Book Summaries & Literary criticism

Gulliver’s Travels (Penguin Audiobooks)

Rating: 6.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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I am certain that nearly every person in the Western world (and some beyond it) is familiar with the quintessential scene of “Gulliver’s Travels,” that of a man tied down to the ground and surrounded by tiny humans. I am equally certain however, that only a very small percentage of these people have actually read Jonathan Swift’s satirical novel, first published in 1726. If you consider yourself a serious reader, [...]

Sanshiro: A Novel (Michigan Classics in Japanese Studies)

Natsume Soseki and Jay Rubin, Soseki Natsume

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

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I rate this irony laden story on par with Soseki’s most important novel, ‘Kokoro.’ Joseph Conrad’s novels had to travel to Africa and the East Indies to establish the parameters within which the Japanese lived their daily lives as they grappled with the effects of Western Rationalism upon a nonindustrial society. Fortunately for world literature, Soseki Natsume was up to the task of documenting this transitional period with grace, wit, [...]

Storm Prey

John Sandford and Richard Ferrone

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

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A gang of bumbling bikers have robbed the hospital’s pharmacy – accidentally killing the pharmacist while doing so – at the direction of a drug-addled hospital insider. Lucas Davenport and his crew are drawn into the investigation, and Lucas has a personal stake in the outcome as his physician wife Weather works at the hospital, and may be a witness able to identify at least one of the perps. “Storm [...]

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Gender and American Culture)

Barbara Ransby

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Ella Baker must be the most underrated figure in U.S. history. There are plenty of Presidents who have done less to shape their own times than Ella Baker. She decisively shaped two of the most important national civil rights organizations–the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference–and was the single most decisive figure in a third–the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Only Martin Luther [...]

The Minority Report and Other Stories

Philip K. Dick and Keir Dullea

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

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You can’t compare Philip K. Dick to any other science fiction writer. About the only other author he can be fairly compared to at all is Franz Kafka – but a workingman’s Kafka, shorn of all pretension or artiness. All his heros are the same besieged everyman as K., wrestling with elusive metaphysics, impossible transformations, a cosmic bureaucracy and a dysfunctional society – but also with overdue rent bills, intrusive [...]

No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War (Bluejacket Books)

Hiroo Onoda

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I remember this as a news story in 1974; a Japanese soldier emerging from the jungles of the Philippines after finally realizing that WWII was over. I recall thinking ‘he must be crazy’. NO SURRENDER shows it’s not so. This is the true story of 2nd Lt Hiroo Onoda, who, on orders from his commanding officer retreated with a small band of men into the jungle to carry out guerilla [...]

The Bond: Connecting Through the Space Between Us

Lynne McTaggart and Karen White

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

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Lynne McTaggart delivers once again. Just as she has in her previous books “The Field”, “The Intention Experiment”, and “What Doctors Don’t Tell You”, McTaggart presents readers with a collection of research results that challenge the current scientific paradigms and offers simple solutions for finding ways to create and reestablish the bond between all of us. In “The Bond”, McTaggart provides easy access to and understanding of a vast array [...]

The Rabbi’s Daughter

Reva Mann

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I finished this book in a day and found it very hard to put down. It reads as the memoir of a woman who grew up in a religious Jewish household, left the fray to lead a lifestyle of sex and “liberation” and returned to join the ultra-religious Hasidic community. The book promised to highlight the struggles a woman faced in choosing between a religious lifestyle and a non-religious one. [...]

Treachery in Death (In Death Series)

J.D. Robb and Susan Ericksen

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After closing a case as primary Detective Peabody is on a roll and excited for more. But when she overhears two cops talking about illegal activities and murder she is shocked. Lieutenant Eve Dallas is furious when she learns what Peabody overheard because she hates nothing more than cops who misuse their power to steal and kill. Together with the cops she trusts and her husband Roarke Eve will do [...]

Whereabouts of Eneas Mcnulty

Sebastian Barry

Rating: 7.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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A beautiful, sad book. Eneas McNulty is an innocent set loose in a world treacherous and unforgiving but he remains gentle, kind and amazingly generous through all that befalls him. A fascinating look at 20th century Ireland through the eyes of a wonderfully realized character.