Non-fiction
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
By Jennifer 8. Lee
Reviewed by Gary Presley
Jennifer 8. Lee works as a New York Times reporter, and a good reporter becomes intrigued when things don’t add up—things like an extraordinary number of winners in
one
Powerball lottery.
The Making of FDR
By Linda Lotridge Levin
Reviewed by Marty Carlock
It’s every historian’s dream: to
find a pivotal figure behind the
scenes of an eventful era and to
learn that nobody has ever
written his biography.
Physics for Entertainment
By Yakov Perelman
Reviewed by Ruth Douillette
Raise your hand if you think “entertainment”
and “physics” belong in the same sentence.
Walter Benjamin
By Esther Leslie
Reviewed by Farhang Erfani
In a 1938 letter to a friend,
Walter Benjamin wrote, “To
do justice to the figure of
Kafka in its purity and its
peculiar beauty, one must
never lose sight of one thing:
it is the figure of failure.
Blue Covenant
By Maude Barlow
Reviewed by Bob Sanchez
In public school, I learned about
the earth’s hydrologic cycle: Rain
fills lakes and rivers; water flows
into the sea; evaporation causes clouds
and rain.
Chasing the Flame
By Samantha Power
Reviewed by Jane Woodward Elioseff
It would be hard to overpraise this fine biography. In Chasing the Flame, Samantha Power recounts the career of an extraordinary diplomat, Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations envoy whose death in Baghdad in August 2003 made headlines around the world.
What Would Jesus Deconstruct?
By John D. Caputo
Reviewed by Elizabeth McCullough
It’s everywhere—on bumper stickers, bracelets, hats, t-shirts.
Our Present Complaint
By Charles E. Rosenberg
Reviewed by Marci Andrews
It’s difficult to review Our Present Complaint without commenting on the way in which the book is presented.
The Commission
By Philip Shenon
Reviewed by Steven Henderson
I work in the field of education,
and one of the critical parts of my job is monitoring and critiquing social interaction.
Zeus
By Tom Stone
Reviewed by Nancy R. Davison
Tom Stone begins his story with an encounter with an Athenian travel agent who helps organize a whirlwind three-week tour for Stone and his new Persian wife, Farzeneh.
Bill Mauldin
By Todd DePastino
Reviewed by Carter Jefferson
In World War II, the infantry was the worst place a soldier could be.
Revolution in Mind
By George Makari
Reviewed by Ellen Dreyer
These days psychoanalysis seems more suited for the curious and wealthy than the poor and
mentally needy.
Fiction
Resistance
By Owen Sheers
Reviewed by Norbert Brown
There’s something that has always fascinated me about World War II veterans, something that doesn’t always show up in the accounts
on TV and probably won’t ever
make it into the history books.
Remembering the Bones
By Frances Itani
Reviewed by Marty Carlock
Eighty-year-old (almost) Georgina Danforth Witley has been invited
to Buckingham Palace for the Queen
of England’s eightieth birthday,
along with 98 other British subjects, selected by
lottery, who were born on
the same day.
The Commoner
By John Burnham Schwartz
Reviewed by Julie McGuire
In 1959, Japan’s Crown Prince Akihito married 25-year-old Michiko Shodo, the well-educated and energetic daughter of a wealthy industrialist.
Dirty Money
By Richard Stark
Reviewed by Gary Presley
I like a mystery, but I find myself antsy when I’m plopped down in the middle of something.
