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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 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 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 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 PostIn an Oxford lecture earlier this year, literary critic James Wood suggested that the “New Atheists” might be well served by looking to the modern novel. He says atheists — and some Christian fundamentalists — insist too much on polemic literalism. Novels, he said, are a vehicle to explore theological arguments and make real the [...] Tim October 3rd, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, fiction, Religion, Review Copy, world literature | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostGlenn Kleier’s new novel, The Knowledge of Good and Evil, may confound a few readers. On the one hand, it is a novel of ideas, some rather esoteric. On the other hand, it is an action-based thriller. How a reader reacts may depend on which approach they prefer. The book is Kleier’s first since the [...] Tim September 8th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, fiction | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostIn many professions today, there’s a lot of talk about striving for “work-life balance.” Although focused on a balance between our work and personal lives, the ultimate goal is to improve and broaden the quality of life. Yet more than 2,000 years ago Aristotle recognized that balance was the key to living the best life [...] Tim September 6th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, fiction, historical fiction, review | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostWhen I see documentaries or read books about the 1960s, I occasionally can’t help but ponder whether the radicals of the period, such as Abbie Hoffman or Bernadine Dohrn, ever wondered what America would be like today had the change they advocated come to pass. They face the problem all of us do — no [...] Tim September 2nd, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, ebooks, fiction, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostUsing weather as a metaphor can be tricky business. One of the worst sentences I’ve read in years invoked a “restless silver sky.” F. Scott Fitzgerald on the other hand used it to noted effect in The Great Gatsby. The risk for a writer may be even greater when weather is the central allegory. [...] Tim August 17th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, fiction, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostI admit to reading this with more than a bit of trepidation. I loved A Million Little Pieces, even after it was shown to be largely fiction. After the two “memoirs,” I wasn’t impressed with Frey’s “first” novel. Add this to the fact The Final Testament of the Holy Bible is about the Messiah returning [...] Tim July 6th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, fiction, Religion | 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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