I’ve had a deep love of reading since my mother read to me as a child. So writing book reviews of both fiction and nonfiction is a real pleasure. My views on reading now have been shaped by my time in library school at the University of South Florida, studying under Dr. Kathleen de la Peña McCook. Her emphasis on libraries’ mission to promote reading and reading culture has shaped the way I approach reviewing. My typical aim is to describe both the book and the audience that would best appreciate it, while keeping in mind the responsibility to curate and highlight work that promotes meaning and introspection.
Below are links to a selection of my reviews (organized by category) and author interviews.
Nonfiction
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, lies and leadership. By James Comey. 2018
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. By Michael Wolff. 2018
Spain in our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. By Adam Hochschild. 2016
The Witches: Salem, 1692. By Stacy Schiff. 2015
The Road to Character. By David Brooks. 2015
The Little Way of Ruthie Leming. By Rod Dreher. 2013
A Singular Woman: The untold story of Barack Obama’s mother. By Janny Scott. 2011
The Climate War: True believers, power brokers and the fight to save the earth. By Eric Pooley. 2010
This Book is Overdue!: How librarians and cybrarians can save us all. By Marilyn Johnson. 2010
Notes From the Cracked Ceiling: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin and what it will take for a woman to win. By Anne E. Kornblut. 2010
Louisa May Alcott: A personal biography. By Susan Cheever. 2010
Cleopatra: A life. By Stacy Schiff. 2010
What is the What: The autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng. By Dave Eggers. 2007
We the Media: Grassroots journalism by the people, for the people. By Dan Gillmor. 2004
Against Love: A polemic. By Laura Kipnis. 2003
Everything and more: A compact history of infinity. By David Foster Wallace. 2003
Fiction
Conversations with Friends. By Sally Rooney. 2017
Speak. By Louisa Hall. 2015
Lila. By Marilynne Robinson. 2014
The Bone Clocks. By David Mitchell. 2014
Longbourn. By Jo Baker. 2014
The Son. By Philipp Meyer. 2013
The Interestings. By Meg Wolitzer. 2013
Caleb’s Crossing. By Geraldine Brooks. 2011
The Art of Fielding. By Chad Harbach. 2011
Home. By Marilynne Robinson. 2008
Author interviews
Deciding What’s True: The rise of political fact-checking in American journalism. By Lucas Graves. 2016
The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by religion and politics. By Jonathan Haidt. 2012
Policy and Evidence in a Partisan Age: The great disconnect. By Paul Gary Wyckoff. 2009
Then We Came to the End. By Joshua Ferris. 2007
Severance. By Robert Olen Butler. 2006
What Paul Meant. By Garry Wills. 2006
Last updated July 8, 2018