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Currently ReadingRecently Read | Although 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 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 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 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 PostWorld War II is often seen as the last “good war,” a clear-cut conflict between good and evil. And there was plenty of evil to go around, not just in the Axis forces. Take, for example, the case of Marcel Petiot. Petiot, a French physician, was convicted of murdering 26 people in Paris during World [...] Tim September 16th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, history, nonfiction, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostLiving on the Great Plains, we can tend to think we are removed from the nation’s ongoing debate over illegal immigration. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Just last year, Fremont, a town of some 25,000 in northeastern Nebraska, drew national attention when voters approved a law fining landlords and employers who house or [...] Tim September 13th, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, immigration, nonfiction, Review Copy | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostIt sounds a bit like a script for a television show or film under the Disney umbrella. A small high school in a town of 250 people decides to start a football team. The goalpost crossbars are built out of two by fours. The players don’t wear jerseys. They wear sweatshirts with the numbers painted [...] Tim August 24th, 2011 | Tags: biography, Book Reviews, football, nonfiction, Review Copy, South Dakota history | Category: Book Reviews | Comments are closed | Print This Post | Email This PostIn today’s sound-bite world, it is easy to forget that cogent maxims can be more than buzzwords and arise from more substantive expressions of thought. Although they may encapsulate a principle or theme, they aren’t necessarily designed to be a 15-second snippet. Wisdom of Progressive Voices, compiled and edited by Joanne Boyer, is a good [...] Tim August 22nd, 2011 | Tags: Book Reviews, nonfiction, Politics, 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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