Books I Have Already Reviewed 06

Concluding a review of books I have already reviewed, with a brief statement of what I found interesting in them.

The Essays of EB White. 1977. Impressions of New England and New York City, among other topics.

Fanshawe: A Tale. Hawthorne. 1828. Fiction. Even Hawthorne knew that this novel/romance wasn't much good. Don't bother with it.

The Flowering of New England. Van Wyck Brooks. 1936. The New England intellectual renaissance between the American Revolution and the American Civil War.

For the Glory. Ken Denlinger. 1994. Major college football from the players' point of view. It isn't pretty.

Fox at the Wood's Edge: Loren Eiseley. Gale Christianson. 1990. Biography. Eiseley was a paleontologist who wrote poetic, haunting essays and some poetry.

From Time to Time: A Novel. Jack Finney. 1995. Fun to read. Sequel to the cult classic, Time and Again, an enjoyable return to the old days. A serious note: If we could engage in time travel, how wise will it be to manipulate and change what occurred in history?

Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany in WWII. Thomas Childres. 1995. Written by an historian from the letters of the doomed crew during the war. Vivid re-creation of what it was like to fly B-24s on missions from England to Germany. The crushing irony of the celebration of V-E Day just after these young men had died.

F. Scott Fitzgerald on Writing. Ed. Larry W. Phillips. 1985. "The desire for glory has to be matched by the endurance of the monotony needed to achieve it."

The Future of the Novel: Essays on the Art of Fiction. Henry James. 1956. "The only purpose of the novel is to reflect life. The good novel should give the reader a sense of experience."

Future Shock. Alvin Toffler. 1971. The rhythm of the writing matches the frenetic pace of change in American life.

The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure and Effects of National Socialism. Karl Dietrich Bracher. 1970. "The German dictatorship has failed, but German democracy has not yet been secured."

Giants in the Earth. O.E. Rolvaag. 1927. Novel. Vivid picture of the excitement, fear and tragedy in settling the American frontier. Some people are not meant to be pioneers.

Good Advice on Writing: Writers Past and Present on How to Write Well. William Safire and Leonard Safir. 1992. Some interesting ideas on how successful writers write.

The Greatest Benefit of Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity. Roy Porter. 1997. From bloodletting to a pill for every ill. Have we really progressed?

The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald. 1926. Novel. The attempt to fulfill the American dream proves shallow, materialistic, illusory and tragic.

The Greek Way. Edith Hamilton. 1930. During the dark days after JFK's assassination, Robert Kennedy read this book, given to him by Jackie Kennedy. It helped him to accept actively, not passively or resignedly, the tragedies and joys of life, as did the ancient Greeks.

A Handful of Dust. Evelyn Waugh. 1934. Novel. Portrait of the bored British aristocrat in the 1930s.