In his own words
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Why I Write
Review: Four essays, the first and namesake one being Why I Write, then The Lion and the Unicorn, A Hanging, and finally Politics and the English Language. All excellent, all way more applicable to the present day than I or anyone should be comfortable with. The first line from the second essay is as follows:…
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Prague Stories
Review: Something a little different for me with this volume. I will admit that I knew nothing about Prague, Czech Republic or Czech people other than Jaromir Jagr is from there. But now thanks to Everyman publishing I know a lot more. I still had to refer to my map of Europe to place all…
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On the Shortness of Life
Review: Seneca was a Roman writer and statesman who lived early in the first century AD. This particular essay was written around 49 AD as a letter to his friend Paulinus. Paulinus was praefectus annonae, the official who superintended the grain supply of Rome, and was therefore a man of importance. And apparently, Paulinus worked…
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The Story of Art
Review: Well. Was not expecting this to be a book that I couldn’t put down, but it ended up that way. Actually I had read some reviews that said that very thing, that readers could not put it down but I figured well reviews are sketchy these days so let’s hope this won’t be too…
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Babbitt
Review: This was an extraordinary novel, and I was not expecting that at all. How I came to read this was due to a trivia question that I got wrong a few weeks ago. The question was: Who was the first American author to receive a Pulitzer Prize? So I looked at the choices and…
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China Mountain Zhang
Review: This was good. Well written and engaging. Good, but not great. I figure this was why it was described on the cover as a New York Times Notable Book rather than a New York Times bestseller. The book is set in a future where the USA is a Socialist Republic after a civil war…
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Murphy
Review: The first published novel from the author who would later become known for Waiting for Godot. Rejected by 42 publishers it was finally published by Routledge in 1938. As much as I enjoyed this, I can see why it was rejected by so many publishers. Why? Because this is a peculiar book, just shy…
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An Incomplete Education
Review: Found this little gem at a used book store some years ago and just got to it now. Glad I did as this was a winner. Published in 1987 by Jones and Wilson and many other contributors from of all things, Esquire Magazine. I shouldn’t be so surprised by that when I consider that…
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An American Genocide
Review: Picked this book up for under 5 dollars and it was superb. Let me qualify that. It was superbly researched, constructed, and written but the subject matter was very difficult to deal with at a personal and emotional level. The author spent years researching and consulting primary sources to come up with a damning…
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In the Beauty of the Lilies
Review: The title of this book sounded interesting so I grabbed it off the shelf, so having said that I had no idea what to expect. That’s two random selections in a row. I see a pattern here. But on with the review. This was good, and John Updike is a great writer, great as…