I wish I had read this in the early years after 9/11. While the characters in Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Agent” are not superficially the same as the characters that would figure into the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the subsequent events, the themes are eerily similar.
Book Review: “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960 – 2010” by Charles Murray
July 11, 2012 by
There is a divide growing in America, argues Charles Murray in his book “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960 – 2010” but it isn’t necessarily over money. In fact, the divide may be greater because it is cultural, not just economic.
Displaying a dizzying array of statistics, studies, and research, Murray shows an America that is watching the rise of what seems, to me, to be a new ruling class, a group of elites that are well educated (“overeducated elitist snobs”), well connected, and with a set of values and interests different from much of modern America. [cont…]
5 Minute Book Review: “Redshirts” by John Scalzi
July 1, 2012 by
While I would never call myself a Trekkie–I much prefer Star Wars, and I have never been able to buy into Roddenberry’s vision of a utopian future where mankind has solved it’s scarcity problems and given up money, but I digress–I’ve watched enough to know that the guys who die are almost always–always–the guys in the red shirts. They’re unnamed extras, low level members of Star Fleet that die to provide some level of tension to the episode. And this book is through their eyes, through the eyes of the red shirted members of “away teams” that die at the first sign of danger. [cont…]
Book Review: “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” by Michael Lewis
April 4, 2012 by
Michael Lewis can tell a story like no other. In fact, even before I finished reading his “The Big Short,” I wanted to work the book into every conversation I had. The story was that interesting and compelling. Anyone who can take the financial crisis of the last few years, find a story in it that centers around subprime mortgages and shorting the market (if you understand what that means and how to do it, you’re more than a step ahead of me and about anyone else I’ve mentioned it to over the last couple weeks), and then make it interesting to the lay reader deserves to be read. [cont…]
5 Minute Book Review: “Drood” by Dan Simmons
February 8, 2012 by
“The Mystery of Edwin Drood” was Charles Dickens last novel, but he died before it could be finished. Dan Simmons picks up the mystery, not to solve and finish Dickens’ work, but to provide a back story, the real source of Drood. The result is a tale that is tragic, eerie, and mysterious.
Simmons starts out with heavy foreshadowing. Told in the voice of protagonist Wilkie Collins, friend and confidant of Charles Dickens, [cont…]
Book Review: “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster
January 26, 2012 by
It’s a rare day that I’m willing to give a full five out of five stars to a book. It’s rarer still that I’ll give the five stars, and then put it back on my bed-stand for continual reference in my future reading.
It’s just that kind of a book, and every bibliophile should read it. [cont…]
Book Review: “Anthem” by Ayn Rand
January 10, 2012 by
Objectivism: an extreme philosophy that is to the free market what communism is to liberalism, just in the opposite direction. Instead of glorifying collective action, it glorifies the individual, the ego, denigrating all else–love, charity, God, and any kind of shared effort or brotherhood. I’m all about independence, freedom, and self-reliance, but Rand sees no need for sacrifice, charity, or love. [cont…]
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