Wordcraft Review by Linda Lappin The Book of Angels is the title of a novel written by Michael Lynch, the main character of the late Thomas E. Kennedy’s occult thriller – The…
Tag: California Review of Books
Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments by Joe Posnanski
Dutton Review by George Yatchisin There’s that terrific anticipatory rush you can get when attending a classic movie in a theater and a beloved scene is about to happen. Think…
Charming Young Man by Eliot Schrefer
HarperCollins Review by Walter Cummins Eliot Schrefer’s title character, his charming young man, Léon Delafosse, is a teenaged parvenu, a poor country boy sought after by fin de siècle Parisian…
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
Viking Review by Walter Cummins As a fan of mysteries, especially those with academic settings, I was drawn to the description of Rebecca Makkai’s latest title. It offered situations that…
The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality by William Egginton
Pantheon Review by Walter Cummins Emmanuel Kant relished fine wines and gourmet meals. Werner Heisenberg thought profoundly as he strolled through a park in winter. Jorge Luis Borges was devastated…
August Wilson: A Life by Patti Hartigan
Simon & Schuster Review by Brian Tanguay August Wilson’s cycle of ten plays, one set in each decade of the 20th century, which include the critically acclaimed Joe Turner’s Come…
Misfit: Growing Up Awkward in the ’80s by Gary Gulman
Flatiron Review by George Yatchisin Gary Gulman is the kind of comedian you figured had a book in him, given his love of words and language that helped him craft…
The Talk by Darrin Bell
Henry Holt Review by David Starkey Darrin Bell’s The Talk joins James Spooner’s The High Desert as the second superb memoir published within a twelve month’s span about growing up…
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer
Knopf Review by David Starkey The cover of Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma is well-chosen. It shows the short, solid and tanned torso of Pablo Picasso beneath the three-dimensional…
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Penguin Review by Walter Cummins Zadie Smith published a piece in The New Yorker about her efforts to ignore “the long shadow” of Charles Dickens (“On Killing Charles Dickens”) when…