Book Reviews

The first time I read a novel or any work of fiction it’s all about the story. Who did what, where, when and why. If the story is compelling I will fly through it, eager…

History was an easy subject for me to grasp in school, maybe because history is simply a collection of stories that actually happened. I have always loved the subject. History helps us understand how we…

One of the constant themes in my life — and the one I’d focus on if I ever wrote a book — is how we balance wealth, giving, and our faith. We live in the…

So we begin the top ten countdown in this series, and I start it off with a great one. Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts is simply brilliant. It might be my favorite novel…

Books can create different worlds that take us to new places. But books can also recreate old worlds that remind us of what once was. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett took me to an…

Rarely do I read a book that puts words to ideas that I wasn’t aware I had. Rarely do I like a book by an author with an immense ego and insults all kinds of…

When I want to learn about another country I will turn to all the usual sources: history books, travel guides, online articles, etc. Turning to a novel would not be my first instinct. But The…

A comment from a friend that made me smile: “That’s a lot of books.” Indeed, 2012 was a good year for my reading habits. Or listening habits, since so many were audiobooks. A record for…