by Paul Kalanithi When I spent this past holiday season down in Florida, I decided I should bring some light reading to help me pass the time. (My family was kind enough to respect my need to bask in the sunlight in peace for sizeable chunks, and I greatly thank them for it.) In hindsight,…
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by Robert Taylor The Devil’s Pulpit is a collection of sermons delivered by reverend Robert Taylor outlining the parallels between the Bible and the Zodiac, with the suggestion that Christianity is only thinly-disguised paganism, and that worshipping God and Jesus is effectively worshipping the sun. Written and read in the mid-19th century, it was because…
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by Charlotte Gray I’m really having trouble with this one. I mean, it’s not even that it’s difficult for me to express my feelings toward it––it’s really good––but it’s just that I’m having a hard time talking about it, bringing any useful commentary into the review. Usually, with any of my reviews destined for The…
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by Jack Black This is probably the first instance of Goodreads suggesting a book that I both never heard of and got super excited upon seeing it on my suggestions feed. I initially wondered why I should care about something written by Jack Black. (No offense to the man, but he doesn’t strike me as…
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by Mark Bourrie In The Killing Game, Bourrie attempts to explain how ISIS so successfully got its foothold in the region of Syria and Iraq it currently occupies, and how the organization has been effective in attracting foreign fighters. He goes on to show historical similarities to the tactics employed by the self-described caliphate––how its…
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edited by Nora Gallagher and Lisa Myers Don’t let it be said that I’m a closed-minded person, but, given all my constant reading, I’ve begun to get a better feel of what I’m likely to enjoy and those that set off my cynicism. And my apprehension was almost palpable when I first picked up Tools…
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by Marius Kociejowski Kociejowski greatly impressed me with Zoroaster’s Children. I’m reluctant to compare him with Christopher Hitchens, mainly because most people undergo an almost churlish transformation when I mention Hitchens, and the last thing I want to do is discourage reading of this exceptional book. However, I can’t think of any more fitting comparison…
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by Ernest Zimmermann It may seem a stretch to believe that an intriguing statement was all it took to launch the late Ernest Zimmermann, then a history professor at Lakehead University, into countless hours of research and investigation that eventually led to the publishing of The Little Third Reich on Lake Superior, but that’s the…
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by Daron Acemoğlu and James A. Robinson After finishing Niall Ferguson’s The Great Degeneration, I very quickly picked up my copy of Why Nations Fail, with the earnest intention of reading it soon-after, at the express recommendation of the author of the former. (Within his book, of course; I don’t know Ferguson, personally.) And then…
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by Rich Terfry When I first heard that Terfry would be publishing his memoir about half a year ago, I could hardly contain my excitement. I love his music, and it was always a joy to read his numerous stories he shared on Facebook ––some of which appear to have made their way into Wicked…
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