THE CULT OF PLAGIARISM
What is it, why is matters and other questions in “The Little Book of Plagiarism”
If individualism is characteristic of modernity, Richard A. Posner asserts in his new treatise of legal philosophy, “The Little Book of Plagiarism,” then plagiarism is the by-product of contemporary society’s desire to maintain a cult of personality.
Plagiarism, meanwhile, [...]
Archive for the ‘Book Reviews’ Category
Book Review: “The Little Book of Plagiarism”
Posted in Book Reviews on February 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Book Review: “Supreme Court”
Posted in Book Reviews on February 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The court of personality
Temperament trumps ideology in Jeffrey Rosen’s “The Supreme Court”
With its black robes, marble columns and secret deliberations, the U.S. Supreme Court seems wrapped in an Olympian mystique.
Yet it is a deeply human institution, writes Jeffrey Rosen in “The Supreme Court.” Judicial temperament has played a more important role than judicial ideology, he [...]
Essay: “On Truth,” “An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violin” and “The Chomsky-Foucault Debate on Human Nature”
Posted in Book Reviews on February 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A MILLION LITTLE PIECES OF POSTMODERNISM
Three recent books suggest the age of “essential truth” may be over
When Oprah Winfrey expelled James Frey from her book club last year after he confessed to fabricating large portions of his best-selling memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” the move sparked a nationwide conversation about the importance of truth and [...]
Book Review: “Ace of Spades”
Posted in Book Reviews on February 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The passing of David Matthews
A new memoir chronicles author’s quest for peace amid turmoil of racial identity.
In Harlem Renaissance author Claude McKay’s 1931 short story “Near-White,” Angelina Dove, a pale African American hoping to move up in the world, asks her mother “if some people are light enough to live like whites, why should there [...]
Book Review: “The Man Who Saved Britain”
Posted in Book Reviews on February 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The immortal Mr. Bond
Simon Winder’s new book argues Ian Fleming’s spy helped ease pain of lost British Empire.
Just in time for the new (darker) James Bond flick and those (joyfully) endless Bond marathons on AMC (Roger Moore is my favorite) comes Simon Winder’s loving and wry portrait of a secret agent man who stood for [...]
Book Review: “You Suck: A Love Story”
Posted in Book Reviews on February 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
The funny side of blood lust
In Christopher Moore’s new novel, vampires don’t take themselves too seriously
Tommy Flood wakes up dead in “You Suck: A Love Story.” His girlfriend, a fetching red-headed vampire named Jody, had been chafing at the prospect of wandering the earth in the seething solitude of the undead, so she bites him. [...]
Book Review: “Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles”
Posted in Book Reviews on January 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
When yogis strike
Debut novel about renegade psychics is part James Bond, part ‘Fight Club’
“Shelby is a slut. She is also my wife. And that presents certain problems.”
Those are the first three sentences of “Lord Vishnu’s Love Handles,” a comedy by Will Clarke. Vulgar, shocking, overblown and witty, they pretty much capture the spirit [...]
Book Review: Nigel Spivey’s “Songs on Bronze”
Posted in Book Reviews on January 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A fresh look at old tales
Nigel Spivey’s ‘Songs on Bronze’ revives the Greek myths.
One of the cornerstones of any college survey course is the study of classical literature. The ancient Greeks and Romans produced prose and poetry that both shaped and influenced the history of Western civilization and whose body of ideas still holds [...]
Book Review: Samuel G. Freedman’s “Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life”
Posted in Book Reviews on January 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Son discovers mother had a life
Author Samuel G. Freedman explores the truth of who his mother really was.
When John Berendt called his book, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” a “nonfiction novel,” he became a spokesman for an entire class of writers who favor, in Berendt’s words, “rounding the corners to make [...]
Book Review: Nicholas Sparks’ “True Believer”
Posted in Book Reviews on January 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Review of Nicholas Sparks’ “True Believer”
If you took the sentiment behind any Hallmark card, especially those written for Valentine’s Day, and expanded it into a 322-page novel, you’d have something like Nicholas Sparks’ new book, “True Believer.”
Jeremy Marsh, the book’s protagonist, believes in only one thing – science. If he can’t prove it, he [...]
