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Category Archives: book reviews
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese: the painful path to forgiveness
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese My rating: 4 of 5 stars A powerful and unflinching tale of healing and forgiveness. This novel had special interest for this reader for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it is set in … Continue reading
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novel vs. novel 2: men with attitude
Back in August I wrote a post in which I compared two random novels that I happened to have read back to back. Well, that was so much fun I’m going to do it again. How do I happen to … Continue reading
Posted in book reviews, thoughts, writer's notes
Tagged A Man Called Ove, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, antonomasia, fiction, fiction in translation, figures of speech, Fredrik Backman, Goethe, novel vs novel, novels, prosopographia, rhetoric, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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appointment at Dendera
I continue to work on the climax of The Age of Pisces. I think I have the main climax pretty much roughed in, and I’m focusing on a subplot climax for the same character. In the process of working on … Continue reading
Posted in book reviews, The Age of Pisces
Tagged Alexander the Great, ancient Egypt, Antony and Cleopatra, Caesar Augustus, Caesarion, Cleopatra, Cleopatra the Great, Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend, Cleopatra VII Philopator, Dendera, epic, History, Joann Fletcher, Julius Caesar, Luxor, Mark Antony, Octavian, Ptolemy XIII, reading, roman empire, storytelling, The Age of Pisces, Venus
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novel vs. novel
I’m a fiction writer, so I pay close attention to the fiction I read. I’m always looking to learn how other practitioners have done things. What worked for them—and what didn’t? The two novels I’ve read most recently are Grand … Continue reading
Theosophy by Rudolf Steiner: a field guide to reality
Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos by Rudolf Steiner My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book speaks with vigor and authority about things that most of us spend our lives studiously … Continue reading
The Fatherhood Principle by Myles Munroe: making God your role model
The Fatherhood Principle: God’s Design and Destiny for Every Man by Munroe Myles My rating: 4 of 5 stars If you’re a Christian, or are willing to become one, this book lays out a strong and principled approach to being … Continue reading
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by Jane Harrison: what those myths are really about
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by Jane Ellen Harrison My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book, originally published in 1903, is the best thing I’ve found on Greek mythology or Greek attitudes to things of the spirit … Continue reading
Aristotle, meet Paul. . . .
On Thursday, March 7, 2019, I reached a personal milestone: I finished reading the works of Aristotle. I read them mostly from the 2 volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World that contain his works: volumes 8 … Continue reading
Posted in book reviews, thoughts
Tagged Aristotle, Aristotle: Prior Analytics by Robin Smith, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward P.J. Corbett, Education, landmark books, liberal education, logic, Mortimer J. Adler, Organon, Paul's life, Philosophy, Poetry, politics, Prior Analytics, reading, rhetoric, storytelling, the Great Books, the Poetics, The Trivium by Sister Miriam Joseph
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Doomsday or Dawnsday?
I forget exactly why I bought the book The Population Puzzle: Overcrowding and Stress Among Animals and Men by A. H. “Lee” Drummond, Jr., in October 2009, but buy it and read it I did. It will have been part … Continue reading
Posted in book reviews, thoughts, writer's notes
Tagged A.H. Drummond, Age of Aquarius, doomsday, doomsday or dawnsday, global population, John Calhoun, overcrowding, personal space, Pisces, population, proletariat, reading, stress, The Age of Pisces, the astrological ages, The Population Puzzle, The Population Puzzle: Overcrowding and Stress Among Animals and Men by A. H. "Lee" Drummond, the world situation, U.S. Census Bureau
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The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene: the nice need not apply
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene My rating: 4 of 5 stars A comprehensive manual on how to gain worldly power. Not for the just, the kind, the ethical, or the fainthearted—but is that a surprise? I acquired … Continue reading
Posted in book reviews
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Alastair Smith, Beelzebub, Bobby Fischer, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Carl Jung, Il Principe, John Bunyan, Joseph Stalin, landmark books, Machiavelli, mastery, politics, power, reading, Robert Greene, the 48 laws of power, the dictator's handbook, The Pilgrim's Progress, The Prince, the world situation, Thomas Hobbes, Tyranny, Vanity Fair
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