Ford Coppola’s film classic The Godfather. When a co-worker promised that “The movie was good, but the book was better,” I decided to test the thesis. And, indeed, I wonder if I’ll ever need to even try the movie after reading The […]
