Blogcritics Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of October 6, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 08:39:21 EDT

Anne Rice, Arthur Rimbaud, Marcella Hazan, John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution, the Hunt for Bin Laden...
Ahem. I call this piece, "In Celebration of Autumn: New Books, in Poetry and Prose." Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted ManBy Dalton Fury In its endeavor to track down the world’s most dangerous man, the 40 members of America’s super secret counter-terrorist unit...

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of September 29, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:42:01 EDT

Buffett, Branson, Prince, Noonan, Mourning, Adams, Orbinski, Holocaust, Dog Talk, Jacksonians, Gravity, Confederacy, Philosophies, 'Philanthrocapitalism'...
Biographies and memoirs and then some...The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of LifeBy Alice Schroeder Throughout the years Warren Buffett has treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s wealthiest...

Book Review: Books - A Memoir by Larry McMurtry

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:13:21 EDT

The scattershot, sketchbook quality makes Larry McMurtry's memoir haphazard and unstructured, but it's also an entertaining and informative treat for book lovers.
You would think that prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry, author of 28 novels and the creator of such high-profile works as The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, and the screenplay of Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain (with Diana Ossana), would have enough to keep him occupied. You...

Vinyl Tap: Crowded House - Temple of Low Men

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:26:04 EDT

"Into temptation / Safe in the wide open arms of hell..."
I get a new turntable and dust off some old records. Vinyl Tap #57:According to one of the memorable and melodic songs of pop apprehension that bejewel Crowded House’s foreboding Temple of Low Men -- the propulsive "In the Lowlands" -- "Black shapes gather in the distance / Looks like it won't take long." This 1988...

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of September 22, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:30:03 EDT

Summer simmered to an autumnal lull, a calm before the norm: Bill O'Reilly, Maya Angelou, David Letterman, Robert Wagner, Jon Katz, Alec Baldwin...
Summer simmered to an autumnal lull, a calm before the norm...Letter to My DaughterBy Maya Angelou "Believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things." In erudite anecdotes borrowed from an inspirational life, and dedicated to her “thousands of daughters … Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian,...

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of September 15, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:53:05 EDT

Lynne Spears, Howard Blum, Bernard-Henri Levy, West Point, Acedia, True Crime, Nathan Hale, Cheney Vice Presidency, Rwandan Genocide, History of Publishing, Bill Clinton, �Funding Fathers�...
Politics proliferate. And yet I spotlight books on publishing and that ol' ennui. It doesn't add up, I know, so I remain nonplussed...The Time of Their Lives: The Golden Age of Great American Book Publishers, Their Editors, and AuthorsBy Al Silverman In the authoritative The Time of Their Lives, former Book-of-the-Month Club chief and...

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of September 8, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 8 Sep 2008 06:38:43 EDT

Bob Schieffer, Bob Woodward, Thomas Friedman, Reagan's Hollywood Years, The Audacity of Obama, Baron de Steuben, John Tyler, Cheryl Jarvis' The Necklace...
Thomas Friedman yearns for a "geo-greenism," while Bob Woodward covers the Watergate... er, the waterfront... Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew AmericaBy Thomas L. Friedman "Green is the new red, white, and blue." Oh my. Thomas L. Friedman proposes a "geo-greenism" in Hot,...

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of September 1, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 09:56:54 EDT

A priest, a president, and a penguin walk into a bookstore... Plus: Truman, Eszterhas, Italianissimo, Resistance, Bill Walsh, Kelly Slater...
A priest, a president, and a penguin walk into a bookstore…The Book of Mychal: The Surprising Life and Heroic Death of Father Mychal JudgeBy Michael Daly "My God is a God of surprises." In a biography of a man who understood that marvels spring from even the most horrific of times -- that good always arises from the bad in the most...

Book Review: Mission To America by Walter Kirn

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:56:06 EDT

The remote Aboriginal Risen Apostles �stream on forever through the Etheric Flux, indestructible channels of vitality." But �forever� isn�t like it used to be...
Baby, we were born to run. Assuming we had enough energy to get off the couch. We were safe from assault, debased philosophies, bewildering images, and harmful foodstuffs, but in our safety we’ve thinned and paled and dwindled. Our blood was weak, like children’s milky tea, and though our digestive tracks were scrubbed of residue, it...

The Early Word: New Books for the Week of August 25, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:46:33 EDT

Steve McQueen: "He's Young, He's Sexy, He's Hot, and He's Dead"
Something you may miss if you read ahead too to quickly is the fact that Steve Mcqueen helped build Disneyland. See if you can spot it in his resume...Unforgettable Steve McQueenBy Henri Suzeau (Editor) Juvenile Delinquent, Marine, Oilfield Roughneck, Lumberjack, Producer, Motorcycle Racer, Sports Car Driver, Imagineer, Actor, King of Cool, Dead...