Blogroll

Book Review: This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

Mind-numbing. That’s the only way to describe the casualties from America’s Civil War. For example:

An estimated 620,000 soldiers died between 1861 and 1865, roughly the same number as in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined.

While […]

Book Review: Commander of the Faithful by John W. Kiser

Innumerable obstacles stand between an author and gaining the widest possible audience. For John W. Kiser, the problem is subject matter. There probably aren’t a lot of Americans interested in a favorable biography of an Islamic jihadist. And that’s a shame because not only did that jihadist die 125 years ago, shortly before his death […]

Book Review: Karnak Café by Naguib Mahfouz

“There is always an idea behind a novel, at least behind the novel as I know it,” Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz once said. In his case, the idea frequently shed light on the cultural and political landscape of his native country, helping earn Mahfouz the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature. That unquestionably occurs with Karnak […]

Book Review: Finding Iris Chang by Paula Kamen

Iris Chang seemed to have it all: bestselling and critically acclaimed author at age 29, successful and sought after public speaker, attractive and motivated woman, married for more than 10 years and with a young child, and considered by many as among America’s best young historians. Yet in November 2004, Chang committed suicide at age […]

Book Review: Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg

There’s plenty of things parents of teens hope never happen to their children. Drug or alcohol abuse. Serious injury or death in an accident. Terminal illness. One that’s probably small on the radar screen is having to suddenly commit your teen to a mental hospital.

That is exactly what Michael Greenberg faced when his 15-year-old […]