Book reviews and more!

LIGHTNING RODS by Helen DeWitt

January 15, 2012

POINTED SATIRE OF the business world’s sociopathy, misogyny is like spending 2+ hours with a misogynist sociopath. SOS

LIGHTNING RODS
New Directions Publishing Corporation
2011

Grade: SOCIOPATH. SOS

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LIGHTNING RODS, by Helen DeWitt

January 14, 2012

POINTED SATIRE OF the business world’s sociopathy, misogyny is like spending 2+ hours with a misogynist sociopath.  SOS

LIGHTNING RODS
New Directions
2011

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CALLING MR. KING, by Ronald De Feo

January 13, 2012

AN ODDLY APPEALING HITMAN in the grip of a midlife crisis is the protagonist of this unusual, surprising novel.

Grade: SOLID B

CALLING MR. KING
Other Press
2011

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TEN THOUSAND SAINTS, by Eleanor Henderson

January 12, 2012

THE LOST BOYS (and girls) of the 1980s punk and straight-edge scenes take center stage in this elegaic novel.

Grade: SOLID B

TEN THOUSAND SAINTS
Ecco
2011

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NAZIS ON THE RUN, by Gerald Steinacher

January 11, 2012

EXHAUSTIVELY RESEARCHED INVESTIGATION of how Nazi war criminals escaped justice is shocking and comprehensive.

Grade: B PLUS

NAZIS ON THE RUN: HOW HITLER'S HENCHMEN FLED JUSTICE
Oxford University Press
2011

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PARADISE LUST, by Brook Wilensky-Lanford

January 10, 2012

FASCINATING TRUE TALES of the scholars, zealots, and eccentrics who have searched for an actual Garden of Eden.

Grade: B PLUS

PARADISE LUST: SEARCHING FOR THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Grove Press
2011

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CHILDISH LOVES, by Benjamin Markovits

January 9, 2012

STORY-WITHIN-A-STORY starts with a bang and ends with a whimper. Even Byron can’t make this novel sizzle!

Grade: B MINUS

CHILDISH LOVES
W. W. Norton
2011

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BOOKS BURN BADLY, by Manuel Rivas

January 8, 2012

EPIC HISTORICAL NOVEL with a magic realist touch takes in the Spanish Civil War, its origins and its aftermath.

Grade: SOLID B

BOOKS BURN BADLY
Random House
2011

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THE FORGOTTEN WALTZ, by Anne Enright

January 7, 2012

THOUGHTFUL, COMPLEX NOVEL traces a relationship from its start as a brief affair to the end of two marriages.

Grade: B PLUS

THE FORGOTTEN WALTZ
W. W. Norton
2012

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MY DYSLEXIA, by Philip Schultz

January 6, 2012

HEARTBREAKINGLY CANDID MEMOIR of dyslexia, surprising in its source: Pulitzer-winning poet Philip Schultz.

Grade: SOLID A

MY DYSLEXIA
W. W. Norton
2011

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