Non-fiction Book Reviews

Art and Biology: The Age of Insight by Dr. Eric Kandel

Dr. Eric Kandel is a vocal and very articulate advocate of unifying art and science, as opposed to previous scientists/philosophers who asserted the unbridgeable gulf between humanism and scientific study. Dr. Kandel’s Nobel Prize (2000) Prize is in Physiology or Medicine for “research on the physiological basis of memory storage in neurons.” Thus, it’s not surprising that towards the end of The Age of Insight, … Continue reading Art and Biology: The Age of Insight by Dr. Eric Kandel

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Non-fiction Book Reviews

The Judgment of Paris: Edouard Manet’s Cultural Legacy

Not about the Greek myth—take this book’s title literally. In the mid-1800s, Ernest Meissonier followed the rules of the French Academie des Beaux Arts and was revered as an artist, while Edouard Manet defied them—employing freer techniques and painting life as he saw it being lived—and was reviled. Such was the judgement of Paris. Manet’s paintings Olympia and Le Dejeuner Sur L’herbe caused scandals that … Continue reading The Judgment of Paris: Edouard Manet’s Cultural Legacy

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contemporary Fiction, Fiction Reviews

On the Footsteps of Rashomon: A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson

Crime or legal thrillers, which I rarely read, are written to be exciting and to keep you the reader guessing who the  perpetrator is or, if she’s identified early in the story, whether she is in fact guilty. Crime thriller, I think, is one genre in which the plot is primary. Characterization may not be well-rounded and it focuses on what motivates a crime. How … Continue reading On the Footsteps of Rashomon: A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson

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contemporary Fiction, Fiction Reviews

Nature as Main Character in Fiction: 2. The Overstory

The Overstory—I didn’t know for sure what the title alluded to when I first encountered this novel by Richard Powers. I interpreted it in terms of the usual conventions about books, especially fiction. I guessed “overstory” referred to an overarching theme, the most important one that subsumes some more obvious sub-themes. You, the reader, must venture into the depths of a multilayered story to tie … Continue reading Nature as Main Character in Fiction: 2. The Overstory

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Fiction Reviews, Film, historical fiction

A Delight: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Writers write books. They also write about books—reviews, literary analysis, how-to manuals. And, of course, fiction. Fiction about books often deal with our relationship to books or what they mean to us. The book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, is one such novel. Set shortly after World War II, Juliet Ashton, a journalist living in … Continue reading A Delight: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

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contemporary Fiction, Fiction Reviews

Nature as Main Character in Fiction: 1. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. Most likely a crime thriller or a murder mystery, right? That’s how some reviews have perceived this novel, including one put out as “the Amazon review” of this Amazon Best Book of August 2019. Maybe advertising the book this way helps sell more copies. But I think doing so does the novel a disservice. It is, … Continue reading Nature as Main Character in Fiction: 1. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

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Fiction Reviews, historical fiction

War Heroes: The Nightingale and The Paris Architect

I’m not particularly enamored of war fiction though my number one favorite these past few years is one (Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See). But an audiobook of Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale was available to borrow on Libby and I was curious about a novel that merited a 4.8 rating from more than 30,000 Amazon readers. And since I had some … Continue reading War Heroes: The Nightingale and The Paris Architect

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Non-fiction Book Reviews, Writing Craft

The Lady’s Genius Is In The Details: John Mullan’s What Matters in Jane Austen

The first time I read Jane Austen, I was hooked. If you had asked me at that time why, I wouldn’t have known what to say. Since then, I’ve read all her published novels. Not just once but several times. I have my favorites. Pride and Prejudice, of course. Then Persuasion, which I think is her most mature novel. I’d rank her other novels as … Continue reading The Lady’s Genius Is In The Details: John Mullan’s What Matters in Jane Austen

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contemporary Fiction, Fiction Reviews

