About Dave

 

Dave DriftlessThe obsession began as a wiry teen.

While the lovely young fillies would beg Dave to come out and play, he was up in his room with his books.

Asimov, Bradbury and Clarke were so prolific that he never ran out of options and Tolkien’s world was so complex that repeated readings were always on the agenda.

The affair progressed to compulsion with reading lists and wish lists and constant strategizing; eventually evolving on to hoarding so many volumes he could never hope to actually read them all. Alas, adult responsibilities intervened and the passion became quiet for many years. Despair not, as the old flame still smolders and lately the graying bibliophile has regained some of the old fanaticism, focusing on more mature, but equally nerdy topics.

It’s rare for a science, nature or history book to fail to pique his interest and he’s developed a new enthusiasm for writing about his reading experiences. It’s clear that this love affair was meant to last.

Dave’s Reviews

Plight of the Living Dead cover

Plight of the Living Dead

Cruelty cubed... Author:  Matt Simon When Tennyson wrote of “Nature, red in tooth and claw”, he was poetically protesting the ...
Plot Against America book cover

Plot Against America, The

The celebrity president... Author:  Philip Roth It’s the story of a small Jewish boy, growing up in Newark during World ...
Dinosaur Artist boo cover

Dinosaur Artist, The

Digging in the dirt... Author:  Paige Williams There’s definitely a heroic quality to whole thing.  Like Indiana Jones or his ...
Fox 8 book cover

Fox 8

Failed fable...? Author:  George Saunders At first glance, Fox 8 is a cute little story told by an intrepid fox ...
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Talk on the Wild Side

Language let loose! Author:  Lane Greene Speak proper English.  We’ve all been trained from the very first day in school ...
Trace

Trace

Rocks and race... Where did your ancestors come from? Living in a country of immigrants (both forced and consensual), it’s ...
See What I Have Done book cover

See What I Have Done (Dave)

An ax of infamy... Author:  Sarah Schmidt It was one of the most notorious American crimes of the 19th century.  ...
Lifespan of a Fact cover

Lifespan of a Fact, The

Is the truth truer than fiction? Authors:  John D'Agata & Jim Fingal What the heck is “nonfiction” supposed to be ...
Man from the Train cover

Man from the Train, The

Small town horrors... Author:  Bill James How much murder can you take?  One?  Half a dozen?  How about more than ...
Sea is Quiet Tonight cover

Sea is Quiet Tonight, The

Love and isolation... Author:  Michael Ward Terror inevitably fades with time.  While HIV is still a scary virus that seriously ...
Ravenmaster book cover

Ravenmaster, The

Who rules whom? Author:  Christopher Skaife They might be the most famous birds in the world right now.  The ravens ...
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Fifty-Year Silence, A

Faded memories... Author:  Miranda Richmond Mouillot The house was a ramshackle wreck, slowly fading into the dust in the tiny ...
Monkey Wrench Gang cover

Monkey Wrench Gang, The

Misanthropes unite! Author:  Edward Abbey It’s the novel that generated a new verb that still resonates across the American West, ...
Shadows at Dawn cover

Shadows at Dawn

Violence to the fourth power... Author:  Karl Jacoby Converting history into words is problematic.  History is countless simultaneous events tangled ...
Watership Down cover image

Watership Down

Rabbits unite!! Author:  Richard Adams What makes a good nature novel?  Despite my obvious enthusiasm for nature writing of all ...
Underbug cover

Underbug

Tiny saviors? Author:  Lisa Margonelli Apparently I was completely out of the loop.  No one had the good graces to ...
I can't breathe book cover

I Can’t Breathe

A black life that mattered... Author:  Matt Taibbi This is a hard book review for me to write.  I’ve never ...
Gulf book cover

Gulf, The

America's underbelly... Author:  Jack E. Davis I live on the gulf.  Even though my hometown is about a thousand miles ...
untamed book cover

Untamed

Roadkill recipes... Author:  Will Harlan If you’re looking for a real-life story about a remarkable woman, you need to look ...
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No Beast So Fierce

Tiger of terror... Author:  Dane Huckelbridge It was a reign of terror like no other.   Injured by a hunter and ...