In his own words
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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…
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America 1908
Review: Grabbed this off the shelf at random and what a winner it was. The author, Jim Rasenberger is someone I was not familiar with but I am for sure going to check out his other books. If they are anything like this I want to read them. Okay, so this book was published in…
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God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Review: This was 190 pages of excellence. Reading Vonnegut always makes me feel like I need a shower and a walk in the sunshine after. But that just means it’s dark, it doesn’t affect the exellence. The novel tells the story of Eliot Rosewater, drunk, volunteer fireman, and president of the fabulously rich Rosewater Foundation.…
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Mrs. Dalloway
Review: This was unexpected. It was written in stream of consciousness like Joyce’s Ulysses which surprised me. I had read To The Lighthouse a couple years ago and that was conventional, so I guess I expected more of the same from this author. Two things I didn’t like were the lack of chapters and to…