Non-Fiction Book Reviews

Review: Random Rationality: A Rational Guide to an Irrational World by Fourat Janabi

Fourat Janabi’s book is something you want to like to begin with – the biography of the author stating, “I am writer, a co-founder, an entrepreneur, a photographer, an explorer, and an idiot,” a sign that indicates a person on the right side of crazy, and therefore I looked forward to diving into this short and well laid-out work.

Janabi thankfully, given the subject matter, does not talk at the reader. It is written simply in the tone of a man at a dinner party, making profound use of his imaginary orange box. And the subjects are vast, uncomfortable, mutable […]

2019-01-22T17:54:57+02:00October 2nd, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Clips & Consequences by Beth Myrle Rice

Imagine being invited to lunch by your ex-husband and his wife to discuss what to do with the hard-to-manage teenager you all have in common. Imagine that, instead of actually going to lunch, they simply stay in the car, turn to you as you sit in the back seat, and accuse you of providing drugs to said teenager. “They were looking for a confession,” writes Beth Myrle Rice of that day in 1995 when the incident happened to her.

Ironically, Clips & Consequences is in part what is known, by definition, as a confessional memoir. In other words, the book […]

2014-05-19T21:46:53+02:00April 5th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Somewhere Over the Rainbow, I’ve Lost My Damn Mind by Derek Thompson

Derek Thompson is a confident young man. “The reason I enjoy making lists so much,” he writes, “is that it is almost impossible to screw up. I mean it’s your list.” So it is with memoir: personal experience is something owned.

Although this book is primarily made with blog posts, this is definitely a memoir. While I’m certain Derek would be first in line to acknowledge he’s not a writer of fine literature, his blog posts aren’t “random thought” or diary-type entries; this is a collection of essays, each containing a narrative arc, a thought process, if you will, that […]

2014-05-19T21:55:28+02:00March 15th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: A Cultural Paradox: Fun in Mathematics by Jeffrey A. Zilahy

A Cultural Paradox: Fun in Mathematics by Jeffrey A. Zilahy “What did the number zero say to the number eight? ‘Very nice belt.’”  Okay I admit that this is a corny joke.  But did you know that the number zero did not make an appearance in history until the 6th century AD?   In fact, the Chinese didn’t create a symbol for zero until the 13th century.  Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am not a math whiz.  I have to use a calculator for simple computations.  So why do I feel smarter when it comes to understanding math?  Simply put, I read Jeffrey A. Zilahy’s […]

2019-01-23T12:38:19+02:00February 28th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: All Storms Pass by Luke Benoit

today I will ask myself what would I be

without anything? ALL OF IT…

what would I be worth if it were all

just stripped away leaving me just

with me and I had to be just who I am?

Page 531

Someone once told me that reading poems was like looking into the poet’s soul.  Luke Benoit’s All Storms Pass: The Anti-Meditations consists of meditations that inspire, challenge, and guide the reader to look into their own soul and to find his or her true self.  Benoit is a Certified Life Coach and a Certified Professional NLP Hypnotist.  He […]

2014-05-19T22:12:04+02:00February 21st, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Basic Options Trading by Rocco Pendola

Basic Options Trading by Rocco PendolaBasic Options Trading: Options Strategies For Beginners by Rocco Pendola is not a get rich quick read.  If you are looking for a book to offer you outrageous guarantees about fast cash and then retiring along the Mediterranean this is not the book for you.  However, if you are looking for a sensible, down-to-earth guide about the basic principles of options investing then Pendola’s eBook is a good start.    The writer focuses on defining the concept of basic options, not giving advice as to how to make a quick buck.  He writes, “I want you to be able to use […]

2019-01-23T12:49:29+02:00February 9th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Black Flies in the Backyard with Snowshoes by Kevin Brian Carroll

I read through the opening pages, called “Before We Get Started” and I had the feeling I was going to be reading a book about a Blues Band from Albany. I wanted to research the material, but the link given to the band was wrong… http://WAlbanyStBlues.com should be https://WAlbanStBluesBand.com. And I am thinking, oh, boy, we need an editor here, stat.

I then started getting into the book itself; the first chapter. I thought, oh my, Hunter S. Thompson’s final work? Or maybe this is his protégé? This is soooo Gonzo Journalism; but the author is no journalist. The author […]

2013-06-19T10:21:32+02:00January 26th, 2012|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: , |

Review: Freedom and Circumstance by Oswald Sobrino

For me, poets and philosophers are like cake and ice cream: they go together. Both wed disparate elements of reality, sometimes explosively, always in startling ways. Both go beyond the words to a place bone deep. When I read or listen to them, my eyes pop. My mouth goes all WOWy. My spirit is cleansed, refreshed, and I’m able to write on. You might say that, like cake and ice cream, poets and philosophers are important human resources.

Take Ortega y Gasset, an influential twentieth-century Spanish philosopher. That’s all I remembered about him from a course I took on existentialist […]

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