Book Reviews
Here are my thoughts and reviews on books I’ve read:
Xenophon: Cyropaedia and the Anabasis
A synthesis of the conflicting visions of The Anabasis of Cyrus and Cyropaedia: The Education of Cyrus, defending Xenophon against snobbish analytic philosop...
American Pastoral
A conflicted take on Roth’s Pulitzer winner - thought-provoking exploration of American decline, but often boring and too long.
Journey to the End of the Night
A chaotic, gloomy novel about Bardamu’s journey through war, colonialism, and modern life - beautifully prosaic but often depressing exploration of human ind...
The Civil War: A Narrative (Volume III)
Reflections on completing Shelby Foote’s epic 3,000-page narrative of America’s defining conflict
The Civil War: A Narrative (Volume II)
The second volume in Shelby Foote’s epic continues where the first leaves off. It is stylistically the same and just as enjoyable of a read. In fact, I enjoy...
The Civil War: A Narrative (Volume I)
It was their good fortune, or else their misery, to belong to a generation in which every individual would be given a chance to discover and expose his wo...
Jimmy Carter
A journey through the life of America’s most unconventional president—from peanut farmer to nuclear submariner to global humanitarian
George Herbert Walker Bush
This is a reflection on the life of George H.W. Bush based on John Meacham’s biography of George Herbert Walker Bush *Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey...
The Magic Mountain
This was the most challenging book I’ve ever read. I’m fortunate to have read it as part of a Catherine Project reading group. The prose is always beautiful,...
Harry S. Truman
This is a reaction to David McCullough’s biography of Harry S. Truman. This book is part of my effort to read a biography of every President. This is an ambi...
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
TLDR: A Man Called Ove is gripping, entertaining and beautiful, but only to a certain audience and it will not be a literary classic.
The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
TLDR: The Rational Optimist is a long, well-researched, and, at times, dry book that inspires hope for the future with statistics and a refreshing appreciati...