Category Archives: review
The Architect
The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power (2006) is an interesting (though uneven) review of Karl Rove and his ride to the White House by two veteran Texas political reporters. A non-believer who built a machine … Continue reading
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Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun
Paul Barrett’s Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun (2012) is an eminently readable history of the lightweight Austrian pistol. Somehow, the gun that’s “uglier than a sack full of assholes” has become the “Google of modern civilian handguns: the pioneer … Continue reading
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The Mark Inside
The Mark Inside (2012) tells the fascinating story of a swindled Texas rancher who refused to rest until he got his revenge against each member of the team that took him for $45,000. But what I fond most interesting was … Continue reading
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Moneymakers
Ben Tarnoff’s Moneymakers (2012) tells the stories of three counterfeiters who plied their trade during different periods of American history – the Colonial era, early America and during the Civil War. While their stories are interesting, I thought he did … Continue reading
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Island of Vice
The subtitle of Richard Zacks’s Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York (2012) gives away the result — hard-charging reformer Teddy Roosevelt aims to clean up New York City as a Police Commissioner, but … Continue reading
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The American Way of Eating
Tracie McMillan’s The American Way of Eating (2012) should be required reading for any American who eats regularly. One blurb describes it as “Nickled and Dimed meets Fast Food Nation”;that pretty much sums it up. The author picks garlic in … Continue reading
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Survival City
Tom Vanderbilt’s Survival City (2002) is more than just a trip back to the post-World War II era when — it’s good reading in preparation for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. It is the fascinating story of the nation’s preparation for … Continue reading
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Drake’s Fortune
In Drake’s Fortune (2002), Richard Raynor tells the story of what may be the greatest long con in history. Depression-era con man Oscar Hartzell convinced thousands of Midwesterners that he was the executor of 16th century English explorer Francis Drake’s … Continue reading
Fakers
In Fakers: Hoaxers, Con Artists, Counterfeiters and Other Great Pretenders (2008), Paul Maliszewski draws on his own experiences as a frustrated newspaper reporter who wrote fictitious letters to the editor and other submissions as a lens for viewing other liars, … Continue reading
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Zone One
Wow. Not the best zombie apocalypse novel I’ve ever read, but certainly a good one. This book is much more than that; a meditation on America in the 21st century and whether it matters. I was very impressed with Whitehead’s … Continue reading