David McCullough wrote The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal: 1870-1914 (and isn't that a veritable Gatún Locks of subtitles, dear reader?) in time for the Bicentennial.  My Francis Parkman Prize edition dates to 2002, during which time Ronald Reagan made an issue out of Jimmy Carter offering to return sovereignty over the ( Read more... )

So far this year I've mostly been focusing on reading books that I plan to pass on to other people during Black History Month. The books I've read so far for this challenge are:
1. The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith (children's book)
2. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Young Adult)
3. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (non- ( Read more... )

The phenomenon of people who should be logical constituents for socialists but vote and otherwise behave differently keeps a cottage industry in punditry, including academic punditry, perpetually busy.  Thomas Frank may be one of the better known pundits, starting with his What's the Matter With Kansas? His more recent Listen, Liberal suggested ( Read more... )

Ta-da! I'm halfway there, but lagging behind a bit. I ought to spend less time online and more time reading! (*determined*) I guess I'd be more caught up if I counted the manga I was re-reading, but ...

Anywho~ I just (literally, just) finished reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 1: The Pox Party. It was good ... not at all ( Read more... )

01. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie ; art by Ellen Forney.  2007.

[http://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/0316013684/229 pgs.  Fiction: Realistic,  * * * *  01/08/2008 ( Read more... )

I went into this book knowing the basics of the plot, but I was still surprised by some of the things that I encountered. At times, I could not understand how the main characters acted - but having never gone through a divorce, much less an ugly divorce, I suppose I shouldn't have expected myself to ( Read more... )

Hiya! Just your friendly community moderator dropping in to say "OMGWTF happened to the tags?!?!" :D ( Read more... )