Book reviews for nonfiction of various types.
Assassination Vacation is a nonfiction discussion on three American presidents and their assassins as told by one with an obsession so great, she actually took a vacation to visit each and every landmark associated with the murders. Lincoln (R) in 1865, Garfield (R) in 1881, and McKinley (R) in 1901 are the three presidents she…
Justice is a look at major political philosophies from the greats, written by an American political philosopher and government professor at Harvard. He explains the views of Aristotle, Kant and Rawls in relation to issues dealt with in America today such as abortion, inequality, restitution, and affirmative action. Naturally, he injects his own philosophies and…
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor for The Atlantic, is an essay written to his son on growing up black, specifically on the subjugation and the preservation of ‘black bodies’. It won the National Book Award for Nonfiction (2015), an ALA Alex Award (2016), the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction (2015), a Pulitzer…
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory is the memoir and critical analysis of modern death customs by first-time author Caitlin Doughty. After witnessing a tragic accident that involved a young child, Caitlin developed an obsession with the macabre which evolved into a passion for dark history and a little bit of death. Her…
Abandoned by the Vatican: My Clandestine Journey to Support Secret Priests Behind the Iron Curtain is the little known but true tale of the “Book Priest” and his project to secretly ship Catholic books to illegal priests in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Romania during the Cold War. You would think a tale such as this…
J. Dennis Robinson is a local author and revered historian with a number of books to his name. Mystery on the Isles of Shoals is narrative nonfiction that carefully reconstructs a notorious crime in 19th century New England using all of the evidence, the hearsay and conspiracy theories (and their origins) – a crime that is still hotly…
For fans of Many Lives, Many Masters is a new book with a similar spiritual message from author Bud Megargee. dirt, TRUTH, music and bungee cords isn’t told in the normal fashion of tale telling, even in the nonfiction sense. It is laid out the easiest way possible, as a dictation of the conversations between Bud,…
Harvard-born anthropologist and biologist Wade Davis is the author of several award-winning books including The Serpent and the Rainbow. Released in 2009, The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World is a lecture-filled work of nonfiction that creates a collage of his life’s work among indigenous populations and carefully selected historical accounts, and discusses…
Rise From Darkness: How to Overcome Depression through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Positive Psychology by Kristian Hall is an easy-to-grasp fundamental guide meant to be read directly by those who suffer from chronic depression, or by caretakers and relatives. Fakkel Forlag AS | Paperback | December, 2015 | 192 pp “Depression is not one specific illness;…
Growing up there were two things my parents told me not to discuss with people that I did not know very well—politics and religion. In the book America’s Suicide, Michael H. Davison, discusses both in great detail. Most Americans are very compassionate in their opinions and beliefs pertaining to politics and religion. This compassion is one…