reviews

The First American Adventure... Author:  Doug Peacock It may have been the greatest adventure in human history.  Traveling from eastern Asia, following the last great ice age, courageous bands of modern humans found two massive uninhabited continents for the taking.  Upon their arrival, ten to twenty thousand years ago, the land was full of fearsome new predators like the saber-tooth cat, the American lion and the short-faced bear – standing at 15 feet tall, the largest terrestrial predator in Earth’s history.  There were also plenty of other strange creatures, like five ton ground sloths, giant mammoths and mastodons, even a [...]

Creepy Charisma... Author:  Erik Larson I don’t generally consider nineteenth century architecture to be a source of great drama, but throw in some murder and mayhem and I’m willing to reconsider.   The scene is Chicago 1890 – in the midst of the Gilded Age – and the city has just been named the site of the upcoming World’s Columbian Exposition, designated by Congress to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival.  City officials are hoping to finally put Chicago on the map culturally, tired of playing second fiddle to more established locales, like New York City and Philadelphia.  At the [...]

Clear, But Not Simple Author: Lawrence Wright If ever a book was a red-hot conversation starter, Going Clear is the one. Everywhere I took it (because I couldn’t put it down), people would peer at the mysterious, serious-looking cover, ask what I was reading, and when I said “an exposé on Scientology,” they would invariably get wide-eyed, suck in a little gasp, and ask in a hushed voice, “Is it good?” IS IT EVER, FRIENDS. A couple of years ago, I read “The Apostate,” Lawrence Wright’s New Yorker profile of director/screenwriter Paul Haggis’s battle with Scientology. (Don’t be put off [...]