Oh, Jerusalem. There is no other place on Earth quite as tragic, drenched in both blood and history. And it makes for reading that cannot be put down. Here’s the short version of why you should read Simon Sebag Montefiore’s history of Jerusalem: In just under seven hundred pages, Jerusalem: The Biography is a satisfying, narrative-based […]
Book Review | This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral — plus plenty of valet parking! — in America’s Gilded Capital by Mark Leibovich
December 16, 2015 by
If you needed any reason to be cynical about American politics–especially nationally–then Mark Leibovich’s This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral — plus plenty of valet parking! — in America’s Gilded Capital is the book for you. I guarantee that you will not put it down with a single breath of hope and optimism about […]
In defense of physical books: home “libraries matter even more than money”
December 7, 2015 by
I can’t tell you how often Abby (7 going on 14) has gone into our library/office to find a book to read (or how often Oz, 4, or Ann, 2, carries them around, pretending to read). We’re still accumulating our collection, but she’s never come away without a book or three. Usually, I’ve got to […]
Book Review | Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century by Alistair Horne
November 23, 2015 by
Fascinating and with the touch of a master storyteller’s hand, if there’s one history I will recommend this Christmas season, it will be Alistair Horne’s Hubris: the Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century. Interesting and accessible, Horne’s approach is a narrative that doesn’t merely tell a story, but also examines hubris in the tides […]
Book Review | The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today by Thomas E. Ricks
October 6, 2015 by
If there’s one book that I find myself recommending more than most lately, it’s Thomas Ricks’ survey and analysis of US generals from World War II to the present. With an eye to examining why history has been so kind to the men who led the US Army during that war, but less so to […]
Book Review | American Exceptionalism: An Experiment in History by Charles Murray
September 7, 2015 by
American Exceptionalism: An Experiment in History weighs in at a little under fifty, four-by-six pages (not including notes and citations). It’s pretty light weight, especially as it goes for books on politics or history. And yet, Charles Murray does not disappoint. He packs in a lot of interesting ideas in a short amount of time. […]
Book Review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
August 5, 2015 by
With all that’s been said about Harper Lee’s new (second? First? Found? First draft?) book, Go Set a Watchman, it’s been hard to form a fully realized opinion. Even before I had opened my copy, social media exploded with denunciations. Still, with that depressing prelude–who wants to read something that is the subject of a […]
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