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Category Archives: book reviews
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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The Dictator’s Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith: the black heart of politics
The Dictator’s Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics by Bruce Bueno De Mesquita My rating: 5 of 5 stars Finally! Someone has figured out why politics works the way it does. I first heard about this book … Continue reading
Forgiveness by Sidney B. Simon and Suzanne Simon: help for the walking wounded
Forgiveness: How to Make Peace With Your Past and Get on With Your Life by Sidney B. Simon My rating: 5 of 5 stars A straightforward, authoritative guide to the path of self-healing—which we all need more than we think. … Continue reading
Posted in book reviews
Tagged forgiveness, healing, psychology, self-help, Sidney B. Simon, Suzanne Simon
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The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger: then and now
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was younger than Holden Caulfield when I first read this book; now I’m several multiples of his age. It’s still a brilliant and thought-provoking work, … Continue reading
Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come by Norman Cohn: the cosmic carrot on the stick
Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith by Norman Cohn My rating: 5 of 5 stars A dense, authoritative survey of the development of the myth of the millennium and a future paradise. Awaiters … Continue reading
Posted in book reviews
Tagged ancient history, apocalypses, Jehovah's Witnesses, millenarianism, Norman Cohn, Religion
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Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, volume 1: making the perfect human
Paideia 1: The Ideals of Greek Culture: Archaic Greece: The Mind of Athens by Werner Wilhelm Jaeger My rating: 5 of 5 stars An impassioned, authoritative, and in-depth account of how the character-shaping ideas of education and culture developed in … Continue reading
Posted in book reviews
Tagged ancient Greece, culture, Education, Homer, Mortimer J. Adler, paideia, Poetry, Thucydides, Werner Jaeger
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