Category Archives: Book Reviews

Azar Nafisi’s book Reading Lolita in Tehran

Book Review Title: Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books Author: Azar Nafisi Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Date: December 30, 2003 ISBN: 978-0812971064 Nafisi’s book is a biographical reflection mostly upon her experiences teaching Western literature (the modern … Continue reading

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Hal Shows’ Essay Collection The Bandshell Project

Book Review Title: The Bandshell Project Author: Hal Steven Shows Publisher: Black Bay Books Date: June 11, 2015 ISBN: 978-1514264546 Collections of essays are among my favorite kinds of books. Hal Shows’ The Bandshell Project is a great example. The … Continue reading

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Summary of the 2021 Biography of Philip Roth

Book Review Title: Philip Roth: The Biography Author: Blake Bailey Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st Edition (Hardcover) Date: April 6, 2021 ISBN: 978-0393240726 This biography of Philip Roth (19-March-1933 – 22-May-2018) presents a mix of Roth’s personal and … Continue reading

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Review of Wolfram Eilenberger’s Time of the Magicians

Book Review Title: Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade That Reinvented Philosophy By: Wolfram Eilenberger Publisher: Penguin Books Date: August 17, 2021 ISBN: 978-0525559689 Eilenberger tells four stories in tandem that cover roughly the years … Continue reading

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David Lowenthal’s book
The Past is a Foreign Country

Book Review Title: The Past is a Foreign Country Author: David Lowenthal Publisher: Cambridge University Press Date: 1985, 1988 ISBN: 978-0521294805 Lowenthal launches an in-depth investigation into our relation to the past in this book. He discusses many angles and … Continue reading

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The Past is a Foreign Country

Stendhal’s The Life of Henry Brulard

Book Review Title: The Life of Henry Brulard Author: Stendhal (Henri Beyle), Trans. from the French by Catherine Alison Phillips Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Date: February 20, 1925 (written 1835) ASIN : B000MMIJYK (ASIN for a more recent available … Continue reading

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Simon Winchester’s new book Land

Book Review Title: Land Author: Simon Winchester Publisher: Harper Date: January 19, 2021 ISBN: 978-0062938336 Simon Winchester’s new book Land is aptly titled because it is so general in its study of land. The story moves from measuring the size … Continue reading

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Anhinga Press Poetry Anthology North of Wakulla

Book Review Title: North of Wakulla: An Anhinga Anthology Editors: Donna Decker and Mary Jane Ryals Publisher: Anhinga Press Date: September 1, 1989 ISBN: 978-0938078302 The poetry anthology North of Wakulla fulfills and rewards the reader with its outstanding assemblage … Continue reading

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Harry Morris’ Landmark Study—Last Things in Shakespeare

Book Review Title: Last Things in Shakespeare Author: Harry Morris Publisher: Florida State University Press Date: January 1, 1985 ISBN: 978-0813007946 The book is an eschatological analysis of several Shakespeare plays: Hamlet Othello King Lear Macbeth Romeo and Juliet A … Continue reading

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Thomas E. Ricks’ new book First Principles

Thomas E. Ricks’ new book First Principles Book Review Title: First Principles Author: Thomas E. Ricks Publisher: HarperCollins Date: November 10, 2020 ISBN: 978-0062997456 Ricks’ First Principles gives us insight into the literary and philosophical factors that influenced the Founding … Continue reading

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Gustave Flaubert’s Sentimental Education

Book Review Title: Sentimental Education Author: Gustave Flaubert Publisher: Penguin Classics Date: October 26, 2004 ISBN: 978-0140447972 With our busy schedules a lot of us have to keep an eye out not to miss those fleeting chances to get in … Continue reading

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Lionel Trilling’s Book The Liberal Imagination

Lionel Trilling’s The Liberal Imagination comprises fifteen essays that range in time from 1946 to 1948. The book was first published in 1950. The collection provides a potpourri of intellectual refinements on the state of American literature in the late … Continue reading

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The Battle of Hastings: and Literature Hasn’t Been the Same Since

The lifestyle of everyday people didn’t change much in the old days when their government was overthrown. Sometimes, a healthy invasion really enhanced a culture. The conquerors added their art and music and literature to the existing culture and suddenly … Continue reading

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Kotsilibas-Davis’ Biography of Maurice Barrymore

Book Review Title: Great times, good times: The Odyssey of Maurice Barrymore Author: James Kotsilibas-Davis Publisher: Doubleday & Co., Inc. Date: January 1, 1977 ISBN: 978-0385049535 Author Kotsilibas-Davis is primarily a biographer, but he approaches his writing like a novelist. … Continue reading

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