Blogcritics

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of October 13, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:44:36 EDT

Abe Lincoln, Emily Post, Descartes, Versailles, The NSA, Intellectual Devotional, Jon and Kate Gosselin, Tony Curtis, George Hamilton, Robert Vaughn, Marcia, Marcia, Marcia...
The appearance of so many celebrity bios and tell-alls prompts me to quote Homer Simpson: “Celebrities - is there anything they don’t know?” I would say that some don’t know enough to keep their yappers shut during election year, but maybe that’s just me. Lincoln: The Biography of a WriterBy Fred Kaplan The most...

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...

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 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...

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of August 18, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:33:01 EDT

Power Limits, Progressive Power, Blue Dixie States, Heretics, Bookmakers, Rose Bowl Memoir, Radical Change, Tech's Transformation...
The sum may be meager, but the subjects are mighty: From Blue Dixie American States, to 16th-Century Italian Heretics...The Limits of PowerBy Andrew Bacevich It’s no longer just the economy, stupid. In The Limits of Power, Andrew J. Bacevich, a retired army colonel and professor of history and international relations at Boston University,...

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction Books for the Week of August 4, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Mon, 4 Aug 2008 04:56:15 EDT

Freddoso's case against Obama, Frank on "How Conservatives Rule." Also: Kate Brennan, Run Simmons, Sherman's March, Iwo Jima, the "First Act of Nuclear Terrorism."
Obsession, Obama, GOP, Iwo Jima, Espionage, Civil War, Scorched Earth, Hearth & Home-- We didn't start the fire... It's the end of the world as we know it... The pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handle... The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite CandidateBy...

The Early Word: New Non-Fiction for the Week of July 28, 2008

Gordon Hauptfleisch — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 07:00:27 EDT

What I talk about when I talk about waiters, group conflict, interfaith understanding, Stalin's secretariat, and Ol' Sparky...
From crummie commies to whining waiters, and not much else in between... What I Talk about When I Talk about RunningBy Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel (Translator) What I talk about when I talk about What I Talk about When I Talk about Running: Equal parts training log, travelogue, and journal, this illuminating memoir chronicles Haruki Murakami as...