Margaret MacMillan and The War to End All Wars
If you haven’t read either of Margaret Macmillan’s epic works on World War I, The War That Ended Peace and Paris 1919, published in 2014 and 2003 respectively, then you are missing out on the new industry standards on the…
Daniel Yergin’s The Prize: Black Gold and Oil
Two history books I highly recommend by the author Daniel Yergin, are The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, and The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. The books were written some twenty…
Sophie’s World: Philosophy 101
What I found to be a really good read of fiction is Sophie’s World, a novel by Jostein Gaarder. It was written in 1991 and translated from its original Norwegian. The translation is a well balanced bit of writing, and…
Anarchists Unite!
The city of Buffalo is rarely the backdrop for any book, fiction and non-fiction alike, yet in John Smolens’ The Anarchist: A Novel published in 2009, it indeed becomes center-stage in this historical-fiction depiction of what could be described as America’s…
Roses are Red
An exceptional read within the historical-fiction genre is Conn Iggulden’s Wars of the Roses Trinity . Iggulden is best known for his series on Genghis Khan, but this is also an exceptional book. The book is actually part of a…
Apocalypse Now! Book Review of Station Eleven
Station Eleven: A novel by Emily St. John Mandel, is an award-nominated, Chapters Indigo Picks, Amazon well reviewed, pre- and post-apocalyptic book of science fiction. The story interweaves the lives of various characters, (Arthur Leander, Jeeven Chaudhary and Kristen Raymonde…
The Legacy of a Dream
Contrary to popular opinion Canadian history is not dull. Case in point: Champlain’s Dream, by David Hackett Fischer. This award-winning, non-fiction book is an exhaustively researched, yet highly readable account of Canada’s earliest years, as recounted through the valorous and…
Terry Brooks and His Writing
Reading Terry Brooks is a good way to relax. I have, for the most part, enjoyed reading the writings of Terry Brooks, and his many series. He is one of my favourite fantasy writers, and he is also one of…
