One of my favorite authors is Patrick O’Brian, creator of the “Master and Commander” sailing series. All 20 books of it. He was a bit of an eccentric who left his family before World War II, seemed to have a government job that perhaps pertained to military intelligence and who legally changed his name after […]

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One of my favorite writers is the late Patrick O’Brian, author of the 20-plus-volume Aubrey-Matarin series — set mostly on the high seas during the Napoleonic wars, circa 1790-1815. It is a great work of historical fiction, centered on the title characters — the English navy captain Jack Aubrey and his “particular friend”, Stephen Maturin, […]

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As a sportsman, Jim Bouton was best-known as a pitcher for three early-1960s New York Yankees teams that reached the World Series. As a careful observer and serial pot-stirrer, he was best-known for the diary he kept of the 1969 Seattle Pilots season, which led to the 1970 book Ball Four. It was an endeavor […]

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World War II ended more than 70 years ago, and it is rare to find a new analysis of key events. But a German journalist named Norman Ohler has managed it, in his 2016 book Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich — which I have finally gotten around to reading. Ohler generally prefers the blunderbuss […]

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Many of us have strong opinions on X percent of the books we read, perhaps evenly divided between “loved” and “hated”. Several of those in the latter category will tend to come from English classes in high school or college. Assigned reading for our greater edification. Books considered classics, though we may often wonder why. […]

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The exchange of insults between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un heated up this week, with the Korean dictator/president for life puzzling many in America by threatening: “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.” I don’t know how Kim’s insults are translated into English, whether it is a bot or […]

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Reading Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. Loving it still; almost depressed that I an nearing the end. And finding new appreciation for J.R.R. Tolkien’s plotting and narrative skills. Books 3 through 6 are marvels of elastic storytelling, with the author shifting among as many as four plot lines. Three of the plot […]

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It sounded promising. I Hate the Internet, by a little-known author, Jarett Kobek. Self-published, self-publicized. Got a bit of traction when a photo of Bret Easton Ellis circulated showing him reading the book in bed. The New York Times did a review, which was mostly complimentary. I checked Amazon, and the price was $7. I […]

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Today was the rainiest day I have encountered in France and while cooped up in the rental home I read the whole of Kurt Larson‘s 1999 book Isaac’s Storm. That is the book that launched Larson on his career of “popular narrative nonfiction”, as the New York Times described it. Or to explain a little, […]

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Stefan Zweig. Know him? I thought not. Neither did I, until I expressed my interest in the history of Europe before the First World War while in the earshot of our friend Mary, who has an enormous library in her home in Paris. She later sent me the names of five authors, including Zweig, with […]

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