Book: Pope John XXIII
By: Thomas Cahill (Penguin Lives, 240 pp.)
Concerning: The brief, progressive, wonderfully anomalous papacy of John XXIII (aka Angelo Roncalli), who initiated the Second Vatican Council, placed in the context of papal history. From the author of How The Irish Saved Civilization.
Quotation: "Just as banks can make people poor, ( Read more... )

Book: Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome
By: Robert Harris (Simon & Schuster, 340 pp.)
Concerning: This sequel to Robert Harris' Imperium depicts Cicero's tumultuous, one-year term as consul of Rome, which leads to the zenith of his career and popularity, followed by a precipitous fall as the likes of Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus attempt to ( Read more... )

Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell (Jan. 7) "Hot" thriller already w/movie deal
The Steel Remains - Richard K. Morgan (Jan. 20) Talented 'post-cyberpunk' sci fi novelist takes on the fantasy genre.
Drood - Dan Simmons (Feb.9) Long historical thriller about... Charles Dickens?
Fool - Christopher Moore (Feb. 10 ) Comic/revisionist take on 'King Lear' by ( Read more... )

Title: The Real Cool Killers
By: Chester Himes (Random House, 145 pp., 1955)
Concerning: Harlem police detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones investigate a fatal shooting and discover a youth gang called “The Real Cool Moslems” and a fraught personal connection to Coffin Ed.
Quote: “Both of the two men rose with alacrity, picked up ( Read more... )

Title: Pick-up
By: Charles Willeford (Random House, 131 pp.)
Concerning: A failed painter turned diner counter-man takes up with a beautiful, self-destructive alcoholic. The reader’s early suspicion “No good will come of this” is confirmed many times over by a downward spiral that never seems to hit bottom.
Quote: “I had a fresh package of king- ( Read more... )

goudabonbon and I watched The Bourne Ultimatum on video about a month ago (I'd already seen it theatrically), and the combination of that and some commentary about movie adaptations on toddalcott's blog made me think that I wanted to read the book. I read the first two Bourne books in the 1980s -- for some reason, I think I read Identity twice when I was in high school ( Read more... )

Title: Free Range Chickens
By: Simon Rich (Random House, 131 pp.)
Concerning: A collection of short - and I mean short -- humorous essays, like lite versions of the kind you find The New Yorker. Many take the form of short conversations.
Quote: (This is the full text of the opening piece, “Terrifying Childhood Experiences ( Read more... )

Title: Killing Rommel
By: Steven Pressfield (Doubleday, 295 pp.)
Concerning: A (fictional) young English lieutenant’s account of his brief but eventful stint in the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) during the North African Campaign of World War II, including a mission to take out German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.
Quote: “What preserves us in the ( Read more... )

Near the end of the school year, Sweetness and I switched our bedtime reading from picture books to chapter books (preferably chapter books that have illustrations). I believe I've mentioned that our "gateway book" was The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which alternates between pages of text and silent-movie style illustrations. Since then, we've read ( Read more... )

Title: When You Are Engulfed In Flames
By: David Sedaris (Little, Brown, 323 pp.)
Concerning: Sedaris’s usual brand of sardonic anecdotes and reminiscences, including an 80+-page essay/diary about how he quit smoking while spending three months in Japan.
Special Video Quote!:

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Verdict: Amusing. Sedaris seems to have hit a challenging point in his ( Read more... )