Category: Books/Museum Reviews

  • The Monster We Make by Rachel Corbett

    Criminal profiling: what’s it good for? Rachel Corbett takes a stab at it (I’ll see myself out) and comes away with a book that is an easy read, informative, but also a little light. Corbett starts off by talking about a personal situation which led her down the path of crime investigating. What follows is…

  • Funny Business by Matt Singer

    Ah, to be young and funny again. I am one of those old curmudgeons who looks around the multiplex nowadays and whines, “Where are all the comedies anymore?” Just kidding, there is almost zero chance I go to the movies anymore. I always end up next to someone on their phone, talking to their date,…

  • Valley So Low by Jared Sullivan

    This book made me cough. Yes, that is a strange way to start a book review, but hear me out. Jared Sullivan tells the story of America’s worst coal disaster in his exceptional Valley So Low. In 2008, a gigantic mountain of ash waste did what mountains of waste do and fell over. No one…

  • Kennedy’s Only Hero by Joel Nelson

    I think it’s important to put reviews in perspective. I loved Kennedy’s Only Hero by Joel Nelson. This is somewhat extraordinary as I really dislike JFK. Now that I have enraged at least a few people, let’s talk about the book! Nelson reveals that JFK was a legitimate Winston Churchill fanboy. There is no other…

  • The Widow Van Gogh by Joan Martelli

    Why read novels when you can read a book like The Widow Van Gogh by Joan Martelli? It has everything from a weird love triangle to situations that are so cliche they would be laughed out of a pitch meeting. These all revolve around the tragic life of art icon Vincent van Gogh and the…

  • Tyrant Lizard Queen by Riley Black

    I mean, how much do I need to expound upon when a book is titled Tyrant Lizard Queen about a T. Rex? If you are reading this, you are going to want to read the book. It’s very simple. You want more? Okay fine. Riley Black, the author, is an honest to goodness paleontologist. You…

  • Redemption by Lawrence Wright

    Redemption by Lawrence Wright is not what you think it is. Sure, you are getting the story of nuns going to death row to meet with women who may one day be executed by the state of Texas. However, Wright wants to ask the big and unanswerable questions about the justice system, God, and, of…

  • Yakuza by Andrew Rankin

    I’ll admit it. I am one of those people who thought the yakuza are just the Japanese mafia. As with many things, I was wrong again. Luckily, I had Andrew Rankin and his excellent Yakuza to set me straight. Rankin goes back 400 years to find the roots of what would become the yakuza. The…

  • Hate Speech by Samantha Barbas

    Ah, hate speech. The perfect way to find out if someone knows what the First Amendment actually says. I can tell you one thing, author Samantha Barbas certainly understands it, and the proof is her wonderful Hate Speech. (Please note, Hate Speech is the title, and I am not saying that her “hate speech” is…