Friday, December 22, 2017

The Sympathizer - Viet Thanh Nguyen ------------------ 2 Stars

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Without a doubt, this is the longest break between blogs since I started over seven years ago. There's a couple of factors. First, th...
Friday, September 1, 2017

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi ------------------------- 4 Stars

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I tend to shy away from "sad" books. There seems to be too much despair in the world, and too many things I've studied in wo...
Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Carousel Court - Joe McGinniss, Jr. --------------------- 4.5 Stars

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So, how time flies. 8 years ago, I read and reviewed Joe McGinniss Jr's first novel The Delivery Man. I knew him briefly from playing...
Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami ----------------------- 3.5 Stars

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Haruka Murakami is one of the most accomplished and well known contemporary science fiction writers.  I've had 1Q84 on my list to rea...
Friday, July 21, 2017

Shantaram -- Gregory David Roberts ------------------------ 4.5 Stars

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One of the great parts about summer, is that I finally have some real time to put toward reading. I purchased Shantaram over a year ago, a...
Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The Daily Show (the Book) an oral History -- Chris Smith -------------------- 3.5 Stars

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Like many college educated liberals in their mid-30s, I was a HUGE fan of Jon Stewart's Daily Show. I remember falling in love with it...
Monday, May 29, 2017

Neuromancer - William Gibson --------------- 2 Stars

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So, I realized that my dad recommended Arthur Clarke's Childhood's End to me almost seven years ago. Besides being an incredible b...
Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Walter and Me - Eddie Payton -------------------- 2.5 Stars

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This won't be one of the longer reviews for a couple reasons. First, this book is mostly going to interest Bears fans. Second, it'...
Monday, April 10, 2017

Hillbilly Ellegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis -- J.D. Vance -------------------------- 3 Stars

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I didn't hear much about Hillbilly Elegy until someone mentioned it recently and I checked it out online. Well, apparently I was reall...
Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Underground Airlines -- Ben Winters ---------------------- 4 Stars

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Underground Airlines is one of the more interesting plot set-ups I've read in a while. It probably falls under the genre of "revi...
Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The Undoing Project - Michael Lewis ------------------ 4 Stars

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I really struggled trying to figure out how many starts to give Michael Lewis' new book T he Undoing Project . When I heard it was com...
Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Old School -- Tobias Wolff ----------------------------- 3 Stars

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I can't really recall how this book came across my path or why exactly I felt the need to read it. Like most people, I have a limited ...
Wednesday, December 21, 2016

NurtureShock: New Thinking about Children -- Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman ---------------- 4.5 Stars

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NurtureShock has been on my "to read" list for a few years now, and I'm very happy to have finally picked it up.  For some r...
Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Seinfeldia - Jennifer Keishin Armstrong ---------------- 2.5 Stars

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I think we can all agree that Seinfeld is either the greatest comedy of all time or among the best. The show's legacy still makes it ...
Saturday, October 22, 2016

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life -- William Finnegan --------------------- 4 Stars

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Growing up in Hawaii, surfing was a large part of life. And while I never loved it, and took part much more to connect with friends and en...
Thursday, September 15, 2016

The Girls: A Novel - Emma Cline ----------------------- 4 Stars

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As some of you know who have read my blog, I love a good mystery and especially have enjoyed these female led, sort of crazy stories, that...
Friday, August 19, 2016

All the Lighe We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr ----------------------- 2.5 Stars

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Ok, so I know that Anthony Doerr's All the Night We Cannot See is this beloved book by many people, has amazing ratings on Amazon (cli...
Thursday, July 28, 2016

The City of Mirrors -- Justin Cronin ---------------------- 4 Stars

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About 3 years ago, I read an absolutely superb book, and one of a very small and select few that has earned 5 stars on this blog. It was t...
Friday, July 15, 2016

The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah -------------------- 4 Stars

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So, here's something crazy about Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale , if you click on the link in this sentence, you go to Amazon. T...
Monday, May 30, 2016

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World -- Adam Grant ----------------------4.5 Stars

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Adam Grant's Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World , has been kicked around a lot recently on various lists and circles as a r...