One of my goals with CBR is to read more fiction (I’m mostly a travel/history/how-to/humor girl), but I’ve been wanting to get to Holidays in Heck for so long that it would have been impossible to make a concerted effort to read anything else first. P.J. O’Rourke has been my favorite writer since I was too young to get most of the jokes. Books like Holidays in Hell – a collection of essays from O’Rourke’s days as Rolling Stone‘s foreign affairs desk chief – are […]
ElCicco #CBR6 Review #2: The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story; a graphic novel written by Vivek J. Tiwary, art by Andrew Robinson with Kyle Baker
This graphic novel, released in November 2013, focuses on Brian Epstein’s crucial role in developing and promoting the Beatles from 1961 until his death in 1967. Tiwary, a Wharton Business School graduate and a film/TV/theater producer, was drawn to Epstein’s story not just because of his own love of the Beatles’ music or because of Epstein’s drive and business brilliance in getting the Beatles to the top of the music industry, but also because of Epstein’s personal demons and societal obstacles that threatened his professional […]
After the Music Stopped
Blinder provides a very clear explanation of the events leading up to and after the Great Recession. Everyone should read this to understand why it happened and what we can do to avoid the next disaster. The review is here: http://lyndamkreads.wordpress.com/2014/01/04/after-the-music-stopped-by-alan-s-blinder/
Badkittyuno’s Review #1: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
“Salt: the only rock we eat”. I’ve really been enjoying this class of books that Goodreads calls “microhistories”, in which an author delves into a single subject with great detail. This particular book focuses on salt, which is a lot more interesting than you’d expect. Salt in some way has influenced: — the discovery of natural gas — Gandhi — taxes — all sorts of words, like soldier and salary — the creation of Tabasco sauce — travel and trade routes in addition to […]
Jen K’s Review #1: Hitler’s Furies
The idea behind this book was to explore the role of women in Nazi Germany, and how they participated or collaborated with the regime, only to be mostly ignored in the post war time years, while instead the myth of the German martyr women, victims of rape and air attacks on the home front took hold. While I liked the book and thought Lower made an interesting argument, it felt all too brief, more like this is the beginning of an area of study. For […]
Fiat.Luxury’s Review #1: The Purity Myth #CBR6
Feminism and modern evangelicalism, and the tension between religion’s “ought” and human reality, are some of my favorite topics (hence my blog) so I was excited to finally pick up The Purity Myth. I expected to find a book that succinctly examined our cultural and subcultural obsession with the virgin-whore dichotomy, the use and misuse of “purity” in modern evangelical and American culture, and the political and personal consequences of our preoccupation with virginity. I was not disappointed. The writing is strong, the argument is convincing, and […]