Books As Art: Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine Trilogy

I just read three books in an hour. True, they’re short kid-length books. An epistolary trilogy whose essence I’m at a loss to fully capture. All I can say is the Griffin and Sabine Trilogy by Nick Bantock is a joy to read. Yet, it’s also sad, hopeful, poignant. And so achingly human. I’ll treasure it and read it many times. The main story that … Continue reading Books As Art: Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine Trilogy

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Fiction Reviews, historical fiction

A Sensation of the Victorian Age: Wilkie Collins’ A Woman in White

Ever heard of sensation novels? No? Me, neither until I met A Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, published in 1859. For the most part I listened, rather than read the book, courtesy of Librivox.org. I’ve sampled many audiobooks at this site and I take my hats off to volunteers who’ve dedicated precious time and energy to bring classic literature to people who prefer to … Continue reading A Sensation of the Victorian Age: Wilkie Collins’ A Woman in White

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Fiction Reviews, historical fiction

Emile Zola’s Uncompromizing Victorian Male Gaze: L’Assommoir (The Dram Shop)

L’Assommoir is a veritable tearjerker. The saddest women’s fiction ever. Emile Zola, in Book #7 of his Rougon-Macquart cycle directs his Victorian male gaze on Gervaise, sister of Lisa and the female protagonist of The Belly of Paris (third book in the cycle). But Zola’s gaze, as you might expect, is neither fleeting nor superficial. His perception is filtered through the viewpoint of “literary naturalism.” … Continue reading Emile Zola’s Uncompromizing Victorian Male Gaze: L’Assommoir (The Dram Shop)

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Non-fiction Book Reviews

In Praise Of Love—But What Is It, Really?

If Àlain Badiou, greatest living French philosopher—that is, according to his compatriots—writes a book called In Praise of Love, wouldn’t you pay attention? After all, love is an ever fascinating subject and some of the greatest philosophers are French (Voltaire, Descartes, Sartre to name a few). And the French are up there as some of the world’s greatest lovers (after the Spaniards, Italians, and Brazilians—all … Continue reading In Praise Of Love—But What Is It, Really?

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Fiction Reviews, historical fiction

My Feminist Sensibility vs. Love In The Time Of Cholera

Have you read Love In The Time Of Cholera? Have you been as enchanted by it as so many people and big reviewers seem to have been? The Christian Science Monitor thinks it’s boldly romantic, profoundly imaginative, fully imagined work of fiction that expands our sense of life’s infinite possibilities. I don’t quite grasp the difference between “profoudly imaginative” and “fully imagined” but “life’s infinite … Continue reading My Feminist Sensibility vs. Love In The Time Of Cholera

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Non-fiction Book Reviews, Writing Craft

Hemingway’s Paris of the Twenties: A Moveable Feast

In the cramped studio we rented when we first stayed in Paris a few months, a well-worn paperback of Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast lay on top of three or four books on a night table. The intriguing title was familiar, the first few pages beguiling. I “knew” Hemingway, having read two of his books. Reading about 1920s Paris in Paris? Who could resist? Besides, … Continue reading Hemingway’s Paris of the Twenties: A Moveable Feast

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Fiction Reviews, historical fiction

One Hundred Years of Solitude: A Literary Chameleon About Life

MANY YEARS LATER as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world … Continue reading One Hundred Years of Solitude: A Literary Chameleon About Life

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Non-fiction Book Reviews

The Existential Life: Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris 1940-1950

Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. I heard those names spoken with some reverence by my professor of Western Thought, a course deemed essential to round out all college degrees by the university I was attending. In the next breath, the professor uttered, “Existentialism.” Even now, I’m not entirely sure what the word means although its precepts (or at least some of them) are … Continue reading The Existential Life: Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris 1940-1950

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Fiction Reviews, historical fiction

Diving Into Magical Realism: Two Morsels

Without a doubt, Like Water for Chocolate is a tasty read. It  opens with the ingredients for Christmas Rolls,  Mexican style. But it goes beyond the usual food in fiction novel. A little further down, it reads: Tita was literally washed into this world on a great tide of tears that spilled over the edge of the table and flooded across the kitchen floor. That … Continue reading Diving Into Magical Realism: Two Morsels

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