http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/category/book_reviews/ Truthdig, a Web magazine that provides expert in-depth coverage of current affairs as well as a variety of thoughtful, provocative content assembled from a progressive point of view. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. en editor@truthdig.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-17T15:26:23+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/category/book_reviews/ http://www.truthdig.com/images/rss_feed_promo.gif http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/this_gay_man_represented_the_president_20120217/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/this_gay_man_represented_the_president_20120217/ book, fit to serve, gay, james c. hormel, mel white, memoir, review, Book Review

James C. Hormel’s transformation from a confused and closeted gay kid to the nation’s first openly gay ambassador is chronicled in his memoir “Fit to Serve.”

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]]> 2012-02-17T15:26:23+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/political_divide_20120209/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/political_divide_20120209/ alan abramowitz, book, democracy, disconnect, morris. p. fiorina, polarization, review, samuel j. abrams, the disappearing center, the polarized public, thomas byrne edsall, Book Review By Thomas Byrne Edsall

Are voters as polarized as their elected officials? The question, which has serious implications in an election year, has put political scientists at loggerheads in several new and recent books.

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]]> 2012-02-10T05:21:36+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/kim_jong_un_this_ones_for_you_20120203/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/kim_jong_un_this_ones_for_you_20120203/ adam johnson, book, dystopia, kim jong un, north korea, review, the orphan master’s son, Book Review

“The Orphan Master’s Son” by Adam Johnson is a rich, careening, dystopian tale that gives us a visceral hit of life inside North Korea.

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]]> 2012-02-03T10:52:16+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/a_unique_face_of_evil_20120126/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/a_unique_face_of_evil_20120126/ a life, biography, book, germany, heinrich himmler, himmler, hitler, jonathan yardley, military history, nazi, peter longerich, review, world war ii, Book Review By Jonathan Yardley

“Himmler was the complete opposite of a faceless functionary,” Peter Longerich writes in “Heinrich Himmler.” “The position he built up over the years can instead be described as an extreme example of the almost total personalization of political power.”

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]]> 2012-01-27T05:13:37+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/no_mickey_in_this_maus_20120119/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/no_mickey_in_this_maus_20120119/ art spiegelman, book, holocaust, maus, metamaus, mr. fish, review, Book Review

Art Spiegelman’s “MetaMaus” is a 300-page user’s guide to his own Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus” (you know, Holocaust-graphic-novel-Jews-as-mice-Nazis-as-cats).

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]]> 2012-01-21T05:48:14+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/europe_in_free_fall_20120112/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/europe_in_free_fall_20120112/ after the fall, book, europe, financial crisis, great depression, review, walter laqueur, william drozdiak, Book Review By William Drozdiak

In “After the Fall: The End of the European Dream and the Decline of a Continent,” Walter Laqueur explains how Europe’s success in constructing a harmonious community of states actually masked serious social, economic and political vulnerabilities that proved too fragile to bear the world’s most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression.

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]]> 2012-01-14T04:47:42+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/sin_and_sustenance_20120105/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/sin_and_sustenance_20120105/ book, jean randich, lauren b. davis, novel, our daily bread, review, Book Review

Lauren B. Davis’ thrilling, polyphonic new novel, “Our Daily Bread,” takes us into a backwoods clan rife with child abuse and incest, and asks the question: “When does another person’s suffering become my responsibility?”

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]]> 2012-01-07T05:15:11+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/doubts_about_eloquence_20111229/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/doubts_about_eloquence_20111229/ book, jeff shesol, review, rhetoric, speechwright, william gavin, Book Review By Jeff Shesol

“The desire to be inspired,” William F. Gavin writes in “Speechwright,” “to be uplifted, to be made to feel deeply, to be swept away, and thrilled is the mark of jaded citizens who have forgotten that the major goal of political rhetoric should be to make good arguments, clearly and honestly.”

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]]> 2011-12-31T04:53:44+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/jesus_was_lynched_20111222/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/jesus_was_lynched_20111222/ book, james h. cone, mel white, review, the cross and the lynching tree, Book Review

According to James H. Cone’s “The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” Jesus was crucified by the same principalities and powers that lynched almost 5,000 black people in this country. The lynching tree is the cross in America.

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]]> 2011-12-24T04:43:38+00:00 http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/so_about_that_severed_ear_20111215/ http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/so_about_that_severed_ear_20111215/ biography, book, gregory white smith, review, steven naifeh, the life, van gogh, vincent van gogh, Book Review By Julia Frey

A marvelous new biography of Vincent Van Gogh asks what if it was untreatable epilepsy that drove him mad, he didn’t cut off his lobe for a woman and he was killed by delinquents rather than committing suicide?

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