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Currently ReadingRecently Read | “A human being, like a dog, can get used to anything!” So says Adam Salmen, a fictional narrator in Dieter Schlesak’s The Druggist of Auschwitz: A Documentary Novel. But what Salmen and others imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II got “used to” is staggering, so much so that it continues to [...]            Tim January 30th, 2012 | Tags: Book Reviews, fiction, Review Copy, world literature, World War II | Category: Book Reviews | Leave a comment |  Print This Post |  Email This PostAlthough I’ve only read three books this year, my early effort at spontaneity over planning in my reading selections means two of those books were biographies of two women at about the same time. They resulted in impressions as different as the subjects. On the disappointing end of the spectrum was Eva Braun: Life with [...] Tim January 12th, 2012 | Tags: biography, Book Reviews, history, nonfiction | Category: Book Reviews | Leave a comment | Print This Post | Email This PostPeace is a popular term this time of year. You know, “Peace on Earth” and the like. But what does peace mean? Even dictionary definitions show it has varying meaning. Perspective is important. Do we view things externally as in there being no armed conflict, as an internal state of mind, or must both exist [...] Tim December 19th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, nonfiction, peace, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | Leave a comment | Print This Post | Email This PostSeeking redemption, let alone finding it, can be a long and tortuous path. But what happens if Jesus Christ — or at least a man claiming to be Jesus Christ — is making suggestions here and there? That’s the road on which Nikolaj Jensen is set in Danish writer Lars Husum’s first novel, My Friend [...] Tim December 5th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, fiction, Review Copy, world literature | Category: Book Reviews | 2 comments | Print This Post | Email This PostWe all think about running away at times. We imagine leaving the stresses and obligations of daily life and embarking on a life enhancing adventure. It’s doubtful, though, that Croatia tops the list of escapes for most people. Yet Jennifer Wilson, along with her husband and their two young children, left the comforts of home [...] Tim November 21st, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, nonfiction, Review Copy, travel | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostEarly into reading Anna Funder’s Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, I came across a passage that made me think, “That is truly Kafkaesque.” For some reason, that sent my mind on a digression into the difference between something being Kafkaesque and something being Orwellian. While I eventually sorted it out in my own [...] Tim November 14th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, Germany, history, nonfiction, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | One comment - (Comments are closed) | Print This Post | Email This PostI’ll be honest. Brenda K. Marshall started out with a couple strikes against her. First, she is from North Dakota. Second, she has since moved to one of those areas where people tend to call this “Dakota,” without regard for north or south, and may either shake their heads or seem astonished to meet someone [...] Tim November 7th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, fiction, historical fiction, Review Copy, South Dakota history | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This Post“Idols are best when they’re made of stone,” Joan Baez wrote in a song about Bob Dylan, the songwriting voice of a generation. It could also apply to a man many viewed as being the literary hero of the counterculture. As Charles J. Shields shows in his outstanding biography of the author, Vonnegut was far [...] Tim November 4th, 2011 | Tags: authors, biography, Book Reviews, Kurt Vonnegut, nonfiction, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostSome historical events take on such significance they become ingrained in a nation’s culture. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is one such event. In part because of the conspiracy theories that have grown up around it, nearly 50 years later we still see a variety of books, both novels and nonfiction, published about [...] Tim October 31st, 2011 | Tags: 1960s, Book Reviews, conspiracy theories, fiction, Religion, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostThe main ramifications of historic events are frequently easy to see. Often, though, we overlook the ripples that produce unexpected, or even untended, effects. Take 9/11, for example. It didn’t take a great deal of thought to realize it would bring the U.S. into direct armed conflict with al-Qaeda. And it was barely six weeks [...] Tim October 28th, 2011 | Tags: 9/11, Book Reviews, history, Iraq War, nonfiction, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This Post |       The views expressed here are mine and mine alone. I do not speak for my law partners, our associates, staff and clients or my family and friends. Not only should any opinions here not be attributed to them, chances are they probably don't agree with me.  | ||
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