Twenty-seventh book reviewed as part of the 130 Challenge. A one line review for this book would be – He could have done so much better! Shashi Tharoor is a seasoned diplomat and is very well-known for his astute observations about India. Especially his for his deep insight into the politics of religion in India and the complex web of cultures, mythology and traditions that make India. So, it is natural to assume that when someone like him, who doesn’t hold back while talking about something, […]
Surprise! We don’t all believe the same thing
I’ve been struggling with writing a review of this book for a couple of weeks. Stephen Prothero is a religious studies professor. His thesis is that all religions are are different and that their differences matter. He refutes the bromide that all religions are separate paths to the same goal and therefore we should all just get along. Religions are distinctly different, beginning with the human problems they are trying to solve. For example Christians believe the problem is original sin, for Hindus the problem […]
An Unbelievable Story of Survival
Unbroken is one of those books that leaves you shaking your head at the atrocities that men have committed against men and women in war. There are moments in this book when I thought, how unlucky can this guy be, to go from one sadistic camp officer to another who is worse. The fact that any of the men interred in the prison camps described in this book is a testament to human resilience. The book is aptly subtitled. Unbroken is the life story of […]
A trip down the Yangtze …. with a corpse!
The final volume of the “Red Princess” trilogy, Dragon Bones had me captured from the get-go. The author introduces us to the mighty Yangtze River in China by portraying the voyage of a corpse as it is swept, crashing and smashing and sometimes floating its way through the Three Gorges and the massive dam of that name still under construction, until fetching up on the outskirts of a city, setting the stage for an investigation by our intrepid couple Detective Liu Hulan and her […]
Welcome to your brightly-colored, candy-coated nut punch.
I’m a bit ashamed to admit that my only knowledge of the Boxer Rebellion before reading these books came from those crossover episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel where Angel, Darla, Spike & Drusilla are taking advantage of the carnage of the Rebellion, and Spike ends up killing a Slayer (“Fool For Love” and “Darla,” in case you’re feeling like a rewatch). And really, I was more concerned with the vampires than with what was happening around them. Now that I know the context, I really […]
Jelinas Reviews Cannonball #3: An Ode to My Hometown
I’ve lived in Long Beach for over thirty years, and I love my hometown. It’s not easy for a town to gain international recognition when it’s living in the shadow of a major metropolitan city, but Long Beach has done just that. Long Beach is scrappy. I read D.J. Waldie’s