This book has popped up on reading lists and various sites over the past few years. I expected it to be a weighty slog (turns out, it’s quite short), but the graphic edition makes for an easier, if just as sobering, read. Snyder is a professor of history and human sciences. Krug is an award-winning... Continue Reading →
Trespassing, by Usma Aslam Khan. Pub 2003
I’ve had this book on my shelves for a long time. I bought it after reading Fallen by David Maine (and a few of his other books), and reading in the author notes that his wife was also an author. For whatever reason, I never got around to reading this one until now. Trespassing is... Continue Reading →
Maus, by Art Spiegelman. Published between 1973-1991. The Complete Maus, pub 2003.
I hadn't had any interest in this until recently. My prior experience with graphic novels was less than engaging, and the glimpses I'd had of this one did not make it appealing - dark and violent, with animals in clothes. However, in 2022, a school board in Tennessee decided to ban the book (the day... Continue Reading →
Pandexicon, by Wayne Grady. Pub 2023
I don't recall where I first heard of this book, but I know it was in the last month or so, likely on a podcast of some kind. Needing a book to fill the language category, this seemed like a timely fit, and promised (according to the cover) to describe "how the language of the... Continue Reading →
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, by Rebecca Donner. Pub 2021
I can't remember when or where I first heard of this book, but it would have been last fall sometime, as I bought a copy for myself and sent a copy to a friend. Rebecca Donner is the great-great-niece of Mildred Harnack, an American woman who married a German economist and moved to Berlin in... Continue Reading →
With All Due Respect, by Nikki R. Haley. Pub 2019
I had previously listened to the audiobook version of this a few years ago, and liked some of what Haley has to say on leadership. Since I didn't have any notes from that listen, I decided to read it again, partially for the leadership elements and partly as a response to the casual misogyny ("she's... Continue Reading →
Triumph and Disaster & Genius and Discovery, by Stefan Zweig. Book report #22 (2022)
Triumph and Disaster, and Genius and Discovery, by Stefan Zweig. Pub 1927-1940. Translation by Anthea Bell. These editions published 2016, from translations published in 2013. Reading these was inspired by two previous reads: Stefan Zweig last year, and Benjamin Labatut earlier this year. I really enjoyed Zweig last year, and so wanted to read more,... Continue Reading →
Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Book report #22 (2021)
Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Pub 2007. I bought this book last year, after hearing an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali on a podcast. I expected the story to be both brutal and remarkable, intense, so I delayed starting it till I had some time to get through it in one go, with time to... Continue Reading →
These Truths, by Jill Lepore. Book report #16 (2021)
These Truths, by Jill Lepore. Pub 2018 This book has been my Everest this year. I wish I had recorded when I started it, but am very glad to be recording that I finished it. It was very long (nearly 800 pages, plus nearly 100 pages of citations), but very good. I recall having read... Continue Reading →
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. Book report #13 (2021)
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kinsgsolver. Pub 1998 Another re-read of an old favourite, and another that I often claim as a favourite even though I've only read it the once. This book was both good and popular back in the day, and I read it along with many others in the last heady years... Continue Reading →
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