Category Archives: Book Review

Book Review – A Spy in the Sky

A Spy in the Sky Johnson, Kenneth B. Pen and Sword Books, Yorkshire, 2019 How could I not pick up a book with a PRU blue Spitfire on the cover and subtitled “A Photographic Reconnaissance Spitfire Pilot in WWII”?  I … Continue reading

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Occupy This Body

Occupy This Body, A Buddhist Memoir Suh, Sharon Sumeru Press, 2019 The author’s story is fascinating from several angles. For one, it’s a glimpse into what it means to be a second generation immigrant living between cultures.  Another is what … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Rider on the White Horse

The Rider on the White Horse Storm, Theodor New York Review Books, 2008 edition of 1964 translation by James Wright of works spanning 1848 – 1888 This book, though titled as one of the works, is a collection of 8 … Continue reading

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Book Review: Red Rosa

Red Rosa A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg Evans, Kate Verso, London, 2015   This book is the first graphic biography I have ever read, and I went in having pretty significant doubts as to how effective the medium would … Continue reading

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Book Review: Justice on the Grass

Temple-Raston, Dina 2005 A study of the “media trial” during the Rwanda war crimes tribunal. The background of the case was that a radio station and several newspapers played significant roles in inciting the racial hatred that led to the … Continue reading

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Book Review: Dreams of my Russian Summers

Dreams of my Russian Summers Makine, Andrei; translated from French by Geoffrey Strachan 1998 A novel of finding one’s identity across several cultures.  The narrator grows up in a mixed Russian-French household; his grandmother was French and in Russia when … Continue reading

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Book Review: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight

Fuller, Alexandra Random House, 2001 An interesting mix of autobiography, history, travel narrative and social commentary wrapped into one neat little package.  Put simply, it’s the story of a white family in southern Africa during the societal changes of the … Continue reading

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Book Review: China Bride

China Bride Luk, Henry Forge, New York, 1998 A completely random book selected by chance from the clearance table at Hastings on a rainy morning with nothing better to do.  Perhaps not totally by chance, as the cover had an … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Heidenmauer; or, The Benedictines. A legend of the Rhine

The Heidenmauer; or, The Benedictines. A legend of the Rhine Cooper, James Fenimore W.A. Townsend and Company, New York, 1861 Background: One of Cooper’s lesser-known novels, this book focuses on the destruction of the Limburg monastery by the combined forces … Continue reading

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Book Review: The Buddha in the Attic

The Buddha in the Attic Otsuka, Julie 2011, Vintage Bought off the “local interest” shelf at City Lights during a brief stop in San Francisco, and read against the context of having visited Manzanar and the OK hotel in Seattle, … Continue reading

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