If you love to read then there is likely to be a time in which you find yourself reading a string of books that follow a similar theme or contain a singular element. A literary synchronicity, if you will. For me, this occurred several months ago and the reviews posted this week are of that time. The unintentional theme was darkness. Each of these three books is well written, ... Read More...
Down the Up Escalator
By fall 2010 there were 14 million officially unemployed Americans—40 percent of them classified as the long-term unemployed. An additional ten million were working part-time but said they wanted full-time jobs. Fifteen million more had dropped out of the labor force since this recession began. There is no shortage of books on what is known as The Great Recession but, by ... Read More...
Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are
We tend to think all of our traits and life decisions can be traced back to our genes or the influence of our parents or partners, but it has become increasingly clear that our peers are stealth sculptors of everything from our basic linguistic habits to our highest aspirations. Friendfluence is a well-researched but readable look at what many consider to be the most ... Read More...
The Sandcastle Girls
It was as I was nearing the finish of Chris Bohjalian’s latest novel, The Sandcastle Girls, that I was struck by how insulated and sheltered we are in the United States. I say that with a full understanding of recent events and their horrors. What I mean, is that at no time in any of our lives have we had to worry that our country or even our state or city was going to be taken ... Read More...
Heads in Beds
Jacob Tomsky graduated from college with a degree in philosophy and no idea what he wanted to do. It is summer in New Orleans and before jumping a career and all that entails he decides to take a job at a new hotel as a valet—to test the working waters. With his personable nature and quick mind, Tomsky rapidly moves from valet to the underworld of housekeeping management while ... Read More...
The Headmaster’s Wager
In 1930 Percival Chen’s father left him and his mother in mainland China to go to Vietnam and seek his fortune. He never returned and so, after his mother’s death, Percival left their province to go to school in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the Japanese invasion in 1941 meant that Hong Kong was no longer safe, but it precipitated Percival’s marriage to a young beauty much above ... Read More...
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