Book Reviews
CultureWatch, January 2011 Edition
Cleopatra: A Life — In the end, we must ask ourselves if Stacy Schiff, one of the most gifted American biographers currently writing, has successfully peeled away two millennia of myth and propaganda or, rather, given us a new myth, a Cleopatra who fits modern, Western feminist thinking. In the Pursuit of Happiness — To call Maria Kalman's work idiosyncratic isn’t nearly powerful enough to describe what she has produced. It is an explosion of such brilliance that one scarcely knows where to start more »
Jo Freeman Reviews Reconstituting Whiteness: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission
On August 18, 1966, I was a civil rights worker in Mississippi when the Jackson Daily News devoted two-thirds of an editorial page to outing me as a "professional agitator" with Communist associations. Over 30 years later I learned that this material was prepared by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, an official agency using taxpayer money to preserve white supremacy in Mississippi. more »
Black&Decker's DIY BooksTackle Home Decorating and Outdoor Building Projects
The Decorating Guide intersperses background information with clear instructions on such household projects as installing molding, replacing a towel bar, tiling a backsplash, hanging bifold doors, creating faux finishes, or reupholstering a chair. Outdoor Building projects include making patios, walkways, and decks; fences and walls; arbors, sheds, outbuildings, and porches; and — perfect for grandkids — treehouses and play structures more »
Book Review: Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
Of the many non-fiction books on the subject which I have enjoyed reading over the past sixty-five years, I have seldom found one more interesting than Operation Mincemeat. It is a great gift idea for anyone on your list more »