This is a funny and thought-provoking examination of Vowell’s personal obsession and America’s greater obsession with the past, with presidents and with their assassinations.
Category: Non-Fiction
A Natural History of Human Morality (2016) by Michael Tomasello
For the vast majority of recorded human history, we humans have believed that morality comes from somewhere outside of us; from “above,” from the ether, from some kind of benevolent creator, etc. Even as we have learned more and more about how humans evolved from apes who evolved from “lower” animals who evolved from “lower” …
Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste (2007, 2013 Expanded Edition)
Note: I am reviewing the reissue. This is an engaging, thought-provoking and highly readable discussion about taste, what it is, and the philosophical and practical issues inherent in taste.
Fooled by Randomness (2001) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This is an important, valuable book. It’s basically a must-read. It would go on my list of essential non-fiction only I have a few reservations (all of them stylistic). Still, very, very important stuff.
Jung: A Very Short Introduction (1994) by Anthony Stevens
When I was a teenager, some adult told me about Jung’s collective unconscious. I didn’t read a thing about it, but took whatever they told me and created my own elaborate theory about our thoughts influencing others (which has nothing to do with Jung). Ultimately, that theory was a responsible for a lot of mental …
The Life of Graham Greene Volume 3: 1955-1991
Finally, at long last, I am done with this book. If this isn’t the longest English-language biography of a novelist, I don’t want to read the longest one…
The Life of Graham Greene Volume Two: 1939-55 (1994) by Norman Sherry
Even more than Volume 1, this biography is for fans only.
Fast Food Nation (2002) by Eric Schlosser
Much of what Schlosser covers in this boo I was already familiar with, thanks to things like Food, Inc. But I’ve never read a book about the industrialization of food before and, as books are wont to do, Schlosser covers this in much more detail than any documentary you’re going to watch.
The 15-Minute Mathematician (2015) by Anne Rooney
I took math through university, being so silly as to think I could minor in it. (I couldn’t…not quite.) But since I graduated I have forgotten so much of the more advanced math that I did understand, and everything I partially understood has utterly vanished – over a decade later, it’s as if I didn’t …
The Storyteller (2000) by Anna Porter
This is a memoir by a Hungarian-Canadian about her Grandfather and her early life in Hungary. Her Grandfather was full of stories about their family and Hungary. Though these stories are probably quite compelling for some people, particularly Hungarians but also anyone who enjoys a good yarn, I had trouble caring about them. I am …
Turning Pro (2012) by Steven Pressfield
At this point, Pressfield has made a second writing career out of inspiring others to write. This is the third book of his I’ve read, and they get less effective each time I read a new one.
Younger Next Year (2007) by Chris Crowley, Henry S. Lodge
This is a book about exercise, nutrition and mental health, geared towards retired American men. I did not actually finish the book; I read it until it was due back at the library. I made it most of the way through, though, and I don’t fee like I missed much.
The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) by Steven Pinker
If you watch the news today, you will be told the world is awful. Even if, like me, you do not have cable, you can still get enough news of the awfulness of the world from your antenna or the internet. The news is an endless barrage of controversy and tragedy; controversy over the supposedly …
Informing the News (2013) by Thomas E. Patterson
This book was written to make the case for “knowledge-based” journalism. It was sponsored by an initiative that is trying to establish that kind of journalism. The author believes strongly in the cause and has been a crucial part of the initiative that sponsored his work here.
