dave wood

Recently New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that years ago the motto was as "General Motors Goes, So Goes the Nation." He followed by saying, "I'm very glad that isn't true today." That's an understatement. I've just finished reading "Sixty to Zero," by Alex Taylor III...

"The Books of Elsewhere: The Shadows," by Jacqueline Cobian West, black and white illustrations by Polly Bernatene (Dial Press, $16.99), just blew me away. I must confess I didn't approach the book with much enthusiasm because adolescent novels aren't usually my cup of tea, unless...

Back in 1920, Edgar Lee Masters, who grew up in a small Midwestern college town wrote a wonderful book of poems about the kind of people who settled his town of Galesburg, Ill. He called it "Spoon River Anthology," after the classical custom of writing messages on tombstones of...

If you happened to catch the recent PBS series about World War II, or even better if you missed it, you'll probably want to run out and purchase "World War II Behind Closed Doors," Laurence Rees (Pantheon, $35). Reese, winner of the British Book Award for History Book of the Year,...

Anglophiles, Attention! "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that happened to me in my entire life." Thus spake 11-year-old Flavia de Luce, when she sees a man dying in the cucumber patch of Buckshaw, the...

Two novels merit your attention for your trip Up North, when rain is pounding down on the tin roof of your cottage and the fish haven't been biting for days. "Cutting for Stone," by Abraham Verghese (Knopf, $26.95). Recognize the author? He wrote a fine non-fiction book years ago...

Holy cow! I didn't know there was such a thing as a Halsey Hall Chapter of the Society for Baseball Research until I received a review copy of "Minnesotans in Baseball," by Stew Thornley, prominent Minnesota author of sports stories and biographies based in the Gopher State, like...

With its 100 Euro dinners and 300 Euro hotel rooms, travel to Rome this summer is out of the question for this reviewer on a fixed income. So I'll have to settle for "Dante's Numbers" (Delacorte Press, $24), by David Hewson, a Londoner who knows The Eternal City like the back of...

There's an old saying that goes "The reason most academic debates are so prevalent and so acrimonious is that there is so little at stake." After spending 20 years in the groves of academe I've always subscribed to that saying, but now I'm not so certain. That's because I just...

I guess I'm showing my age. I got all excited when I received for review "Goodbye, Wisconsin," by Glenway Wescott (Borderland Books, $28). Borderland is an imprint of the University of Wisconsin Press, which for years has published a series of books by gay writers, most of whom...

Every once in awhile, you read a book that makes you hopping mad. When I was in college, my grandfather gave me an old book by Upton Sinclair, entitled "The Jungle." "The Jungle" was a diatribe on the evils of capitalism set in the packing houses of Chicago, circa 1900. It told the...

There's something comforting about reading novels set in places where you're fairly well acquainted. I loved Thomas Gifford's "The Windchill Factor" years ago. That was the espionage novel that begins in Taylors Falls, Minn., when the little white frame library blows up. When...

One of the first novels ever written in English, in 1740, was a humdinger named "Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded," by a London businessman Samuel Richardson. Richardson was in the stationery business, selling fancy paper to rich women, who needed to send out thank you notes.

Two years ago, I watched the long PBS special on Mormonism. I was shocked to learn of the Mormons' massacre of 120 non-Mormon settlers who had moved into Utah in 1857. The reportage was just a small part of the PBS special and I longed to hear more. My wishes were recently fulfilled...

I keep getting bombarded with books that bring back memories of growing up in a small Wisconsin town. Last week it was Larry Tobin's novel about small town journalism. This week it's "In a Pickle: A Family Farm Story," by Jerry Apps (Terrace Books, $16.95). I've reviewed several...