Review of Book Reviews in 2007 by RayS.

Instructions: The date at the beginning of each book is the date on which my review was published in this blog. Each review consists of three parts: 1. “Why read it?” 2. Sample ideas from the book, either paraphrased or quoted, and 3. Final, thought-provoking quotes. To locate the review, look at the “Blog Archive” on the right of the blog. Click on the year 2007. Find the month in which the review was published, click on it and go to the date of the review.

Sunday, March 25, 2007. Bill Campbell: The Voice of Philadelphia Sports. Sam Carchidi. Bill Campbell was as much a part of Philadelphia sports as booing.

Monday, March 26, 2007. The Blithedale Romance. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Novel. Hawthorne was a feminist before his time. The intellectual woman is no match for the sweet, clinging. dependent and worshipful pretty girl whom men seek as their companions.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007. The Bonfire of the Vanities. Tom Wolfe. Novel. Goal of the Justice System: Don't do what's right; do what is going to make you look good in the media. Affluent lawyer winds up on the other side of the law, although he has not caused the death of a black teenager who was attempting to rob him. Innocence is proved guilty.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007. Booknotes: America's Finest Authors on Reading, Writing, and the Power of Ideas. Brian Lamb, Ed. How do writers write? Fascinating view of the writing process. On one thing most of these writers agree: it takes years to write books.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007. The Book on the Bookshelf. Henry Petroski. The author describes the growing problem through the centuries of finding enough shelf space for books.

Sunday, April 8, 2007. The Brothers Karamazov. Fyodor Dostoeyevsky. Novel. Who killed Fyodor Karamazov? All of his sons in one way or another. A very philosophical novel on good and evil, sons’ hatred for their fathers and people’s hatred of authority.

Monday, April 16, 2007. Catch-22. Joseph Heller. Novel. A man would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't but if he was sane, he had to fly them. A “catch-22” is a diabolical dilemma.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007. Building of Christendom. Warren H. Carroll. The cruelty of Christians to other Christians and Jews, vividly told. The brutal conquests of Christian countries by Muslims. One reader said that if history had been written like this when he was in high school, he would have loved history. He was referring to how history is written, not the bloody and cruel nature of the events.

Thursday, April 19, 2007. Civilization: A Personal View. Kenneth Clark.? History of Western civilization. A personal study of the nature of civilization, which needs confidence to construct and is easily destroyed.

Sunday, April 22, 2007. A Collection of Essays. George Orwell. In one of his most famous essays, Orwell rails against the misuse of the English language, but he makes the same mistakes in his own writing. In another essay, “Shooting an Elephant,” he learns that the conquering British Empire is at the mercy of the people it has conquered.