The Peep Diaries (2009) by Hal Niedzviecki
This book is a relatively interesting and amusing book about how modern technology and modern culture have created a brave new world that we don’t really understand how to navigate – and which could have all sorts of unintended consequences for us. However, the book suffers from a number of problems which make it not …
Thomas Paine (2006) by Craig Nelson
I have only ever read The Rights of Man many years ago. I loved Paine’s wit – there are many classic one-liners, including my favourite anti-monarchist barb of all time: “a hereditary monarch makes as much sense as a hereditary poet laureate” – but found his philosophy superficial, probably because I had just left grad …
The Violence of Financial Capitalism (2011) by Christian Marazzi
It has been a long time since I’ve read a book this dense. A long time. Maybe grad school, maybe in the years after grad school when I tried to re-read or finish lots of books that I felt I hadn’t spent enough time with in school. Either way, I don’t think my brain is …
The Quest for a Moral Compass (2014) by Kenan Malik
I have been reading Malik’s blog for more than a few years at this point (I think), in part because I feel like he has much greater insight into the issues around jihadism than most of the people writing in North America (who I’ve had a chance to read). I find his approach not only …
A History of Rome – Second Edition (1991, 1994, 1996, 2001) by Marcel Le Glay, Jean-Louis Voisin, Yann Le Bohec, David Cherry
This is a general history of Rome meant, I believe, for use in schools as a textbook. It’s written that way anyway, so it’s rather dry. The strength of the book is in the early going when it provides a great deal of pre-history to the empire, pretty much all of which I was unfamiliar …
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1962) edited by Donald Kagan
This particular Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is an old sampler of theories about the decline of the Roman Empire that I think was part of a class my father took in university. It was assembled in 1962, but the first issue with it is that many of the books and articles it …
How to Work a Room (1988, 2013) by Susan RoAne
There are parts of this book that are helpful if you are shy – the author claims that most of us are shy, which may or may not be true and I have trouble believing most of us are as shy as I used to be – or if you don’t know how to go …
Summer of 49 (1989) by David Halberstam
I am not a Yankees fan or a Sox fan but I am a fan of The Breaks of the Game, probably the best book I have ever read about sports. Summer of 49 is not on that level, but, for someone like me who was not alive during the summer of 1949, and who was …
The Creature from Jekyll Island (1994) by G. Edward Griffin
A necessary critique utterly ruined by conspiratorial nonsense. I have finished nearly every book I have ever started but I will not be finishing this one. I apologize for the slipshod nature of the review that follows. This has been a trying experience for me.
The War of Art (2002) by Steven Pressfield
I don’t for a minute believe anything Steven Pressfield says about the nature of our universe or the nature of inspiration. Like so many “self help” books, Pressfield’s advice is founded on a completely unsupportable metaphysic – I find myself utterly disagreeing and rejecting his metaphysics while finding his practical advise utterly useful and inspirational. …
Remembering Glenn Gould (2012) by Colin Eaton
This is a very unusual biography in that it is told by the people who knew Gould instead of by an author who tries to create a narrative of his life. The approach is interesting and, if you don’t like false narratives, it’s refreshing. And certainly there is a lot of information for Gould obsessives …
Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont (2010) by Joseph Boyden
At first, I found the style fairly jarring. This was not what I was expecting. And I am not sure it’s entirely appropriate, certainly if you are looking for a rigourous historical study. But, as I read it, I found it worked well enough. Well enough that it triggered my own creative ambitions, much like …
Uncoupling (1986) by Diane Vaughan
I interrupted my normal reading schedule to read this book specifically because I was going through a breakup – a relationship of nearly five years, the longest romantic relationship of my life, had ended. I chose Uncoupling of the books recommended to me because I found it the easiest but also because it appeared to …
Civilization (2011) by Niall Ferguson
This appears to me to be an attempt by Ferguson to provide a sort of sequel to Guns, Germs and Steel. I say that because both books begin the same way – the attempt to answer a question about Europe’s predominance over the last few hundred years and because Ferguson makes multiple reference’s to Diamond. …
Your Movie Sucks (2006) by Roger Ebert
I used to read Ebert a lot while he was still alive. It’s not that I necessarily agreed with him all the time – I find that he both overrates some well-made children’s movies, and falls into that typical critic’s cliche of thinking the values of his generation are universal (more on that in a …
The Divinity of Doubt (2011) by Vincent Bugliosi
It’s hard to know what to say about this book: I agree – most of the time – with Bugliosi’s position on this subject. But, as with his Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, this comes off as an unorganized rant that is made all the worse because he constantly claims other people – …