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Category Archives: Nonfiction – Memoir/Biography
A Review of Bill Buford’s Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as a Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
As food memoirs go, this is a good one. The premise is that New Yorker staff writer Bill Buford “accidentally” invited celebrity chef Mario Batali to a dinner party at his home in 2002 (Batali was a friend of a … Continue reading
A Review of John Kaag’s American Philosophy: A Love Story
If nothing else, this memoir will make book lovers everywhere envious of John Kaag. Some six or seven years before he wrote this book, Kaag was in rural New Hampshire helping to organize a conference on William James. He was … Continue reading
A Review of Mike Brown’s How I Killed Pluto And Why It Had It Coming
I bought this book several years ago, back when I qualified for an educator discount and could get paperbacks from Random House for $3 apiece. Whenever you see me review a book that seems out of my usual oeuvre (I … Continue reading
A Review of James Romm’s Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero
Is it just me or is everyone talking about the Stoics lately? One of the adult students I tutor works them into conversation at least once per session, and somehow or other I am part of a Facebook group called … Continue reading
A Review of J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
On the one hand, reacting to the Trump victory by immediately reading a bunch of books about poor people is a condescending and despicable thing to do. I feel a little dirty about it, honestly. On the other hand, the … Continue reading
A Review of Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams’ Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America
I came to this book because of my obsession with Hamilton, of course; I was interested to read a book that focused entirely on the relationship between Hamilton and Washington, and I was also interested to learn about the years … Continue reading
A Review of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Beautiful Struggle
Earlier this year I reviewed Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new and highly-praised memoir Between the World and Me, and you can read my review of that book here. The Beautiful Struggle, published in 2008, is just as good. I read it in … Continue reading
‘Celia’s an Artful Little Slut’ (And Other Thoughts on the Founding Fathers)
I am reading Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, albeit somewhat slowly, and I am trying to share my HAMILTON obsession with you in ways that are not derivative and cliché (you’re welcome), so today I’m here to tell you … Continue reading
Thoughts on Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me (by Bethany)
I read this book in spite of its popularity, not because of it. I read it in a day and can’t quite imagine doing otherwise – this isn’t the sort of volume from which one can be easily distracted. In … Continue reading
Thoughts on Christopher Hitchens’ Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
Robert Frost has been much on my mind lately – probably because my birthday is approaching. Along with Philip Larkin, Frost is the poet that best captures for me the slow but orderly forward motion of time. At the same … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 