Roger Ebert. Life Itself: A Memoir. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2011. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald Rituals are an important part of Roger Ebert’s life. He revisits people and events that have been formative for him. He revisits places through which his education and career have taken him: his […]
Charles Frazier. Nightwoods. New York: Random House, 2011. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald Set in rural North Carolina in the early 1960’s, Charles Frazier’s Nightwoods exhibits strengths that readers have come to expect from his two earlier novels, Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moon: characters who are on the fringes of […]
John Le Carre. Our Kind of Traitor. New York: Viking. 2010 As reviewed by Ted Odenwald Though Our Kind of Traitor may not be totally Orwellian in message and tone, there is enough disenchantment and cynicism permeating this novel to assure us that John Le Carre has not lost his […]
Dear Donna, It’s only 45 Hours from Bien Hoa: Stories from the Vietnam War. Douglas Neralich. 1st Books Library, 2002. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald Douglas “Doc” Neralich has created a succinct, incisive, and moving collage of his experiences as a medic with the 36th Engineer Battalion in Vinh Long, […]
Walter Isaacson. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2003. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald To arrive at an accurate picture of Benjamin Franklin, claims biographer Walter Isaacson, “we must rescue [him] from the schoolbook caricature of a genial codger flying kites…and spouting homespun maxims… [and […]
Robert Klara. FDR’s Funeral Train: A Betrayed Widow, a Soviet Spy, and a Presidency in the Balance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. As reviewed by Ted Odenwald The death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, shook the nation; the heroic world leader, who had guided his people […]
