The Swerve: A review
Sometime in the middle of the first century before the birth of Christ, a Roman philosopher and poet, Titus Lucretius Carus, wrote his only surviving work: an epic poem entitled De rerum natura, or On...
View ArticleRadio Hour: Sherlock Holmes
Went to Salt Lake last night, to see (and especially hear) Plan B Theatre and KUER’s production of Radio Hour: Sherlock Holmes and the Blue Carbuncle. Plan B and Radio West does this every year, get...
View ArticleThe Hobbit: A review
Before seeing The Hobbit last night, my wife and I were having dinner, when some old friends came up to our restaurant table; smiles, hugs, ‘how you doin’?' They were going to see Les Mis, told us...
View ArticleFrancis Scott Key and the anthem we’re probably stuck with
Just read a really good book, thought I’d tell you about it. The title: Snow-storm in August: Francis Scott Key, Washington City and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835, by Jefferson Morley. Great read,...
View ArticleThe Man Who Loved China, or, how dumb can a smart guy be?
Got a great book for Christmas, gift from my daughter-in-law, just finished it. It’s The Man Who Loved China, by Simon Winchester. If you don’t know Winchester, look him up; he’s a British ex-pat who...
View ArticleObama’s Second Inaugural
I was going to do this historical thing about Inaugural addresses. Talk about Washington, who thought it might be kind of nice to include a speech after he took the oath–which meant all the subsequent...
View ArticleParker: A Review
We’re supposedly living in a new, egalitarian world of literary criticism, where distinctions between ‘literary fiction’ and ‘genre fiction’ or the distinctions between ‘high culture’ and ‘popular...
View ArticleJ. K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy: A review
What do you do for an encore? You’re a writer, and you’ve written the most successful series of novels in history. The movies have all been made. The theme park is flourishing. It’s time to move on....
View ArticleJack the Giant Slayer: Review
Some movies are profound and some are life-changing and some move you deeply to the bottom of your soul and some are laughably terrible. And some are just a lot of fun. We go to movies for lots of...
View ArticleThe First Four Notes: A review
I love books like this. Smart, sassy, informative, informed. A really bright person writing about something he loves, something that makes you feel brighter for having read it. If you like music,...
View ArticleThe World Until Yesterday: Review
Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel was a game-changer, one of the most important and remarkable books of the last fifty years. The mystery he set out to solve was this: why were some civilizations...
View ArticleNoah
Big announcement on LDS.org: the Church is releasing a new version of the scriptures. The scriptures themselves won’t really change, but explanatory information–chapter headings, the Bible...
View ArticleBeautiful Creatures: A Review
February is called ‘take out the garbage’ month in Hollywood. All their Oscar-worthy pics got released before the New Year, and the whole publicity machine is gearing up for the summer action flick...
View ArticleDogfight: Calvin Trillin takes on the last election. In verse.
Just got Calvin Trillin’s new book of verse, Dogfight, about the election recently concluded. And this song lyric, about Michele Bachman, tickled my funny bone. Michele, my belle Thinks that gays will...
View ArticleThe Lightning Tree: A review
Sarah Dunster’s The Lightning Tree is an outstanding example of a tough genre in which to publish–Mormon-oriented historical fiction. To call it that, though, may be to limit its appeal. Mostly it’s...
View ArticleFive Myths about Nuclear Weapons: A Review
Let’s talk about nuclear weapons. Honestly, I almost didn’t bother with Ward Wilson’s book, Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons. I wasn’t sure what more there was to be said about the subject. Especially...
View Article‘Mormon’ literature
This past Saturday was the Annual Meeting for the Association for Mormon Letters. I’ve been a member of AML for twenty years, and try never to miss the Annual Meeting. It’s basically an academic...
View ArticleUlysses Grant, in war and peace
And then the war ended, and the South had to cope with having lost. And so they turned to the novels of Sir Walter Scott, that world of romantic myth. They turned to Ivanhoe, to that great tale of...
View ArticleJohn Dies at the End: A review
Let me just put it out there; you either like this kind of movie, or you don’t, and there’s an easy way to tell if you’ll like this one. John Dies at the End begins with a riddle. The riddle scene is...
View ArticleThe Zen of the Knuckleball
A major league fastball arrives at the plate at a velocity of around 90 to 95 MPH. To throw a ball that hard requires that a pitcher turn his entire body into a sling, generating power, not just from...
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