Review by George Yatchisin If there were any justice, the names Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop would be as well-remembered a baseball triumvirate as Tinker, Evers, and Chance. But…
Category: Nonfiction
The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto By Charles M. Blow
Review by Brian Tanguay In Georgia in 2020 two US senate seats flipped from red to blue, and in the presidential contest the reliably Republican state chose Joe Biden over…
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class in Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders
Review by Brian Tanguay Before George Saunders turned his attention to literature he studied engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Engineers are fascinated by the way things work. In…
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
Review by Walter Cummins Has climate change reached a tipping point? Is it too late, or do we still have an opportunity to redeem the planet? Some optimists, citing previous…
The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel
Review by Brian Tanguay The belief that markets and merit are the only way to organize society has become an article of faith in American society and culture. Over the…
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
Review by George Yatchisin Eula Biss wants me to be better and I’m not sure I’m up for that. When I refer to the quick several page essays that build…
Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World by Tom Burgis
Review by Brian Tanguay Kleptocracy is nothing new. Dictators and tyrants like the Shah of Iran, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and Vladimir Putin in Russia,…
The Gospel According to H.L. Hix by H.L. Hix
Review by Walter Cummins First, came the gospel writer cluster of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Now, two thousand years later, the world has another “according to” version, in this…
The Presidents vs. The Press by Harold Holzer
Review by Elizabeth Starkey In The Presidents vs. The Press: The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media from the Founding Fathers to the Fake News, Harold Holzer,…
What Were We Thinking by Carlos Lozada
Review by Elizabeth Starkey What Were We Thinking, from Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozada, bears the subtitle A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era, but could have just…