Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar by James Marcus Bach

The learning process is not restricted to the classroom – at least, not for Bach, whose unconventional “buccaneer” approach to learning set him at odds with his school system at an early age.  He became a school dropout and emancipated minor at 15.  The prime making of a loser?  Think again -  within six years, the author [...]

Shop Class As Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford

The value of work is the recurring theme in Shop Class As Soulcraft.  This eyebrow-raising book explores the dichotomy between white collar employment, of the two considered more academic and abstract, and the milieu of the trades,  in which the work is more hands-on and direct.  Crawford discusses the effects of the industrial age, in which the role of the knowledgeable craftsman diminished in [...]

Believer, Beware selected by Jeff Sharlet, et al.

Faith lurks in many forms and practitioners.  Sometimes those who walk the road to faith are John Q. Public ordinary, and then on occasion, not.  Read up on some of the more unconventional types in this accessible collection of short memoirs and sketches.  Its casts of writers include a seeker of Sufis in war zones, fundamentalist Christian [...]

Writing Places: The Life Journey of a Writer and Teacher by William Zinsser

William Zinsser is best known as the author of On Writing Well, a perennial best seller in the genre of nonfiction writing.  In Writing Places, he recounts with fond memories his long tenure in the writing profession and the locales in which he has written.  He begins with a humorous essay on an office space [...]

Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod

What’s so great about a book based on a blog by a guy who makes his living drawing on the backs of business cards?  For starters, a fair amount of laughs.  Beyond that, some great punchy advice on the creative process, which the author acknowledges is not a peachy one.
MacLeod is great at knocking out all [...]

Edible Food Series

I was checking in books the other day and came across two wonderful books that are part of a series called Edible.  The books I saw were Hot Dog: a global history by Bruce Kraig, and Pie: a global history by Janet Clarkson.  From the back of the book:  “Books in Reaktions’s Edible Series are paragons of [...]

Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh

After reading a brief recommendation of Gang Leader for a Day, I decided to get on the waiting list for it.  I’d read very little about gangs, but knowing the extent to which they are a part of almost every city today, I was interested in learning more about them.
The author tells the story of [...]

Snark : A Polemic in Seven Fits by David Denby

Snark as a form of communication has proliferated greatly in recent years, in part by the leveling field of the Internet, where anyone with a blog and an axe to grind can rage forth with taste or tastelessness against any chosen target, be it the celebrity du jour or any other online contributor whose views they [...]

Methland: the death and life of an American small town by Nick Reding

One would think that life in a given average Midwestern town such as Oelwein, Iowa would be pretty sedate – and safe from big city crimes.  But in the past twenty years, deteriorating economic conditions in the farmlands of the rural United States have helped to usher in escalating illegal manufacturing and use of methamphetamine in these very areas, [...]

False Economy by Alan Beattie

The craziness of our economy in recent years has as its antecedents all kinds of historical shenanigans.  The gall of the credit industry can barely hold a candle to some of the historical bungles that have brought down whole countries by greed and/or stupidity.  But what really determines the economic success of a country – fate [...]