All Reviews
Reviews are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent review appearing first in the list.
Blue Madagascar
Many of us know Andrew Kaplan from the television series Homeland – an exciting and watchable series. Blue Madagascar may also be a prime-time television series, for it has all the makings of a taut, around the world story that will keep readers and viewe
Troubled
Wilderness therapy programs are based on the idea that if you take a troubled teen out of their environment, away from corrupting influences, and put them in nature, so they gain skills to be independent and conquer challenges, they will then break out of
Hairpin Bridge
Hairpin Bridge is classified as a “psychological thriller.” I’d put it in the class of “silly psychological gore.” The audiobook is 10 hours long, but it seemed like it would never end. Nevertheless, I kept on listening.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
This is an amazingly conceived and written book for any writer (or reader) of short fiction. Like many thousands of people, I love to write and sometimes try my hand at fiction. I wish that I’d had this book some decades earlier. George Saunders is a prol
On Getting Off
The philosopher Robert Nozick once noted that sex is not merely a matter of frictional force. There is much more to it than a mere reductionist materialism can explain. This isn’t to deny that sex can and often does (one hopes) involve physical pleasure,
Nomadland
First, the book has also been made into a film, directed by Chloe Zhao and starring Frances McDormand,“as a vandwelling working nomad who leaves her hometown after her husband dies and the sole industry closes down, to be “houseless” and travel around the
The Disappearance of Rituals
Byung-Chul Han is a Korean-born professor of philosophy and cultural studies at the University of the Arts in Berlin as well as a popular contemporary social analyst. During the last two decades, he has published numerous book-length essays dissecting con
My Heart Underwater
Corazon Tagubio is 17 years old. She likes girls. And it turns out she also likes her teacher, Miss Holden. Since they are at a Catholic High School, this is especially problematic. So eventually Carazon ends up staying with her family in the Phi
Contraception
Contracept just one sexual act, far enough back in time, and no one reading this page would now exist. That’s my concise history of contraception. Donna Drucker’s is different; more comprehensive, with a lot more pictures.
Should We Stay or Should We Go
Shriver’s new novel deals with old age and death. It’s a philosophical work, and also manages to include the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores different themes and ideas by replaying the last years of a married couple, Kay and Cyril, with different possible
Exercised
Daniel Lieberman is a professor of human evolution at Harvard, and also a long distance runner. He has raced horses in a marathon and won. He has also done research around the world seeing people engaging in physical activity. He has watched and interview
Philip Roth
Must a biographer be in sympathy with their subject? The question arises for the reader on the first page of the Preface to Ira Nadel’s Philip Roth: A Counterlife, where the biographer refers to the “insecurity, anger, betrayal” that he believes are “cruc
Ethics for Everyone:
Humanity is guided by moral principles known as ethics. Although different populations may believe different things, there are general guidelines that help dictate how individuals should behave. Ethics for Everyone, by Larry R. Churchill, helps provide a
The Third Victim
Originally published in 2001, Lisa Gardner’s The Third Victim has now been released in audio format, performed by Teri Schnaubelt. It’s a solid narration, making the main protagonist, Rainie Conner, sympathetic. This was Gardner’s second published novel.
Philip Roth
In a 2008 radio interview Philip Roth, 75 at the time, remarked, “Biography gives a new dimension of terror to dying.” He’d been entertaining this terror for at least four years, since his publisher, Houghton Mifflin, had announced in May 2004 that Roth’s
The Rabbit Effect
Harding argues for the social effects on health, especially the benefits of people demonstrating their care. She argues that this is a crucial determinant on health. She draws on her experience as a doctor, her own research and interviews.
Those They Called Idiots
For sheer readability, Simon Jarrett has few peers in the burgeoning field popularly known as the Medical Humanities. This partly derives from a crucial task Those They Called Idiots sets itself. Each of the three parts of this monograph carefully context
The Lives of Lucian Freud
William Feaver’s two volume biography of the British painter Lucian Freud is a total of 1280 pages, or 44 hours and 40 minutes in audiobook. Feaver was an art journalist in the 1970s and became a friend of Freud. He spent a good deal of time with Freud an
Entitled
This book is about male entitlement that stems from the fact that women are expected to give traditionally feminine goods (such as sex, care, nurturing, and reproductive labor) to designated, often more privileged men, and to refrain from taking tradition
With Teeth
Kristen Arnett’s With Teeth is a novel that you will remember, though it may take some effort. At first, you think what’s going on here? But then you get the hang of it, and you start to enjoy it. Then afterwards, you think, wow, that was great.
We’ve Been Too Patient
As I read We’ve Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health, I had many urges. I wanted to sit with each author, tell them I understand. Part of the desire was protective, I, a psychiatrist, understand. I can’t be as bad as all this, I actively
The Whitby Murders
The Whitby Murders features DCI Jim Oldroyd, who is the main police detective in all the Yorkshire Muder Mystery series by J. R. Ellis. I reviewed #4 in the series, The Royal Baths Murder, in 2019. The audiobook is again performed by Michael Page, who ham
Coming From Nothing
Matthew McKeever’s Coming from Nothing is the first fiction contribution to Zero Book’s ambitious and interesting series, “Culture, Society & Politics.” The series is based upon the idea that the present state of discourse about crucial matters is serious
You Know I’m No Good
Mia’s mother was murdered. Her father remarried and had twins. Mia is very bright, but she is also angry and is making bad choices. Drink, drugs, promiscuous sex, and even violence. Finally, her father decides she has gone too far, and sends her to a ther
The Light of Days
A moving story, told by a talented writer, and bound to remind the reader of a dark time in our world history, the book should be required reading in many university courses as the years between the big war and today grow and grow. One hopes that it is no