Tag: nonfiction books

REVIEW: Before fleeing in horror from a book about numbers and mathematics, take a moment to consider the humor of Charles Wheelan's “Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data” (ISBN: 978-0-393-34777-7). Odds are you'll enjoy it. Well, at least sixty or seventy percent of it.

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REVIEW: Demonstrating how the malignancy known as Conservatism has repeatedly poisoned the Supreme Court of the United States, "Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted" by Ian Millhiser (ISBN: 9781568584560) is detailed, horrific, and important.

The post Book Review: Supreme Injustice in ‘Injustices: The Supreme Court’s History of Comforting the Comfortable’ appeared first on MuseWire.

REVIEW: Barton Swaim has done what every writer secretly longs to do: publish the unvarnished reality about his jerk employer. Too short to be called a tell-all, 'The Speechwriter: A Brief Education in Politics' (ISBN: 9781476769929) is an interesting portrait of a stupid and disgusting Republican politician (as if there's any other kind).

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REVIEW: Richard Nixon embodied nearly everything that is evil about Conservatives, and then he added alcoholism and paranoia to the mix. In Tim Weiner's 'One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon' (ISBN: 9781627790833), the revelations from Nixon's recently-released secret tapes go beyond the deceitfulness we already knew about Tricky Dick.

The post Book Review: Nix On Nixon – ‘One Man Against the World’ appeared first on MuseWire.

Robotics, politics, and economics -- they're coming to take your job. That's just one warning in "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future" (ISBN: 9780465059997), Martin Ford's quietly frightening book that's actually more about economics than robotics.

The post Book Review: ‘Rise of the Robots’ – They’re coming to take your job! appeared first on MuseWire.

REVIEW: It may sound like baby-talk but Dada was a controversial art movement that flared up during World War I and insisted on taking unconventionality to new heights. "Destruction Was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century" (ISBN: 9780465089963) by Jed Rasula presents a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of Dadaists as they attempted to forever alter art and literature.

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REVIEW: Making things go 'boom' is just one result of the incredible journey of the scientists working with Ernest O. Lawrence. His besmirch and destruction lairs -- oops, I mean research and development facilities -- shaped our modern age. Michael Hiltzik takes you up close and personal with the people of “Big Science” (ISBN: 9781451675757) who put us on the road to dealing with the dreaded military-industrial complex.

The post Book Review: My, What Big Science You Have! Dealing with the Dreaded Military-industrial Complex appeared first on MuseWire.

BOOK REVIEW: If humanity keeps on its present course, the result may well be “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History” (ISBN: 9781250062185). Elizabeth Kolbert's writing is delightful even as her book documents a doomsday scenario.

The post Will Humans be the Next Extinction? Welcome to Doomsday in Kolbert’s ‘The Sixth Extinction’ appeared first on MuseWire.

REVIEW: Chuckles, chortles, grins, guffaws and belly laughs. You'll find all that and more in 'The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America' (ISBN: 9780060920081), a wonderfully observant and politically incorrect book from Bill Bryson.

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REVIEW: With two million copies sold, Howard Zinn's 'A People's History of the United States' (ISBN: 9780060838652) is possibly the most successful history book in, well, history. It is also riveting, sobering, and valuable. While decent Americans admire it, RWNJs loathe it.

The post Book Review: Birthed in Blood and Betrayal – A People’s History of the United States appeared first on MuseWire.

BOOK REVIEW: From a force for good to today's evil incarnate, the Republican Party has had its rare ups and insidious downs before arriving at their current position as supporters of gridlock, corporatism, oligarchy, and all things anti-humane. In "To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party" (ISBN: 9780465024315) the whole sordid story of the GOP is told by Heather Cox Richardson in lightning-fast segments.

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REVIEW (by John Scott G): Stacks of facts tumble over each other in the second edition of 'What You Should Know About Politics...But Don't" (ISBN-13: 9781611454758) by Jessamyn Conrad, and it would be an incredibly valuable book if it contained an index. Still, this is a fairly handy reference guide despite some notable lapses into placating the odious conservative fringe.

The post Book Review: ‘What You Don’t Know About Politics’ Would Fill a Book appeared first on MuseWire.

REVIEW: Humanity triumphs on every page of Elizabeth Warren's "A Fighting Chance" (ISBN: 9781627790529). Her life story is inspirational but it's her goals -- fairness, a level playing field, justice -- that are crucial to our country's future.

The post Book Review: People Deserve ‘A Fighting Chance’ appeared first on MuseWire.

REVIEW: Glenn Greenwald's excellent "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State" (ISBN: 9781627790734) is not only about Edward Snowden and the NSA; it's also about power. Who gets to watch you? Who gets to know your life's decisions? Who gets to monitor your activities? And who is watching the watchers?

The post Book Review: We Have ‘No Place to Hide’ appeared first on MuseWire.

REVIEW: With an eye-catching title, Elijah Wald's "How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music" (ISBN: 9780199756971) is an off-kilter look at the progression of music from ragtime to rock to rap, with lots of insights on swing, jazz, folk, and blues. Consistently interesting and fun to read, the book pays special attention to what the media and the American mindset have done to influence the music we hear today.

The post Book Review: Good Title, Bad Title for ‘How Beatles Destroyed Rock’ appeared first on MuseWire.

REVIEW: Peter Schuck's "Why Government Fails So Often: And How it Can do Better" (ISBN: 9780691161624) takes 30 pages of brilliant observation and crams it into 412 pages of text. His combination of garrulousness and impenetrable language makes it a very long and extensive and extended and elongated and lengthy and protracted and time-consuming and boring read.

The post Book Review: Bad Writing is One Reason ‘Why Government Fails so Often’ appeared first on MuseWire.

BOOK REVIEW: Peeling back the thick tapestries of privacy shielding the odious Koch brothers, Daniel Schulman's "Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty" (ISBN: 9781455518739) is consistently compelling and a good read. There's a lot here: the Koch's anti-American politics, their disgusting waste of personal wealth, their in-fighting and lawsuits, their dysfunctional family life, and their attitude of total warfare against people in the middle class.

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BOOK REVIEW: Spies! Treachery! Deception! Camels! With an eye for detail and a love of intrigue, Scott Anderson plunks you down in the desert for 'Lawrence in Arabia' (ISBN-13: 978-0385532921). The author unleashes a rip-snortin' tale that ultimately reveals a lot of the backstory on the muddle that is today's Middle East.

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