Category: Book review

For thirty-five years I’ve been recommending William Zinsser’s On Writing Wel. It is the essential book on the craft, especially for new writers. Zinsser zeroes in on all the myths, bad habits and misunderstandings people have when they start writing.
Continue reading “Cut the Clutter”

With the release of the movie version of the musical Les Misérables, friends and foes alike have debated its merits, demerits–loving it and hating it for being and not being faithful to the original stage production. Here’s an excerpt from A Deeper Look at James, forthcoming from IVP this spring and from my wife, Phyllis, and me, that considers what’s behind both versions of Victor Hugo’s famed book.
Continue reading “Les Misérables You Never Knew”

Before we get to the winners of the 2013 Andys (gotta build a little suspense), let me offer an overview of what I read this year. Of the twenty-four books listed, five were fiction, two were business books, six were audio books and eight were narrative non-fiction.

Anything new in my reading habits this year? Yes, a couple things. The list included the first ebook I read on my Kindle given to me last Christmas. And there were two self-published books in the list. Both suggest I am part of key trends–and I do love to be trendy.

But now, to the winners, with my own incisive and hyper-witty Synop-Tweet (a tweet-sized synopsis) of each:
Continue reading “The 2013 Andys”

The world awaits with hushed anticipation. Who will win the 2013 Andys for most, least, worst, longest, shortest, oldest and best books from my 2012 reading list? But first, of course,

the nominees. Here they are, the books I read outside the office, in the order I finished them, linking them to the edition I had.
Continue reading “The Nominees for 2013 Are In”

Paul Johnson has a point of view. And in Modern Times he takes no pains to hide it. His narrative history of the twentieth century (see my first installment here) is replete with heroes and villains. The three enemies of the twentieth century that he vilifies throughout, roughly in the order he takes them up, are
Continue reading “Modern Times (3): Enemies of the Twentieth Century”

Twenty-five years ago friends of mine were talking about Paul Johnson’s Modern Times (now revised and expanded), telling me it was a must read. I was always daunted by the size. But this fall I realized that I had several long flights coming up when I knew I could make a big dent in it. So while others flashed their Kindles at me, I happily plowed into 800 pages of pulp, glue and ink.
Continue reading “Modern Times (2): Events That Obstinately Don’t Occur”

What makes Paul Johnson’s Modern Times so entertaining is that the guy is markedly opinionated. No dry history of the twentieth century this. No boring lists of dates and of names from around the world to memorize. No bland writing here. No indeed. His judgments pop out everywhere in his assessment of many key figures and events from the era. For Johnson, the received historical wisdom on these matters is just so much poppycock. Here’s a sampling:
Continue reading “Modern Times (1): Contrarian Historian”

We can’t help but think and speak in metaphors. A hot temperature is the “high” for the day and a cold temperature is the “low.” The future is “ahead” and the past “behind.”

As James Geary says in I Is an Other, virtually the only way to understand something new is in reference to the old. When the theory of plate tectonics was first used to explain continental drift in the 1960s, the earth was compared to rice pudding–hard on the surface but pliable and liquid underneath (pp. 174-75). And electromagnetic fields were compared to two absolutely still corks floating separately in a bowl of water. Push one and the other moves. Not a perfect analogy, but helpful.

Yet not every metaphor works. Greary gives several examples. Here’s a headline from the Tulsa World:
Continue reading “I Is an Other (4): When Metaphors Strike Out”

In the current election cycle, America is once again finding out the power of metaphor. Mitt Romney got some points out of “trickle-down government” in the first presidential debate. Barack Obama failed to counter with one of his own. While the principle famously guiding the Clinton campaign in 1992 was, “It’s the economy, stupid,” perhaps the better piece of wisdom would be, “It’s the Metaphors, Stupid.”
Continue reading “I Is an Other (3): It’s the Metaphors, Stupid!”

Metaphors aren’t just clever comparisons. Metaphors are the way we think.

In I Is an Other James Greary (see previous blog here) demonstrates this by considering Rebecca. When she reads a headline that says, “Belt Tightening Lies Ahead,” or if someone says, “I’ll show you the ropes,” she has no idea what either means. She doesn’t wear a belt, and no one showed her any ropes. Rebecca is an extremely intelligent person who has Asperger’s syndrome. Her brain is virtually incapable of processing metaphors. She only understands what is literal (or metaphors whose meaning she has memorized).
Continue reading “I Is an Other (2): Wired for Metaphor”